Start before you are ready, they said. 
It will all be OK, they said. 
You know what? They are right! 

I did a thing. Show #1 of the Monetize Your Midlife Brilliance on YouTube. Livestream baby. 
Well, no. I wanted to livestream but ran into technical difficulrties. Let's just say YouTube live was glitchy. 

So I did it again with Zoom. The resolution isn't great.
My good mic is in Mexico, where I can't get it for months most likely. (I am in Houston now, more on that in a bit)

Better done than perfect, especially at this time! 

In this video, I cover -
Why the world needs to hear from you. Now.
What we are learning about building our economic independence and resilience.  

How to work with the fear even when the uncertainty is relentless. 
I should know, I’m a COVID-19 refugee in an Airbnb in Houston at the moment, living out of a suitcase. I've also decided to stay, but more about that another time. 

Practical matters: 
What sectors are business as almost usual, if not booming? 

Why is midlife a perfect time for upleveling your life, particularly this generation. If you are a midlife achiever, now is the perfect time to consider building your personal brand and monetizing your expertise online.​

Finally, what matters in the models of monetizing your brilliance online if you are a consultant, trusted expert, coach, corporate leader or mentor. 

Start before you are ready. Because guess what - some part of you probably IS ready. Don't starve the inspiration waiting for the stars to align.
​

Sign up for a 20 minute Zoom presentation Risky Business: Facebook 2020 on Thursday 2/13 at 12:00 Central time.  
SIGN UP HERE

Like many people, I watched Facebook and Twitter blow up during and after halftime at the Superbowl. 
One post in particular caught my eye. It was written by a woman I admire, she’s a successful entrepreneur who is building her following. 

Her post was impassioned, and it was defensive and judgmental of anyone who didn’t agree with her. 

As I read it, I thought, that’s interesting.  She doesn't realize her power, yet. She has new people following her now because she has put herself out there as a leader in her space. They look up to her.  Perhaps they don't all agree with her on this issue. 

I wonder how they might be feeling?  

And then I thought, where have I done the same? Where have I put my ego ahead of how my words may make someone else, who doesn't agree with me, feel?  Where have I played small?

If you are taking on the commitment - and the responsibility - of building a following for your personal brand, I created a new video may be of interest to you.

It's also a good one to watch as we get into the election cycle.

The truth is, the Super Bowl halftime drama is only the tip of the iceberg. As election year heats up, the commentary on Facebook is only going to get more heated. One woman posted "I just want to slap her" about a female politician she doesn't like.

And lastly, Facebook is also under a lot of external pressures from governments as well. All of these factors pose some business risk to you.

Join me for a 20 minute snapshot presentation of some of the risks in 2020 of relying too heavily on Facebook, if your business is closely linked to your personal brand. 

We’ll go over:

• Risks of using your personal profile for business. 
• Risk to your brand as election year heats up. 
• Dangers of putting too many eggs in FB or IG basket.
• How Facebook censoring can “ghost” your profile, and you may not even know it.
• The risks Facebook is facing, too, based on the research from Rita McGrath, Business School professor at Columbia University, about the threats the company faces from the government, and those implications for your brand and business.
  

Finally, we’ll cover 3 action items you can implement to reduce your risk. 
All in 20 minutes, with time for questions after.

Why am I doing this? Because I see a lot of you limiting your video activity to FB live. That is not a criticism, I applaud you for stepping up!   

I know its a lot of work to support different social channels. As I type this, its 12:40 am on a Friday night; I've been working on my content plan all day. 

However, I’m also constantly looking for the best ways for clients to use video to build their solo business or modern personal brand. 

And for 2020, overly depending on Facebook or Facebook live is not one of them. 

Sign up for a 20 minute Zoom presentation Risky Business: Facebook 2020 on Thursday 2/13 at 12:00 Central time.  
SIGN UP HERE

There should be a Tsunami warning blaring. I’m scrolling down my Facebook feed and every post features a video. Every. Single. One.

When I did my planning for this year, I thought, "Whoa, this video tidal wave is growing faster than most of us can imagine." I got a queasy feeling in my stomach, like the time we rode out a hurricane in La Paz, Mexico. You prepare, scramble, stock up and wait for it to hit. At least we had some notice. I think about people who live in areas where they don't always get advance warning of hurricanes, tsunamis or tidal waves.

If you are a woman in business whose success depends on connecting, engaging and influencing your online audience, this is your tsunami warning. As an aside, the basics apply to men as well, of course (hi guys!) Women simply have different mindset challenges around video, and I address some of that here.

We are going straight to el corazon  (heart) of the most valuable content out there.

Video. And lots of it.

We're going to call out why you aren't doing this, and why you should be. In part two, I'll go over how to create lots of quality video without losing either your mind or your shirt paying for production.

Gary Vaynerchuk says the future is audio, and maybe he’s right. I’m not so sure. Did I just doubt my man GaryVee? Yes I did. Blogs and podcasts are great (well, some of them are), but unlike images, a podcast isn’t worth a thousand or million words. People multitask while they listen, shredding their attention and retention. 

Regardless of what the crystal ball says, the statistics and trends are clear: the one thing 99% of entrepreneurs need to focus on, starting today, is a video strategy.

So why aren’t you?

I know why. After 15 years as an marketing consultant, producer, and creator of online marketing videos for small businesses, I know why you aren’t doing video.

And it’s not because you are too busy.

Especially women. We’ve got our own special designer baggage around being on camera, don’t we ladies? Mindset is almost always why you aren't doing video. I have a separate blog post to help you with video jitters.

On top of that, video is a bit complex, especially to do a decent job. Kind of like most things worth doing in your business. 

What do you do when confronted with complexity in your business? Run and hide under your desk? Catch up on your Insta posts because we still can't 100% automate the damn things? (#SOannoying)

Watch someone else's sappy viral videos on Facebook to restore your faith in humanity?

Well, maybe. But AFTER all that, you create a strategy and a system. You stare down your fears, grab them by the, um, tail, nail them to the calendar and get this goodness DONE.

First, some brief statistics that speak for themselves:

• By 2020, 82% of all web consumer traffic will be video. (Cisco)
• 53% of people want to see more video content from marketers.
• 60% of marketers use video for marketing, both B2B and B2C. 
  
  

I could go on about how people buy more stuff after they see a video, about how, in this era that has seen the death of organic reach, Facebook and Google both reward video content with more shares and higher search rankings. But then you would stop reading because statistics only get you so far.

Let's talk about why. Why video?

Engagement, pure and simple. People prefer watching videos to all other formats.

My experience gives me a unique perspective in this space. This is a real opportunity for women that make this perspective shift, and quickly!

Let me explain:

The question used to be - how do I get a marketing video done? As in just one, maybe two. In truth, a couple of videos is not nearly enough anymore to remain relevant, let alone lead, in your market space.

Here is the problem:

• 64% of marketers say video is the most difficult content to create.

Do you agree?

Most of my colleagues certainly do.

Once they learn about my video experience, I always get questions for advice about what kind of videos to create, how to shoot videos that look decent, what to say, and how to edit.

I have been watching this space evolve for 15 years and I know how challenging it is for entrepreneurs.
These are the typical options. Which one applies to you?

1. Avoiding video altogether because you don’t know where to start.
2. Shooting video and editing by yourself, which is incredibly stressful and a terrible solution for busy women.
3. Trying to find, hire and manage videographers, also a terrible solution for busy women.
4. Posting video directly from your phone, which has its place, but without structure or strategy, you end up with a jumble of video that quite frankly doesn’t look that great or say much. 
5. Relying on Facebook Live for all your business video.
6. Extremely expensive (5 figure) studio shoot and branding packages to have it all done for you. A great solution if you can afford it, but it does nothing to help you implement a flow of videos that today’s smart content strategy demands. And quite frankly, we wonder about the small business ROI on that level of investment for so few videos.
   
   

So what can you do?

The solution lies in creating a strategy, using a system, and taking action while you can still catch this wave.

It's not too late, and you can start today without disrupting your whole schedule. 

How? Start here with our time saving video miniseries - The 3 Biggest Video Mistakes - and How to Fix Them!   

But the videos do a beautiful job of proving a point. There we are, women who are, quite honestly, used to doing things really well, settling for imperfect video, because our priority is in serving our audience and inspiring other women to do more videos, too.  


In this case, the image quality isn't critical, especially with the best comments plucked out to create short videos, allowing the personality and integrity of my guests to really show through. 

And lastly, interviewing someone else - inviting their Voice into your video content, is a collaborative example for everyone, and that’s always a good thing. 

Any questions? I can help you with this. Let's find your video happy ending, minus the mistletoe. 

I could never do that.

A friend said that on a call the other day, we were talking about stretch goals, and her comment has lingered with me since then. 

I’ve just finished 2 days of batch shooting videos, about 30 total. I'm a little fried. 

Yesterday’s focus was a lot of mindset content, and that has me thinking about fear. In my business, fear is usually the cute elephant in a pink tutu in the room. Most women have some fear of video.

When was the last time you saw something impressive and you thought, “I could never do that”?

I used to think that about a lot of things.

The problem is, it is not true most of the time. If you have the physical and mental capacity (and even those are wider and deeper than we give them credit for), there are many impossible things you can do.

Tony Robbins says “In life you either need inspiration or desperation”.

This is why you hear people like yours truly yammer on about the comfort zone. When we have places to hide, aka our comfort zone, we look outside of them and think, I could never do that.

What do places to hide look like? Well, it can be confusing, because sometimes they are the things that support us, too.

In my case, I hid behind my husband’s earning power for many years. I worked flex time but I was totally holding back so as not to rock the boat - mine, his, the kids.

When I was married, I used to see women entrepreneurs and think, “I could never do that”.  I talked to a lot of them, I joined groups that supported them, I sat on my comfy couch and read about them, but I didn’t actually become one until I left the security of my ex-husband’s paycheck.

And that started me on the path of doing all sorts of scary, exhilarating things that I was sure I could “never” do a few years ago.

I’m not saying they have all been great choices. I’ve had branding missteps, spent money on courses and coaches that didn’t really pan out, (although some totally did), spent too much time on the wrong things, and confused my audience several times.

The heroine's journey is a hot mess. I'm finally narrowing in on a foundation but still a lot of work to do to solidify and clarify by January. The jury is still out on MANY fronts. I am constantly holding space for more uncertainty than I am comfortable with. It is exhausting at times. If you run your own business, you know.

But here is the thing - I have to keep moving, because I have no choice. I shed all my hiding places.

And here is the diamond that surfaces from the muck - when you do those things you could never do, no matter how imperfectly, you grow in ways you would not have thought possible, either.

The way it works for most people is, once you get a sense of your bigger goal, - I call it your trigger goal, the one that is tied to the reason you are on the planet at this moment, you can and will do just about anything to get there.

Your trigger goal provides laser focus and gives you Wonder Woman bravery where before there was, Oh, I could never do that. Or, I’ll do that later. Or, now is not the right time.

One of my clients has had a local coaching practice for many years. She focused on in-person workshops and was not that active on social media. She’s not a techie person.

One day, something clicked for her. She found her trigger goal.

She got tired of playing small. I’m not saying a locally focused practice is by default playing small. I’m saying for her goals, it was not going to get her to the next level.

Once she got focused, it was like watching a rocket take off. She shot several hours of video for a workshop in just a week. She was a model client - positive, responsive, resilient. She proceeded to do many things she “could never do” in her business, not just around video. I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings for her.  

She didn’t have to get a divorce, or sell or donate all she owned and drive off into the sunset to make progress on her bigger dream. What she did was find her trigger, though - the goal that she wanted MORE than she wanted to stay comfortable.

So how do we do that? I don’t have the formula, to be honest. I would love to hear from you, actually.

I think it is a combination of creating a vision of the biggest life we could achieve, putting a stake in the ground 5 - 10 years from now, and going for it.

I also know that finding a tribe that is on a similar journey is essential. That’s one reason I love what I do. Most of the women I work with are on some version of the heroine’s journey I just described.

Thank you for reading. Have you found your trigger goal? If not, go find your trigger goal, your tribe, and get busy doing lots of things you could never do. And keep me posted! 

Just about the time I moved to Todos Santos, Mexico for the summer, I started experimenting with Live Video. In Mexico City, my internet had been great, so I hadn’t even thought about the requirements for Live Video.

It turns out my internet connection here is less than optimal. The Universe likes to keep us on our toes, right?

Did I decide to give up and deal with it this fall? NO! I did not give up on Live video!

I investigated some co-working spaces with super fast connections, and I met some nice people through that process. I also brushed up on my knowledge of the technical requirements for a good Facebook Live session.

First of all, there is a difference between Wifi and your Internet connection. Your wifi is your local wireless connection within your house or office that seems like magic.

The wifi box (router) receives the info from your device through wireless transmission and sends it to the internet via the cable that plugs into the wall.

If you share wifi, or are far away from the wifi box, you may end up with a weak wifi connection and stream your video poorly, even if you have a great Internet connection. 

First thing to figure out, though, is your Internet connection:

Here is what is going on in that benign little cable that connects you to the Internet. I also go over this in the above video I did for our YouTube Channel. (not live, by the way).

Your internet connection consists of two pieces. Let's think of it like two pipelines in the wire.

Pipeline U is the one that sends information UP to the server. When you start a session on Facebook Live you are sending the video information UP to Facebook's servers, (or YouTube or whoever is hosting your live video.)

Pipeline D is the download pipeline where you receive information - download documents, files, photos, and yes, streaming video.

The service you have from your internet provider determines the size of the pipelines, so to speak.

Now you might imagine that video files are fatter than other info. This is because of the level of detail in video versus just uploading a picture or a document. It’s like the difference between sending someone a recipe, a picture of a cake, or the whole cake.  Which would take up more space?

You also don't have control over your local internet connection options. If you live in an urban area with fiber optic you likely already have an internet connection with a good Pipeline U and a great Pipeline D. If you don’t, you might be able to upgrade.

Or, you may still have a connection that gives you great a nice big Pipeline D but a small Pipeline U. That is the case for me in Todos Santos. No fiber optic on our street (although I do think they have it downtown).

Here is the bad news. Not only is a small Pipeline U not great for Live video, it will slow you down when you upload the smartphone videos you create with your phone.

First thing - check your download and upload speed at http://www.speedtest.net/
Check with your internet provider about your options. Ideally you want at least 2 megabytes per second (Mbps) upload speed for LIve video.

Right now my Pipeline U is under 1 Mbps.

This caused me some angst when I first got here. But I've experimented with it to learn about it, to be able to pass on to you, and so it all worked out.

What I learned is it is possible to stream Facebook live with less than 1 Megabyte per second.

For live viewers the visual is a little fuzzy and there's a bit of a lag at times.

Should you let this stop you if it's the case for your connection, too?

In my opinion, no. It depends on your goals. In general I say Go For It, because even if it's not perfect, you will learn something from it.

The other thing that I learned is that the video file improves after Facebook upload it and processes it. So you are not stuck with the quality of the initial stream in the final video.

This is because all the video information that was trying to crowd its way into the tiny Pipeline U finally arrives at home base and organizes into a higher quality video.

Finally, your viewers also have their own download Pipeline Ds, so their experience is determined by that, too. You could have a huge Pipeline U for sharing your streaming video, but if your viewer has a puny Pipeline D, it will affect their viewing. 

You have no control over the connection that your viewers have, so you can take that off of your Worry List. 

What happens if you check your Pipelines, you have a decent size Pipeline U, but your Live Video quality is still suffering? It might be your wifi.  

Try moving closer to the wifi box, and think about who else might be online in the house. Ask your partner who is watching cat videos on YouTube while streaming music on their iPhone to log off for a minute. If you have a video gamer in the house, ask them to stop for a bit. Then see if your streaming video improves. 

Last tidbit: Live video and "live stream" video are the same thing. However, a video that is not live can still be streamed - like when you watch a movie on Netflix. 
​
Bottom line - have patience with the process. You are learning new things. It might be a little messy and annoying at times, but it’s like riding a bike - once you learn, it seems easy. Plus, it is empowering to be able to diagnose your problems. Let us know if you have more questions!
​

As part of our 30 Minute Business Video Basics Summer School, today we did an extreme makeover of sound, lighting and composition (aka where to put your face in the frame).

You can see the video HERE. 

I did it via Facebook live which is why it is in vertical orientation. (also known as "portrait" mode). The same principles apply for horizontal (landscape) filming, too. 

I start with the existing lighting and showed you easy ways how to fix or improve the shot. Then I show you the option of adding a simple additional video light. We also hear the difference between the sound before and after, with and without a mic. With live video you also have to consider your internet connection. You can learn more about how your internet connection affects  live video HERE.

Here is the video, followed by an overview (but really, it's more interesting to watch it below.

When you're shooting a video you have three elements to think about:
the light
the sound and
the composition
which is just another way of saying where do you put your face in the frame.

Considering that filmmaking is an art form, you can imagine there is a lot of art and science behind all of that.  

However, you are not a filmmaker. You are running a business.

I know both sides of that equation -  video and marketing. I also know exactly what to simplify for your purposes so that you get enough information to make decent quality videos but not to suffer from overwhelm.

Research and our own experience probably shows that more choices do not always improve our outcomes. Humans tend to freeze up with too many choices and not make a decision. With Video Avoidance being a rampant condition we don't need any more ways to procrastinate. 

My motto is always keep it simple and keep moving. 
​
When I started this video the shot looks pretty bad. In fact, it made me wince but I kept it that way for a few minutes to show you how to fix it.
The first thing we fixed was the sound. We turned off fans and we plugged in a microphone.

In this case since we were doing live video I showed you my favorite earbuds to use for live video. (more information about a higher-quality mic to use when you tape your videos when you are not life.)
Next, you can either fix your light first or your position for the shot. 

In the teaching video we actually fixed your composition first.  I did that because I had already run through this for the live video. In reality, if I'm using natural light or ambient light, I always fix my light first and then I set up the composition. That is because it's easier to move me then to move a window in a wall or a really ugly fixed backdrop, for example. 

In the video you'll see the difference when I play with the ambient light in the room. The main takeaway is you always want to figure out a way to get that white glint in your eye. If you are really backlit by a window one way to even that out is to raise the level of light in the room. And that is what we did. Sometimes that's easier than trying to find another cloth or something to drape over the window especially if it's going to be in the shot. And that is because usually it ends up looking like, well, a cloth or something you draped over the window, and not that great.

I also always start with the overhead lights off to see if I can get the light to work without them. But it's not the end of the world if you have to use them. It's all about balancing the amount of light from different sources.
So moving on I adjusted the curtains on the lights behind me and then I played with it window that was in front of me that I had positioned my desk to maximize and then we turn down the overhead lights and blah blah blah.

WAIT - did I lose you?

So what you just saw is a great example of why watching a video is often more powerful than reading information, especially for a how-to video. It’s pretty boring to tell you what we did in the video, isn’t it?
​
So go ahead and take a few minutes and watch our Extreme Video Shot Makeover. If you are someone who likes reading, here is the workaround - we put captions files on all our videos.

Don't get me wrong - every video I do starts on paper. We back up the video information in our Ultimate Guide to Fab Videos, along with lots of info on the blog. If you have questions, you can always join us in the Summer School - through the end of August, at 1:00 Central Time on FB live.

Thanks and stay cool! ​

Talking with top ranked coach and branding strategist Lisa Guillot from BeBright Lisa  and the biggest take away that I didn't expect. If you struggle with perfectionism, this post is for you. 
 So lets just get right to it with my big FAT FAIL ON FACEBOOK LIVE. YUP. LIVE. 
I really enjoyed talking with Lisa Guillot yesterday as part of the  30 minute FVFD Video Basics summer school.
Lisa is an entrepreneur, life and leadership coach and brand strategist. She brings big brand and marketing techniques to her clients, along with hard earned wisdom from personal struggles with perfectionism - she refers to herself as a "recovering perfectionist".

I can relate to this, as I'm a recovering A-student.  

And apparently I'm rocking my recovery as you will see with my solid C results yesterday.  
Talking with Lisa was very synergistic, and she was extremely gracious and flexible as I fumbled my way up my learning curve for Facebook live.

I could not figure out why I couldn’t add her to the Live Stream on the FB FVFD business page so we switched to my personal page and did the interview there.

It turns out the page was not the issue.

What I realized is I neglected to tell her she needed to join the conversation from her phone or iPad. I actually knew that but had not created a system (aka checklist) for these interviews, so that lil' detail slipped my mind. (What is that saying about where the devil hangs out? ) 

She was initially trying to join from her computer and that's why I could not add her.
If you want more Lessons Learned from Facebook live check out this blog post.
My experiment with FB live so far has been interesting. a little frustrating, fun at times and yesterday downright embarrassing.  You all know I do my pre-production and research and I thought I knew how to run a smooth FB live by this point.

At the risk of sounding like a crybaby, I give Facebook a big fat F for the quality of their help materials onboarding people onto FB Live. So get in touch if you have questions because I AM  getting it figured out so I can answer your questions. 

Plus, there's no denying that live video interaction is super powerful for deepening your connection with your audience.

So how do you decide how much live video to do? And where? Facebook? Instagram? even Linked In?
Of course you need to consider where your audience is hanging out. 

But here was an insight from Lisa I didn't expect - (and a spot-on example of why she's a great coach).

 I'm paraphrasing here: -

"I really work on guarding my energy. My people are more over on Instagram, the energy on Facebook is draining to me. Facebook is a very noisy place right now with tons of different things going on.  Also, I don't always want to be live. I'll give away my secret - I usually bring 3 outfits down into my office and shoot 3 videos, and schedule those for Instagram."

(see her whole interview HERE) 

As entrepreneurs, we work super hard to be as efficient as possible - batch and automate content production, or scheduling meetings on specific days - a live broadcast feels inefficient and like a bump in our day.

Depending upon your goals, the tradeoff may not be worth it. I would love to hear your experience or opinions, with this caveat:

You may likely already have written off FB live, or IGTV as "not needed". I get it - I may eventually be over on IGTV instead, but that is part of what I'm figuring out. 

 I challenge you not to do so until you do a small test. Then you will know its not for you based on having tried it, not based on a fear reaction masquerading as overwhelm. Is there a way you can integrate it into something you are already doing weekly? Like these Wednesday updates for example - I'm putting a FB live video up with them. 

OK last bit:

Summer School: Next week's topic - Camera Anxiety, Jitters, the Shakes, all of the above. 

Facebook Live - Tuesdays at 1:00 Central.  Yes, I'll be back in the ring. 
Come in your flipflops.  Next week - If the thought of being on camera makes you want to hide under your desk and eat chocolate (or do tequila shots), join us. 

Bring Chocolate. Tequila optional. Or is it the other way around? 
​: D

Hello! We'll be posting highlights and a transcript next week. The action starts at about 6:30. It took me awhile to figure out how to add Lisa, even though it had worked last week with Patty Lennon's interview.

​Well good news is Failure is a great teacher.  See the fix and other Facebook Live Lessons Learned inthis post. 

I had a fun time chatting with top ranked business coach Patty Lennon how she has used video in her highly successful coaching business. Patty's website is ranked in the top 25 on Google and she has used both Periscope and Facebook Live extensively. 

 I'll be honest, it was my first Facebook Live shared screen interview and I was so relieved when we got Patty on screen, too. I had done some testing but if there is one thing 15 years in marketing video production taught me, if something can go wrong, it probably will. 

Maybe it's because it's new to me, but it isn't as easy to add someone to your Facebook Live as it should be. I much preferZoom as an interview platform, to be honest, but for now we are getting FB Live figured out.  I've got more Lessons Learned from Facebook Live in this post.

(You can actually share a Zoom live video meeting over onto Facebook Live, and we'll be experimenting with that soon, too.)

Below is the interview with Patty, embedded fromFacebook. Patty is interesting because she gets high engagement on her videos, even though her page doesn't have thousands of likes.

(If you have questions about how to embed a Facebook video file into your blog page, let me know in the comments below.)

Video Distribution tip: Be sure your videos are working double time for you.

During my next production batching session, we'll be ordering subtitle files and a transcript, downloading the video from FB, and uploading it to YouTube, and adding subtitles and descriptions with juicy keywords in both places.  Up to 85% of videos on Facebook are watched without sound, so it is important to add subtitles. 

Greetings from Todos Santos, Baja Ca Sur, Mexico! 

This town in off season is a fantastic place to get a lot done. Very few distractions.

Speaking of getting stuff done - congratulations to those of you who have finished up taping your videos, and also to those of you who are diving in to the process!  

Don’t forget to take it step by step and give yourself some time with the first few tries.

In fact, that is what I have been telling myself about my first real forays into Facebook Live. I've got Facebook on the brain so before we move on, I want to ask you a big favor. Would you go give the Facebook Page a thumbs up? I've also posted  a video update of this blog post there, so if you would rather watch that, you can. Or you can just hit the back button on your browser and return here after you Like the page.

​Here is the page:  FAB VIDEOS FINALLY DONE

Let me know if you want us to Like your page, too. Thanks!

In this post: 

1. Facebook Audience Building Tip and example.

2. Video Basics 30 minute Summer School

3. Lessons learned from Facebook Live (so far)

ONE:
Here is an audience building tip:

I’m setting up video interviews with coaches who are using video in their business. That way  they have a chance to highlight their smart video strategy for their viewers, and I get exposure to their audience that tunes in. 

The only trick is, I don’t have many followers yet, so not every coach sees it as worthwhile.  No worries. I’m offering to mention them on a couple of podcasts during my upcoming podcasting “tour” as a way to add value.    : )
​
For example,  I had a really fun time talking with Patty Lennon, a top ranked coach who does Facebook Live regularly and has used Periscope in the past. (The reason why she quit using it will surprise you, it did me).

Her situation is interesting because she gets very high engagement on many of her videos, relative to the number of people who like her page. One way she does that with a simple, inexpensive boosting strategy. You can learn more about it by watching our interview HERE>>>>

I also experimented with FB live client office hours on Tuesday - it went OK, although I wasn’t able to add a client who had a question and that was frustrating. We communicated through the chat box.  (see Lessons Learned).

TWO:
Also as part of my strategy to rev up the FVFD Facebook presence, I’m creating a simple Business Video Basics 30 minute summer school on FB live - Tuesdays at 1:00 Central time for 6 weeks. It actually turns out to be about 15 minutes and then time for questions.  This past week was a brief overview of video trends, and a simple framework of considerations to decide if you need business video or not. Next Tuesday we’ll talk about camera anxiety. Would love to see you there!

THREE:

Facebook Live Lessons Learned - note, I updated this on July 25, after a bit of a fail with our live broadcast yesterday. 

I’ve been playing with FB live the last couple of weeks. It’s fun! And it’s super easy once you get it set up, in fact I think I will start live posting these Wednesday updates over there.

But like most new stuff online, the tech is not seamless the first time. Here are my lessons Learned from FB live:

1. Most modern internet connections have decent download speed for streaming data, including video. For streaming Facebook Live video at a decent quality, you ideally need 2 mbps or more UPLOAD speed. Many connections have less than 1 mbps, as is the case right now for me at my current office situation, so I’m making do.
   
   What this means is that when I’m live, the image might be pixelated, or my voice isn’t synced with my speaking. However, after the live stream, Facebook posts the saved video and the quality is actually pretty good if I use my phone to stream. (See 3 below.)
   
   
2. I used this app to test my internet connection:  Speedtest. I found it in the App Store. You can also test your connection from the website: http://www.speedtest.net/
   
   
3. The quality of the stream is better when I use my iPhone - this really surprised me because I actually plugged my big iMac in with an ethernet cable (meaning I plugged directly into the internet connection and wasn’t using the wifi) and it still didn’t stream as well. Whatever the reason, that’s fine with me because its much simpler to use my iPhone, anyway.
4. Headphones help: I love these from Urban Ears. The sound quality is almost as good as an entry level professional mic. 
   
   
5. If you want to invite someone in on your stream, you have to be using and iPhone or iPad, not a laptop or desktop computer. Update 7/25 - your guest has to be on their iPhone or iPad, too! They cannot join from their laptop. Like most things that are clear as mud before, this makes perfect sense now. 
   
   I was (thankfully) able to add Patty on our call. But later I wasn’t able to add Jamie, a client, on the live office hour call in the private group. Frustrating. 7/25 - this may be because Jamie was on her computer, I need to check with her and see. 
   
   
6. Before you commit big time to FB Live, consider where your audience is really spending time and more comfortable. I really appreciated Lisa's clarity with this - she uses Instagram and IG video much more than Facebook and talks about why about 24 minutes into our interview . Also, weigh the benefits of being live versus being able to pre-record, batch and automate your videos, which is a HUGE benefit for busy entrepreneurs. I'll be doing a post about exactly this topic soon. 
   

These directions from Facebook did not help:https://www.facebook.com/help/iphone-app/278279282632645?rdrhc
In fact, I give FB a big fat F for their online help on-boarding people to FB live. 

They told me to swipe left and when I did that, it showed that she was watching, but there was no way to invite her.

FB also says if you tap their comment, you can invite the viewer. I don’t remember if I tapped her comment so I'll test that next time. 

You are supposed to see the viewer's photo up in the right hand corner of your phone screen with a green video button, and you tap that to invite them. The Facebook directions don't even mention that. I could see Jamie's photo, but there was no green video button.

At any rate, it merits further experimentation and I’ll let you know what I find out.

Remember Summer School?
When you had to take a couple classes to catch up...
Or MAYBE, just maybe, because most coaches are overachievers, you took classes to get ahead, right? If you follow Amy Porterfield, she often refers to being a recovering A student. I can relate, believe me. 

I love summer because its the ultimate season for incorporating work and play. That’s why this summer I’m working from Todos Santos, Mexico.

Join me and Chiki if you are behind and want to catch up on the basics behind integrating video into your business. In 6 weeks, for about 20 minutes a week you can learn the basics of getting started with video for your business.

The Ultimate System for Fab Videos, Finally Done presents Biz Video Basics - a 30 minute summer school and office hours - every Tuesday for 6 weeks on Facebook LIVE at theFab Videos, Finally Done Facebook page. 

Come in your flipflops, I’ll present a 10 - 15 minute tip, some examples of other coaches doing a fab job with video, and also I'll take your questions live, too. 

As a video producer for 15 years, I know the easy insider tips that are not hard but make a big difference in your results.

We’ll have downloads for you and extra credit bonuses including these 5 Insider Power Tips.

1. The only 4 things you need to shoot fabulous videos and get them DONE.
2. What video really means for your professional life.
3. The most powerful video is also the one that you don’t have to shoot OR edit.
4. What you need to do BEFORE you shoot your videos that will make your edit MUCH easier.
5. 2 keys to manage on-camera anxiety.
6. What to say (and not to say) at the beginning of your videos.
7. Current and evolving best practices for distributing your video - you’ll want your VA to take notes on this one.

We’ll keep it simple cause it’s hot outside, you want to get to the beach or pool, and so does Chiki!

Here is your syllabus:

7/17 - Do you even need business video?  
I know you probably wish it would all just go away. Tune in and decide for yourself  if video would help your business as I present some facts, figures and the science behind why video works for certain businesses. Don’t worry, it won’t be boring.

7/24 - I hate being on camera.
If you didn’t grow up taking 2 selfies every 5 minutes or posting youtube videos with your cat, you may not be 100% comfortable on camera. Am I right or am I right?
This session is for you if you have camera anxiety.

7/31 - Super simple gear list:
I’ve seen a well-meaning video guide from a big social media company - it  features 5 cameras, a bunch of mics, and all sorts of stuff you do not need.  In addition to your smartphone, all you need is 4 items, and one of those is possibly optional.

8/7  - Diving in - how to plan your first three videos.  Don’t panic. It’s no harder, and much more efficient, to do more than one video at a time. I’ll tell you why in class.
Insider tip: Very few of the best things in life are easy, but this is one of them - possibly  the most powerful marketing video ever is the one you don’t even have to shoot or edit!


8/14 - Be like Oprah.  Set up your mini-studio so that all you have to do is walk on set and start taping is one of the keys to saving a ton of time and consistently producing video. We’ll go over setting up your mini-studio, taking the first few shots, and share our Power Tip to implement BEFORE you even shoot that will make the edit a cut and paste breeze.

8/21 - Tying it all together  - video strategy overview. It’s important to get started, yet have a plan. How to start with a simple video strategy.

Hope to see you there!

If you can't make all of them, sign up below on the email list to receive our transcript summaries and links to the recorded sessions. 

​https://youtu.be/lSQiyW5jcLM

I sat down with super smart Tracy Petrucci, a Facebook ads specialist and owner of Tracy Petrucci, a boutique social media marketing agency in San Diego. Below are some of the highlights from our conversation about video for Facebook ads - what works, where to start, ideas for ads to leverage, what is retargeting and why its awesome, and more! 

KP
Why should people even try a video for Facebook ad?


TP:
Well, okay, how much time do we have? : )

I have multiple reasons but I would have to say one of my favorite reasons for using video as an ad is the ability to re-target people who have watched it all the way through.

So, if your video goes out and loses interest a few seconds in and they move on down their screen, they're probably not the right fit for whatever it is that you are selling or talking about. And what's nice is Facebook allows you to create an audience of people at any stage.

Maybe you want people who watched it at half. Maybe you want to go all the way to 95%. Maybe you want to re-target all the people who stopped watching 10, you know, 10 seconds in and try a different video.

I mean, you can look at it any way you want to look at it. But that is, absolutely, my favorite reason to try using a video in an ad. It's to single out the people who are in to you or what you're doing and who are not, and follow up with other ads to those interested people who watched the whole video.


KP:
So about how long do you think a video ad on Facebook should be?

TP:
Well, there are a lot of opinions on this matter. And I like to remain really open-minded about it. Because there are really interesting trends right now in video marketing that I've kind of been trying to get my clients behind for a while and now, it's nice to see more people talking about this.

I just went to a conference in Atlanta and, by far, my favorite session that I went to was this guy talking about how make a passion in brand. And he used really amazing examples like Yeti cooler, and Patagonia.

Because what they are doing is they are making almost like these mini-documentaries that are very just about, like a story-related. Like maybe one of they're best customers or, you know, a brand advocate or some angle of their business that is just so not like a marketing video. It's just a real cool artistic story that involves, that is somehow connected to them. Which clearly is going to be out of budget for a lot of people but it just leads me to the answer which is any length of video will be fine, it's just going to serve different purposes.

So, again, I've never been afraid of the long video because, in my opinion, the longer it is, the better qualified lead you're going to have at the end if you are re-targeting people who watched it all the way through. So don't be afraid of a long video. Sometimes you need a long video to talk about what you need to talk about.

You'll kind of hear the industry standard response of, you know, two minutes or less. And now it's like 30 seconds or less.

I think it just depends on what you're trying to do. Which I know is not the best answer but I think, again, if we're talking perfect world, budget is no question, you would create a variety of videos with a variety of lengths and you would use them for different purposes.

I think that is the true answer so I'm glad that you went there and didn't say, "30 seconds, all the time." I usually start out just by saying 30 seconds is a good place to start. Or, do a minute video -

TP:
Yeah, I think so because that's not intimidating.

KP:
Right, exactly. But then the deeper conversation is around how is the video structured. And we get into that quite a bit in our program. But it's completely about the story arc and what it's going to say in your video. So, a one minute video can seem really long or it can just go by in a heartbeat.

TP:
Yeah, it can go either way. And you're right. It depends how creative you are. It depends on so many factors. And if you can pack a punch in 30 seconds, why wouldn't you, you know? Especially because it is, budget-wise it's going to be easier. You have no excuse not to create a 30 second video.

KP:
So what else do you think makes for great video ad content? Is it more, like, the person talking or examples or is it, do slideshows work just as well? Do you have any thoughts on that?

TP:
I do not think that slideshows work as well, if I am being completely candid with you. Sometimes, you know, some of the first questions I ask my clients are what do we have resource-wise? Do we have any videos? And sometimes they're like, yeah I have a video.

And they send it and it's just like slideshow images. To me, that's not really a video.

But I really don't think it's as effective to do that. The other really popular one that I see a lot is sort of that animated explainer video. And I have mixed feelings on that as well. I think that it's affordable, so again, why not start with it and try it?

Not everyone can do this super beautiful, with panning, like documentary style video and so we have to be realistic.

Videos that tell a story are great. I like just like Q and A videos. So maybe you take your FAQ, this is one of my favorite things.

Take your frequently asked questions and turn them into, like, a video series of ads in your re-targeting. So let’s say somebody hits your website and they don't convert, you can re-target them and follow them around with, sort of, it's like a drip campaign almost.

Like you would do in an email, but with video. And be kind of answering what you would be conceiving as, like, the questions you would be getting from people. I love FAQ style videos in a little series that you follow around with ads. I love that.

What else? Always put the captions. You know, Facebook allows you to add the captions in later or they'll try to auto-caption them and then you have to go through and check that they're correct.

It's really tempting to be lazy about the captions and just not have them. But as a user of social media, and this is pretty standard now, if you are scrolling through something and there are not captions and you don't have the sound on, you are going to keep scrolling. And the captions are really gonna draw you in. So, I think it's really important no matter what video you have.


KP:
Yes, absolutely. Thank you for mentioning that 'cause I have been putting that in our content as well. And it's like that extra step people think, oh I don't need to do that. But it makes a huge difference. And I use Rev.com. It's like one or two dollars for a one or two minute video.


KP:
Do you have a particular client success story that you could share?

TP:
Well, all of the clients who chose to use video have some kind of an attributable success to it. There is a client I have that have stunt kites, so they're like these really crazy kites. You don't even need wind, they just can go into the air and stop mid - they're crazy. I don't understand it. But they've been my client for years. And it is really helpful for us to re-target people who have been kind of interested in these kites with these videos that actually demonstrate ... The first video, it just shows the kite in action because you can't look at a picture at a kite and understand that it's not a normal kite, it just looks like a kite. And then that gets them in and then have these little demonstrative videos that follow along behind it that kind of show, here is how you do a quarter turn. You know? You can flip it this way and flip it that way. And they are just educational and people feel like, I can do this, I'm going to go ahead and take the leap and get this kite. So that's a good example.

KP:
That's awesome. And I always feel like products like that have such an unfair advantage. You know, that and interior designers, and people that have toys, fun things, puppies.

TP:
Social media lends itself to a certain kind of product by default. That has always been the case since the beginning and that will probably always be the case. If you want to stand out with a drier, non-sexy thing you just have to be really creative. And it's not that you can't do it, but it's harder.

KP:
I also like the FAQ idea. It’s a great way to establish yourself as an expert. If you're not selling kites or puppies ...

TP:
Well, and you know what else? It's like, establish your style. When you use the videos, you get to showcase who you really are, what your style is, if you really love something, you know, that can be pretty apparent in video. Like, your authenticity can show through so much more in video and you will attract the people that are going to be happy working with you that way.

KP:  
absolutely. And that is a great example of what you don't get from a slideshow.
I want to ask you super quickly. You said a couple times, re-targeting. Could you just, very briefly, define what re-targeting is beause some folks might not know.

TP:
Re-targeting is when you chose to specifically show your ad to people who have already taken some sort of action or know you. So it's someone who has already visited your website, it's somebody on your email list, it's somebody who is clicking on your posts on Facebook, it could be your Facebook followers.

KP:
And that's tracked with the pixel and we don't need to get into that, that's all handled within the app.

TP:
Well, I mean, some of that is tracked with the pixel, the website stuff, but you can re-target people engaging in your page without the pixel. You can track people, you can re-target your email list and your leads without the pixel. So there is actually quite a bit, video views, you can re-target all the people watching your videos without the pixel. So there is a good amount, actually, either way.

KP:
Good to know! I’'ll check that out in a little more detail later. So, my last question was, cause I'm actually learning as well, looking into Facebook Live. Do you see anybody doing any overlap with ads in Facebook Live? Or do you see any potential in that going forward?

TP:
I do and I think there's pros and cons which really builds upon what we just talked about. So the pro, the positive side of the Facebook Live turned into ad is that style of video invites engagement, it invites questions. It actually kind of has social proof and credibility 'cause, for example, let's say you did the Facebook Live and while it was live you got a lot of questions and had a lot of engagement and then you turn it into and ad and that follows it. It just looks like you got more going on. So that I like, right there, there is sort of that part of it.

And again, you get to be really authentic and off the cuff and real in an environment like that. So, if you did a good job, then yeah, turn it into an ad.

The con is if it didn't work out or you said "um" a lot, like I say, or you don't look at the camera very well, and you have most of the things that all of us have 'cause we're not experts at live videos, it might be awkward to use as an ad. Maybe you didn't like the questions, maybe you didn't get questions. There could be a myriad of reasons why you wouldn't want to turn it into an ad. And the more polished video would be the smarter way to leverage your budget.

KP:
So I think the lesson in that is practice first, and do a run through. And that is usually the case with anything you are going to live and repurpose later. You have rehearsals, right?

TP:
Yes,  but you can't pay for the success of a really good live video. You could just kill it and have just the perfect people who got on and have this great thing.

KP:
that's true.

TP:
You know, it could go either way. And if it goes really well that is so valuable and absolutely leverage that experience with some ad dollars.


KP:
Well thank you. Is there anything that I've missed that you would want to be sure we got in here?

TP
I don't think so. I could probably talk all day about it so I think that you nailed it with the most important things so I think we're good.

KP:
Great. Well, if people have questions they can contact you where?

TP:
You could contact me on Facebook, on Instagram.

KP:
Thanks so much!

TP:
My pleasure!

​

5  seconds. That's it.

That is all the time we have to capture attention with our videos.

There are small but important tweaks that can help improve what is called 
"retention" - how long someone sticks with your video.

Here is a nice example, one that also illustrates how my background in marketing AND video production benefits our System and our clients. In a script review for one of our clients, Rebecca Reynolds Moore, Founder of InANutshell Consulting, I see that she starts by introducing herself. At first glance, you think, well, that makes sense  - and it is a very common way people start their videos. 

Then I notice she has a soundbite that starts with "I have a confession to make...." where she details a challenge she had been through that her audience could identify with. 

I suggest we lead with that soundbite - this is called a hook.

When someone says "I have a confession to make..."  doesn't that make you curious? Who doesn't want to hear a confession? Plus, she's being vulnerable right off the bat, which immediately elicits trust from the viewer.

This was brilliant choice of words.

I'm going to use this hook soon, too! Kudos Rebecca!

So I bet you want to see her video, right? 

Check it out here, on her shiny new YouTube Channel. I feel like a proud Auntie. Its sooo awesome to see entrepreneurs diving into video and a real privilege to work with them on this!

To sum up, one rule of thumb for scripting your marketing videos is this - your audience is wanting to know how long its going to take to get to the point.

A hook is like a promise of what's to come. Set up the promise with a hook and then get to the point quickly. 

You can also check out my 1 minute video on changing up your first 5 seconds.  

All my best - 
Kala
www.FabVideosFinallyDone.com

Did you find this post helpful?  Would you like relevant marketing video expertise and information without having to spend hours online?

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Do you remember the messy kid in class? The one with papers flying out of his notebook, always borrowing a pen, shoes untied, and a backpack that hadn't been cleaned out since pre-K? 

That's a little bit how you might thinking about video. Its the messy kid in class for your business. 

 It all seems like a hopeless jumble of steps and confusing gear.
​
It doesn't have to be that way. Different video are used for different goals, but here are some guidelines to get you going. 

Note: This is a long post, taken from our Guide to the Ultimate System for FabVideos, Finally Done. To receive more tips and a free limited time 30 minute consultation on your videos or marketing video strategy, sign up here. You'll be taken to an easy to use calendar to choose your time. 

1. Mindset

Start working on your mindset around video. I have a separate post around this, because it’s a big deal for most women.

2. Now, get tactical:

Eventually you will want to set up a 3 - 6 month business video content strategy . For now, start with 2 steps:

• Easy peasy ‘cause you don’t have to shoot it: Ask all your happy clients to send you quick video testimonials about specific outcome they had with you, directly related to your secret sauce. Ask them to tell a quick story about it. Then use it in a short blog post to highlight THEIR achievements or business. With their permission, of course.
• If you don't know what videos you want to create, outline a basic script for 1 - 3 core SHORT marketing videos every business needs - for most businesses this your personal introduction, and a video or two about your main product or service. Your goal is finished length, Max 2 minutes each. 60 seconds if you are going to post on Instagram.

IMPORTANT>>>>>>Don't forget a call to action that reflects your conversion goal for the video.

​Have a podcast?  You still need some video. Create a monthly video about upcoming speakers, or the best highlights from the month before. Do a “behind the scenes” video of your podcast set up. I know a woman with a podcast for working moms, she podcasts in her closet to hide from her kids. I totally want to see that - from her kids POV. Have them shoot it, maybe even interview her in her closet. Brilliant, right? 

Once you have your list of videos you want to create, here is the key: 

3. Batch those suckers. 

Set up a day to do your script outlines. Set up a day to practice. Maybe you don't need a day, choose what works for you. Tell us what is different about you and your product. Who is it for? Do not use the same glittering generalities that everyone else in your space is using.

Set up one day to record all of your videos. Get some sleep the night before. Get a buddy to help you. 

This is introducing you to the idea of batching your videos, which is the key to eventually creating lots of videos, efficiently.

Success mentor Darren Hardy’s Darren Daily is a genius example. Every single weekday, he sends a short, inspirational video to his email list. He is in the same chair, wearing the same blue shirt in almost every video.

He must have shot a couple of hundred videos over the course of a few days. He has leveraged that to build a huge following online in just a couple of years. ​Good video content is the definition of a good investment. Shoot once, use a gillion times. 

Whatever your flow, ideally you are shooting 10 days before you need the videos to give you time for the edit. (more on the edit, below)

Tips for scripts and shooting: 

• ​Unless you are a 14 year old YouTuber, do not open your video with “Hi guys! Whats up?" Or  “Hello, my name is…” Open your video with an unexpected comment or “hook”. Sometimes it can lead to a story. See this video 1 minute quick tip below (and subscribe to our channel to receive more Quick Tips!)

After last week's post, where I pointed out the lack of marketing video on websites of top female coaches, I wanted to follow up with some specific inspiration. 

Below are 5 YouTube channels from a random sample of life and business coaches / consultants; professional women with different niches, brands and ages.

I’m highlighting these to show you that growing your marketing, outreach and education with a YouTube channel is within the realm of possibility for any entrepreneur

You do not have to become a YouTube celebrity with millions of followers to see great ROI on a your YouTube efforts. This is a myth; please don't let it stop you.

You can improve your clients’ experience, deliver value in an engaging video format, uplevel your marketing communications, and make a difference in your business without millions of subscribers and views. 

There is a catch, though. 

You do have to get started, and you have to stay consistent.

You have to have a simple strategy and a system for producing your videos. Sound familiar? 

Every single entrepreneur with growing video presence started with her first video. Every single one. So lets get started! 

Kylie Carlson
Joined Dec 2017
9, 117 views
250 subscribers

Kylie is first because of all of these, she's the one I most want you to see. Fantastic new channel from a business coach for creatives.  I like this one especially to encourage you to get started now, because look at her numbers below after just one year. She’s connected 9,000 times with viewers, some percentage (I would guess over 70% at least) of them new to her.

Can you say that about your email list marketing? 

Steal this - see how she leaves her bloopers in the welcome video reel? imperfection = vulnerability = instant trust with the viewer. Brilliant, really. 

 Flipping Fifty:
Debra Atkinson
Joined 6/2013
4,710,541 views
64,000 subscribers

Very nice YouTube channel for fitness for over 50 women. Steal this: Debra cross-markets her book with her channel, too, an excellent strategy for authors. This may account for her high number of subscribers. That and also the fitness space is huge for video.

Angel Richardson
Joined 2010
22,000 subscribers
1.4 million views

I love the energy of this channel.
Steal this: the innovative, honest storytelling, with simple visuals we could all come up with,  in the welcome video.
Angel is a smart cookie. Steal this too: 
An excellent example of leveraging the welcome video to tell her story and sell her journal.

Carolin Soldo
Joined 10/2013
3700 subscribers
193,000 views  
Vegas baby! Good example of a professionally branded YouTube channel. Not hard if you have your branding nailed already, and you plan ahead a little bit with a graphic designer. 
Steal this: Carolin shows the power of visuals and personal branding to show how clearly you can - and should -  differentiate your unique brand on video.
Her subscriber numbers are a bit low, given the channel is almost 5 years old. This likely reflects a strategy of building a highly engaged following vs. masses of subscribers.

Rebecca Vocal Athlete
Joined 4/2012
10 million views
71,000 subs

Something a little different - a vocal coach.
Steal this:
I LOVE how she plays the video within her videos to critique the performances - check it out and see if there is a way you could do this in your business. You will get some SEO boost from critiquing high traffic videos. 

Your turn:
​Do you have a favorite channel you follow on YouTube? Let me know, I'd love to take a look. 

I had a hunch so I ran an informal, very unscientific experiment.

I entered  “top female business coaches” into the search bar of Google. Can you imagine how hard it must be to get first page SEO ranking for that search term?

Why would I do that? I was thinking the other day about lost opportunities. No, I don't aspire to be a top female business coach. Let me explain.

“We were actually on the phone with the airlines and decided not book.”
“We didn’t buy that car, but the test drive sure was nice.”
“Oh, we looked in that neighborhood but decided against it.”

An older aunt of mine mentioned several times over the years how she and her husband had considered one plan but decided on another. The trip to Hawaii turned into a week at the Texas coast, the test drive in a new Caddy became a nice Buick in the driveway, the real estate they almost bought but didn’t - and was worth a fortune years later.

It’s hard to place bets on choices in the moment when there is always a way to play it safe, right? Especially when time and money are involved.

How often have you thought, “If only I had known then what I know now”. Little twinges of regret over opportunities that danced right in front of us (and right out the door) seem so obvious after the fact, don’t they?

I was thinking about this in a business context in December. I ran some promotions on Facebook that coincided perfectly with their ad policy changes, and not in my favor. It had the effect of doubling the cost of what I had planned, for far less reach. Bah humbug.

I follow some successful entrepreneurs with large online audiences. They built those relationships over the last few years by leveraging a window in time on Facebook, when you could still get free reach and paid ads were dirt cheap.

After that I thought, helloooo.

Where is the window of opportunity wide open right now, something that we will wish we had noticed in a couple of years? One nice thing about the supersonic pace of change online is that you don’t have to look too far back to learn some lessons.

You do have to take action, though.

So: here is my hunch. Given basic sound business practices, the solopreneurs and small businesses that implement video now will gain competitive advantage, if not completely bypass, their non-videofied competition by 2020.

I’m making that prediction based on the exponential increase in adoption and engagement rates for video over the past few years. I show you some charts at the end of the post, but I’m not starting with them.

You know why?

I bet that, if you aren’t doing video yet, it’s not your left brain holding you back. You have heard the stats, seen the charts.

I know the reason most entrepreneurs, especially women, are not implementing marketing video is a tough combination of overwhelm, confusion, thinking you can’t afford it, and just plain old camera anxiety.

You may be wishfully thinking that video is just for the big guys and you can grow your business with a static website and email marketing. You may be thinking, “Video is for extroverts. My model is one on one clients, I get all my leads from meetings, so just get me in the room”.

That may be true for some businesses. But its possible that by 2019 you will end up working twice as hard for the same leads. You may not be interested in online video, but your potential clients are.

Here is today’s reality, again, backed up by the statistics we may like to pretend are too broad to apply to us:

If the success of your business depends upon you connecting, engaging and influencing an online audience to reinforce how you are different from the rest of a very crowded field, you should be prioritizing a video strategy now. Like, right now.

Solopreneurs, I’m looking at you; coaches, consultants, realtors, designers, advisors, experts, e-commerce products, authors, artists and more. Who am I missing? Come on down.

It is a fabulous opportunity! Here is more good news.

Look around in your space. How much of your competition is implementing a video strategy?  Heck, who even has a welcome video on their homepage or maybe is dabbling with Facebook Live?

If the answer is not many, YOU are standing in front of a golden window of opportunity, wide open and breezy.  

(If the answer is lots of them, don’t despair, because it is very likely you can catch up and even pull ahead if you do smart video.)

Which leads me to my experiment: 

I entered  “top female business coaches” into the search bar of Google. 

Guess how many coaches on the coveted first page results had a business video on their homepage?

Two. One was a copy of an interview done by a local TV news, the other was a voice-over slideshow. Better than nothing, but not exactly a super high bar.  Not one had a personal welcome video.

What that result is telling us is that not nearly enough coaches with otherwise healthy SEO have a video strategy. You see, Google tends to rank websites with relevant video higher than those without video. 

I saw some coaches with gorgeous homepages, but very static and looking very 2010ish.

If you are a coach you might say, "Well, see, Kala, that just proves that video isn’t important in my space. If they aren’t doing it, I sure don’t need to".

Wrong. That’s shortsighted. See the inconvenient truth in the charts at the end of the post.

This means a big opportunity for you.

First, many factors come into play with SEO, but you could say that the first page ranking for that search term is kind of up for grabs. 

It means that the top coaches (according to Google that day) are not integrating marketing video into their websites, and likely not into social media, either.

In other words, they have no strategy around video, the most powerful format to connect, engage and influence an online audience. The most powerful way to build trust, other than to be in person. 

I’m not picking on them. I’m planning on contacting them, in fact!

I’m simply using this as an example to encourage you to see this window in time opportunity for your business. The kind of thing you will look back in a year and say, wow,  that was such a smart move to get started on my video strategy.

I am hearing this from clients right now. Roberta Ryan (Ryan Business Design) forwarded an article to me that included info on the necessity of marketing video, saying "Boy, I am sure glad I am moving toward understanding and using video".  

And if you aren’t doing any video, you are missing out not only on the potential for improving your SEO rankings, but also a golden opportunity to improve your positioning and connect with your followers at a deeper level. How do I know? Because statistics also show that consumers want to see more video from brands.

The reasons go on and on, but I’m not writing this post to convince anyone with numbers. If you need more convincing that video is the killer app for marketing, than maybe it really isn’t for your business.

I’m reaching out to the entrepreneurs that are frustrated because they are fired up get on this now, but don’t know where to start. Believe me, it’s not your fault.

A ton of advice online about “how to do video”  is piecemeal - either marketing gurus who don’t know about video production as a SYSTEM, or video pros who want to be helpful but have legitimate overhead that keeps their fees out of reach for most small businesses. Some advice is even from folks with a YouTube channel who don’t have a background in either marketing or video production! Well meaning, perhaps, but not the complete expertise you need.

I have a unique vantage point because I have experience in both marketing and video production.

Here are some charts to get your left brain’s attention.
Big brands with big budgets tend to lead in marketing. Here is a graphic from the Content Marketing Institute for stats through 2012, so you can see the trend from way back when, in internet time -

https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/03/video-content-marketing-effective-strategy/

And here is a wonky chart with petabytes on the y axis. I don’t know what a petabyte is but it must be a whole lotta gigs. See the blue bar? That’s video traffic. See how the shape is departing from linear to exponential curve? That is where my sense of urgency is coming from for you. 

http://tubularinsights.com/2020-mobile-video-traffic/

Or, if you are ready to take action and make fabulous progress in the next 6 months, and you would like a lot more support than a freebie download, check out our program options. Registration is currently open for a limited time. 

Lets start with Problem One:
The challenge is that today’s video strategy requires a video presence, not just one or two videos. Eventually you want to be consistently posting videos at least once a month, and if you aspire to build a video audience on YouTube or Facebook, once a week posting is the minimum. 

No small business has budget to pay a production company to fill a pipeline with ongoing videos. 

Unfortunately, the pricing for even just one or two marketing videos isn’t that accessible, either.  Cost is a big challenge with professional shoots. From my years as a video producer, I really feel for the talented and creative professionals in that industry. I know video production has some VERY stubborn overhead.

Here are actual pricing numbers from some video production companies, with links to sources at end of the post:

Wirebuzz:
Explainer videos - ( short videos that explain your UVP, or a product or service, in a clear way. )
$15,000, website says most clients spend $15 - $25K

Testimonials videos - $12,500 
Most clients spend $12 - $20K

Video ads $9000
$9,000 - $20,000 is typical

Bonomotion: 
30 second commercial  $2400
60 second  $3600
3 minutes $4800

Animations, anyone? Surely those are cheaper, right? 
Nope. 

Grumomedia’s website says: 
The typical animated promo video costs anywhere from $3K to $10K a minute.
$3K will get you a very simple animated promo video as it will barely cover the costs of producing the script, storyboard, voiceover and hiring an animator.

Sleepy Dog Media: 
Blog post videos:
$2500 They hire an actor to do your blog post videos.  I’ve never heard of that, and don’t see the immediate benefit. Why wouldn’t you just do your own blog post video?  You know, like a vlog. 
Sales video: $2500
Explainer video -$3500

Granted, the videos from the video pros will look more expensive, some of them involve help in scripting, and of course they do all the shooting and editing. But that leads me to problem 2: 
​
Problem Two: if you outsource all your production, it’s a sunk cost, not an investment. 

After spending all that money, you haven’t invested in a foundation for your own video production. Our first time clients’ typical outcome includes:

• 3 cornerstone videos (or whatever their Phase 1 video project is) Finally Done!
• A video strategy for more.
• A new skill set in efficiently setting strategy, scripting, filming and, if they do the editing, basic editing. 
• An online Business Video Hub with their footage organized and accessible at anytime. 
• A simple studio setup in their home or office where they can easily batch and create their videos going forward.

All for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars less than one or two professional videos. 
​
Solution!
With all of that as a backdrop, I’m happy to report that our current Silver package starts at a fraction of those prices, and your outcome is not only great videos, but the ability to create more of them, affordably and efficiently! 

Last lil' point about pricing vs quality -  one thing I love about our Mirror Your Brilliance on Video method is that we teach you the small tweaks, learned over 15 years of marketing video production, that make a big contribution to the professionalism of your videos.  This perspective is missing from most other video "how to" programs. 

There is no reason DIY video has to look cheap. This isn’t good news for the video production industry, but it is good news for YOU!

Join us for weekly video shine, curated especially for our VIP email list:

JOIN US


Sources for pricing: 
Source: https://www.wirebuzz.com/pricing/
Source: https://bonomotion.com/video-production-pricing/
Source: https://www.sleepydogmedia.com/video-production-packages.html
Source: http://grumomedia.com/how-much-a-typical-promo-video-costs/

I hate being on camera. 
I hate the way I look. 
I sound funny. I don't know what to say.

What will my (INSERT friends, parents, ex, or any other person whose opinion matters to you) think if they see me in video online? 

All of those are understandable feelings about being on video.

I'm here to help you get past them. I literally wake up at night thinking about this because its a big threat to the success, if not the existence, of many women-led businesses.

Very soon (like next year) I sincerely believe that not having video in your marketing mix will be almost like not having a website - you'll be missing one of the marketing fundamentals.  And its not just me saying that, the statistics back me up. 

But let's reframe what video means for your, your business and your audience.

​You see, what video means has shifted beneath us. It is one reason we may feel so off-balance. It's hard enough to stay upright and moving ahead in this fast paced business world.

​Now you are being asked to face some deep-seated resistance to being on camera, with all of your supposed imperfections out in front in dazzling Hi Def.

Maybe you dread being the center of attention. Maybe you are afraid others will judge you for bragging or being too self-promotional. Maybe you simply don't know what to say, where to start. 

Here is the truth: Those feelings are remnants from an unhelpful playbook someone handed you in 6th grade, if not before. This Playbook for Playing Small has been added to countless times over the years, by the media, social institutions, and by people who are threatened by your shine, to be quite honest.

If you are letting those feelings stop you from implementing the most important change you can make to transform your business, namely, a marketing video strategy, it is because you don't understand what video is, today, in 2018. 

This is what video is:

Video is story.

Video is wisdom earned.

Video is finally explaining the heart and soul of your business in a way that captures your passion.

Video is an incredible opportunity that you are fortunate to have.

Video is transforming your business.

Video is BY FAR the #1 format for engaging an online audience.

Video is like having 1000 coffees with your tribe.

Video is better done than perfect. 

Video is deeply connecting with your audience.

Video is simple when you have the right system.

Video is being thousands of places at once.

Video is sharing your wisdom.

Video is not about you, its about them.

Video is always being in the right place at the right time.

Video is a generous act that people appreciate.

Video is you at your best.

Video is you being brave.

Video is you being strategic and smart.

Video is fun. Really!

Video is impressive, especially in multiples.

Video tells a million stories.

Finally...

Video is you connecting with the exact person who needs to hear from you today.

Video is not hard. It can be complex, but all you need is a system, strategy and support to succeed. Learn more here.
​

Here is a screenshot of yours truly, obviously NOT a beauty blogger. lol.

There are practical reasons why we ask you to get closer. 

The first one is that about 50% of videos are viewed on mobile phones or tablets, your viewers are watching you on a very small screen. We want them to see your face clearly. ​

The second reason we ask you to get close to the camera is because the closer you are, the less you have to worry about your background. You only have to have an unclutter one corner of the room, not the whole room. You don’t have to worry about that load of unfolded laundry on the chair behind you.  (or am I the only one who has chairs that are really glorified laundry baskets?)

​Try to find out if most of your audience is viewing videos on their mobile phone. If so, consider formatting the video with a square in the edit - talk with your editor ahead of time or contact us for advice. Its not hard but its a bit technical to get into in this post. 

Bottom line is, we ask you to get close to the camera because if you are filling most of the screen, it makes it easy to reformat your video and retain decent quality.

Are you coveting the softly lit, muted uncluttered artsy background of some YouTube gurus?  Just keep in mind once again that people are watching videos more often on their phone than a computer. Small details in your shot will get lost and unnecessary clutter in the background will add visual confusion. Just start with this system. It will save you at least a day of futzing around with your background and lighting. 

You can always upgrade the environment of your mini studio later if you like. 

Step THREE:

Start Batching.

Try not to write and shoot one video at a time if you can help it. Shoot for (ha!) a minimum of 3 videos at a time. 

Once you have your content outlined, order your equipment for your shoot, if you need to.  

While you wait, you can write your scripts. 

Write at least 3 scripts all at one time. Then, set up your ministudio and practice your scripts. Shoot all three videos on the same day. 

As you get more practice you can bump that number up. I have shot up to 15 videos all at one time in an afternoon. 

Marketing videos in general should not be longer than 5 minutes,  the optimum length is 1 to 2 minutes, so this is the perfect project for batching.

We have much more detail about all of this and more, including lighting tips, where to set up your mini-studio, how to set up your shoot, how to frame your shot, camera confidence and much more in our Ultimate Guide to Fab Videos, Finally Done, part of our complete system to help entrepreneurs transform their business with video.  Looking for furrther ideas about where to get started? Check out this blog post on the 3 essential videos every business needs (including scripts!)
​​

5  seconds. That's it.

That is all the time we have to capture attention with our videos. The opening line of your Youtube marketing videos is super important. 

There are small but important tweaks to the introduction, or opening line, that can help improve what is called  "audience retention" - how long someone sticks with your video. 

Here is a nice example. In a script review for one of our clients, Rebecca Reynolds Moore, Founder of InANutshell Consulting, I see that she starts by introducing herself. This makes sense and is a very common way people start their videos.

Then I notice she has a soundbite that starts with "I have a confession to make...." where she details a challenge she had been through that her audience could identify with.

I suggest we lead with that soundbite - this is called a hook.

When someone says "I have a confession to make..."  aren't we automatically curious? Who doesn't want to hear a confession? Plus she's being vulnerable right off the bat, which immediately elicits trust from the viewer.

This is brilliant catchphrase for a Youtube video!

I'm going to use this hook soon, too! Kudos Rebecca!

So I bet you want to see her video, right?

Check it out here, on her shiny new YouTube Channel. I feel like a proud Auntie. Its sooo awesome to see entrepreneurs diving into video and a real privilege to work with them on this!

To sum up, one rule of thumb for scripting your marketing videos is this - your audience is wanting to know how long its going to take to get to the point.

A hook is like a promise of what's to come. Set up the promise with an opening line, or hook, and then get to the point quickly.
​
What opener can you think of that would reel your audience in? Post in the comments below : ) 

PS
I'm very excited to announce we've set the date to open registration for our next group of clients ready to transform their business with video in the next 6 months to set the stage for growth in 2019.

Registration opens May 29 for a limited time.
We've got fab new packages for different levels of budget and video readiness. One of the best things about our program is its flexibility - you don't have to be ready to shoot the day you sign up.
We are growing slowly to accommodate everyone with excellence and will only have 10 - 15 spots available.
(Total number for May depends on the mix of packages selected.) Please make a note, tell a friend, or both!

After ending a 26 year marriage, selling or donating everything I owned, adopting a digital nomad lifestyle, and generally going on to re-invent my life, I felt a strong desire to help other women with their midlife struggles. I thought about starting an online community for the midlife journey. There is a beautiful way to gracefully navigate midlife and emerge renewed and excited about what remaining time you might have.

Based on my past interests and experience, I am fortunate to know that it is a good idea to test business ideas before you throw it all in. I started a simple website and a blog and made a few videos. I also surveyed some midlife women and interviewed others.

My initial enthusiasm began to turn to a creeping sense of unease. Much to my surprise, my audience was not nearly as worried about their potential midlife crisis as I was for them.

The real a-ha moment was when I joined a Facebook group for 50+ women. After observing the conversations and patterns in the topics that were coming up, I realized, "This is not my tribe!"  That was an obvious problem, because I was considering building a business around helping 50+ women! The Facebook group should have been like a dream portal to lots of new followers.

I am not criticizing anyone in that group, there are some very nice, caring ladies there - but the vast majority of them who are struggling have no real intention to change anything about their current situation.

I also observed in that group that some of the women enjoy the process of talking others into taking the action that is so obviously the right choice. It energizes them to see the light bulb come on. In other places in society, these people are our master politicians, successful salespeople, 7 figure life coaches and even celebrities.

I’m none of those. I'm not a convincer, it's not interesting to me to try to convince people to do what they already know is the right thing. Years ago, I would have written it off and said, "Well, I'm just not good at sales." 

Have you ever thought that? What I now know is that I am good at "sales", the kind that is based less on emotional persuasion and mountain top motivational moments, and more on showing up, showing  proof, adding value, and working hard to gain my real tribe’s trust. 

At any rate, a couple of years ago, I didn't know any of that, and I wasn’t sure how to proceed. What I did know I wasn’t ready to water down my message and niche on something obvious like menopause, divorce, life coaching or the latest diet for 50+ women. 

I put that idea for an online community business on hold and moved on to other ideas. Even if you don't know what to do next, never underestimate the clarity that resides in knowing what you don’t want to do! 

Check out this post for some quick ways to get inside the head of your potential customer. Look around and really get a sense of what's going on in there before you dive into a marketing campaign to try to influence or persuade them. This post features 3 quick ways to get started. 

Content strategy is simply creating a plan to distribute marketing content that attracts your target audience and resonates with their problem or need that you meet with your product or service.

So how do you know what to say?

You find out what the conversation is that is already going on in their head. You discover the exact words and phrases they are using to talk about their problem.

We want to find some quick ways to actually get into the heads of your customer about how they're thinking and the words they're using around the problem or the need that they have, that you're trying to meet with your product or service.  Here are three quick ways to jump start your content marketing strategy:

Number one, you can hang out in Facebook groups, where your potential customer hangs out, and start to watch the conversations and see the way that they phrase things, the words that they use, their particular pain points. Facebook groups are a great place to get verbatim comments about the problem that they have, that you're trying to solve.

Number two: Take those phrases, or think of the questions that you get from your clients on a regular basis. Google those questions. And in most search returns, you go down to the bottom, and there'll be a box that says, "People also searched on these terms". And it will give you other ways that people are phrasing that same search, that same question. 

Number three: the last thing that you can do is you can create a survey. Google Forms is great for this. Create a survey, and be sure you include some open-ended or short answer questions so that they have to use their own words to answer the questions.

This can't be a long survey.  Don't try to get them to answer everything in the world. Pick a certain assumption that you have, that you assume about how they feel about your product or service and how it meets their needs, and test that assumption. Don't try to get every question answered from your clients in one survey.

BONUS - extra credit! This is an extra that takes a bit of time but is very valuable. Interview some of your audience. Create a list of questions, interview them, and listen really well, and document their answers, and that will give you so much information about how they're thinking about their problem that you have the product or service to solve.

There you have it - three quick ways to jumpstart your content marketing strategy for your videos. If you have any questions about this topic, I am sure you're not the only one. Don't feel like you're alone with that.

Below you can download our Content Marketing Strategy Worksheet to help you get organized and find the exact words and phrases that will attract your audience. 

What is your biggest question around writing compelling video marketing scripts? Share below, maybe we can help 

No excuses! This is the number one type of video you can start working on today!

Testimonials: These are golden, do you know why? 

1. ROI is fantastic - there is almost no production expense - because you are not shooting them.
2. There is no excuse not to start on them - because you are not shooting them.
3. They give your business “social proof”  - potential clients trust word of mouth from peers more than they do your marketing. Makes sense, no?
4. They are highly effective, especially when done right. This is how you do them right. Ask your happy clients to shoot a simple video with their smart phone, using this outline: 
   
   State problem they had before they came to you
   Transformation they achieved from working with you.
   Favorite part of what you did for them. 
   This is their script, but don’t tell them that. Script makes it sound like scary work for them. 
   
   Tell them you will send them suggestions for what to say using a helpful outline. That sounds like you are doing the work for them! Much better. 
   
   Notice how they don’t start with Hi, I’m Jane Smith, owner of Cuties Cupcakes.
   
   Why? You only have 3 - 5 seconds to grab attention. Unless Jane Smith is a celebrity (and if that is the case they will know who she is anyway) your audience DOES NOT CARE about her name and company in the first 5 seconds. In the middle of the video, yes, at which time they will naturally learn about her at the exact time they start to care about that info. 
   
   Besides that, viewers will already know who she is because you have identified her outside of the video footage - on your website, and in the title for the video, or the blog post, etc.
   
   So how many testimonials videos will you ask for this month? 

If you have any questions, we are here for you.

Next check out Essential Video #2 - Your company profile video.