146. Isn’t it time you got your butt on video? (OK, not your actual butt) with Brad Powell
It’s time you got your butt on video. There, I said it.
And you know it’s true.
Not in the “there’s only one way to market yourself and it’s video” mindset. (that’s a bunch of B.S.)
It’s just that people need to know the person they’re going to hire, they need to see the person behind the business that they’re going to buy from.
If they look at your website or your social media posts and there’s no video anywhere, they can’t tell who you are.
❌ They don’t feel like they know you.
❌ They can’t see your personality.
❌ They can’t trust you yet.
But when you make something as simple as a one-minute video, all of a sudden they can see all those things –
✅ how you think,
✅ what you believe,
✅ whether or not you like cats (or maybe your a dog person)
all this simple stuff that adds up to relating to another human.
And if people can’t relate to you as another human, then they aren’t going to buy from you.
But, I know you’re thinking:
“But video is too hard, takes too much time, costs a bunch of money and I don’t think I’m good on camera.”
Well, in episode I’m walking you through my simple 3-step process that anyone can do:
that takes no time, takes no money, is super simple and can turn anyone into a relatable, trustworthy human on camera…!
Resources
Get endless video ideas that work for any niche (your guide to creating irresistible videos)
Transcript
Brad Powell:
Welcome to the Standout Business Show. I’m Brad Powell, and this is the show for all the business leaders who refuse to blend in and who are all about making a bigger difference by doing business differently. Today, we are talking about why it’s high time that you got your butt on video. I don’t mean this in a drill sergeant kind of way. I mean it’s really not about you must do this and that video is the only only way to get your message across, because that’s not true and you know it’s not true. However, the people who are willing to stand up and hit record and start sharing on video have some natural advantages. People need to know the person that they are going to hire, the person that they’re going to buy from. They need to see the people who are behind the business. If they’re going to make a purchase, you know, and if they come to your website and they look around or they see your social media posts or they see your profile on LinkedIn and they don’t see any video anywhere, they can’t really tell who you are. They don’t feel like they know you, they can’t see your personality, they can’t trust you. Yet this is a hindrance. This is a a low ceiling that you’re going to have a hard time breaking through. But when you make something just as simple as a one minute video, all of a sudden they can see all those things. They can see how you think, they figure out what you believe in, whether or not you like cats, or maybe you’re a dog person All this simple stuff that adds up to them relating to another human being. And it’s that simple.
Brad Powell:
However, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking things like video is so hard, takes too much time, probably costs a bunch of money, and I don’t think I’m very good on video. Like I’ve got a face for radio. Video is just not my thing. I don’t feel comfortable when I’m on camera. Well, today, today I’m going to walk you through what is actually my simple three-step process that anyone can do. That takes no time, takes no money, super simple, and it can turn anyone into a relatable, trustworthy human when they’re on camera. So if that sounds good to you, stay tuned and let’s start the show.
Brad Powell:
I’d like to start by getting you to think about the last time you watched a video. How long ago did you see your most recent video? How were you watching Like? What were you using to watch it? How often do you watch? For me, you know I’m watching a video and more than one practically every day. Often, I’m actually watching on my phone. It’s fairly frequent.
Brad Powell:
So your audience, the people who you would like to connect with, the prospects, all of the folks that you would like to do business with how are they discovering new things? How are they looking to solve the problems that they want to solve? Well, today, in today’s world, right now, the most common way is they’re on their phone and they’re scrolling. Your challenge is to be somewhere where you can stop the scroll. On social media, especially platforms like TikTok, instagram, even LinkedIn, things are going by fairly quickly and these short pieces of content are the things that a lot of people prefer, and so if you’re not engaging there, you are missing out. So what is it that video is doing? Why is TikTok so popular? Why has it become the leading social media platform in terms of the amount of users and the amount of time that people are spending on the platform? Here’s some statistics for you 80% majority of people are preferring to watch a video than read a blog post. 82% say they watch videos instead of looking at the text, or reading the text, or looking at pictures on social media and 80% of people say that they want more videos from businesses like yours. Let that sink in. If you’re not doing video, if this isn’t something you’re engaging with right now, the big question is, how is anyone going to discover you and connect with you and relate to your business?
Brad Powell:
Because I have a daughter, I’ve ended up watching a lot of Disney movies and I’ve been surprised because, first of all, I enjoy watching them with my daughter and I enjoy watching stories that help her grow and develop as a better human being and, believe it or not, at least some of the Disney movies move in that direction. You know, no matter what you think about Disney and what you think about children’s film and what you think about Cinderella as a story, there’s some good things, there’s a nugget, and so the last scene, the last scene. This is the most recent Disney version of Cinderella that ever got made. In the last scene, what’s happening is that Cinderella is up in the attic of her stepmother’s house and the prince has come calling and, in fact, at this point in the story, he knows that she’s here. It’s been revealed that Cinderella is actually here, and so she has to come down from the attic and reveal herself as who she actually is. And this is.
Brad Powell:
She’s now freaking out, she’s going. Oh no, the last time when I actually met the prince, I was an imposter. I was. I had all this magic that made me into a magical princess and somebody of mystery. And now the prince is going to see me as this plain, ordinary maid like this person, who may not be worth very much in his eyes and he may not love me anymore. And she’s very afraid to literally show herself as she truly is. And as she’s walking through the hallway, she catches her reflection in the mirror. And as she’s walking through the hallway, she catches her reflection in the mirror. And as she does that, the voice of her mother comes through and says have courage and be kind. And this message I mean these days we all have a mirror that we carry around in our pockets. I’m going to pull my phone out and, yeah, here’s my mirror right here. We can open this up and hit record at any time and we will see our reflection right here. And in this process, when we hit record, we are revealing something about ourselves. We’re revealing. I mean.
Brad Powell:
The goal here is to reveal something true, to say what is true for you, to say the things that you actually believe in, and to not be put on a lot of artificial trappings, to not be something who you are not, but actually be the person who you were meant to be, and to say the messages that are true for you, so that you will serve the people who you are meant to serve. And this can be really scary, because we have voices in our heads saying oh, you’re not good enough, or these people are going to judge you, or there’s going to be trolls out there that say mean things, or people are going to find out that you’re not the magical princess, that you’re actually just this ordinary person. When they find that out, no one will love you anymore. So this is the thing that we have to get over, and this message, the message from Cinderella, this thing of have courage and be kind, takes both those things. You need to be courageous. You need to have courage even though you’re feeling any kind of fear or you’re feeling risk averse. Step in any case, because the rewards are going to be better than sitting back, and you want to be kind to yourself and all those voices in your head that are not so kind you want to push those aside and say, no, I have good things to share. My being on camera right now is an act of generosity, and I am here to say the things that I believe in, to be true to myself and to be true to the people who I want to serve so that I can help them overcome whatever challenges they have. And we have to be willing to overcome our own challenges in order to get into that place. And whenever you’re feeling like, oh no, I don’t have a face for video, be very kind to yourself Because actually, people aren’t paying that much attention to those details. They really aren’t. You know, there’s this effect called the spotlight effect, and what that acts like is we think that people are paying way much more attention to us than they actually are, and the truth is that everyone, what they’re paying attention to is their own stuff and their own problems and their own challenges. And if you can break through to them and help them just take one step in the right direction to get a little bit closer to the desired outcome, that result that they’re looking for, that is super powerful and that is how you build trust with your audience, and all it takes is to pick up a device like this, open up the camera, hit record and talk for one minute. I also want to share that.
Brad Powell:
There’s all kinds of opportunity that you have where you can just simply be ready, like you can go in the moments when you’re ready. There is something about you know getting up in the morning and saying, oh no, I have to make a video today or I have to produce a piece of content, and then you sit down like I’m sitting down now and I’m facing my camera and I’m going, hmm, what am I going to talk about? And then all these voices are going well, I don’t really feel like talking. Maybe I should just go for a walk or something like that. Like there’s all kinds of excuses that will get in our way, and so I may not be feeling particularly ready in this moment, but there’s lots of times when that’s entirely different.
Brad Powell:
For example, when I have just met with one of my clients, and in my case, what I do with clients is I interview them remotely, like this, and I’m talking with them and I’m pulling out their best what I call mic drop moments, these little moments of inspiration and I’m helping them turn that into short videos that they can share on their social media. And during that those sessions, we have a lot of exchange and I’m always inspired by the things that happen in terms of what they’re saying and what they’re doing, and often it makes for really good storytelling. Right after a session like that, it’s a really good time for me to set up my phone and I could be anywhere and just hit record and share what’s going on for me, and in that moment I have a certain kind of energy that is very contagious and will exude right through the camera Whenever you are coming off of one of the meetings that you have, whether it’s a meeting with your team or it’s a meeting with a meetup somewhere, or it’s certainly a session with one of your clients. After those sessions, when you have that energy, right then hit record and make a little video and just talk for a minute of whatever is coming to you in that moment that you can share. And that makes for great content. And the trick there is that you’re not so much as making something up and or creating content out of like whole cloth. What you’re doing is you’re documenting something that’s happened to you, you are sharing an experience and you are sharing the emotion and the feeling of what’s going on for you right then, and all of that makes you relatable, makes you human and it puts you in your zone of genius, which is great, like there’s nothing better, in terms of content creation, than being able to do that.
Brad Powell:
The other thing that you can look for in terms of getting ready is that we all have experience in being guests on other people’s podcasts. I have a podcast and people come on my show and I do this for them. They come on my show, we have this interview and I actually turn their responses into content. Well, you can do this for yourself so that the next time you are on somebody’s podcast as a guest, you can set up your phone on a little stand just off to the side and hit record while you’re being interviewed, and that host if they’re any good will ask you questions that pull stuff out of you that you’re just, you know, saying your best stuff.
Brad Powell:
You’re sharing, you’re in the moment, you’re being relatable, you’re being animated, you know you’re being sort of the best possible thing that you can be and you’re not thinking about, oh no, I’m on camera. You’re just focused on having a conversation with this guest and taking moments, these mic drop moments from that conversation, is brilliant, like it makes for brilliant content and, again, there’s a certain kind of animation and energy that’s coming from you when you’re in that kind of environment and you can turn that into terrific video content and you’re already doing it. This is like this is not extra time when I was talking about, this takes no time. Well, this is how it takes no time. You are already being a guest on somebody’s show and while you’re doing that, just record yourself and boom no extra time, no extra money and no extra trouble. You’re just doing something that you’re already doing and you’re making sure that you capture it, and you’re capturing your best moments.
Brad Powell:
It’s so simple and I don’t know why more people aren’t doing this. Some people are, and in fact I’ve heard people talk about this where they literally are now when they’re creating content. They do this thing where you know, instead of looking at the camera, they’ll look over here as though they’re talking to a guest and they’ll, you know, nod their head and then they’ll say stuff and they turn that into content, even though they’re actually not on a podcast, and that kind of thing. The thing where you know you can see the microphone and it looks like, you know, in some case they actually put on earphones. So it’s like oh, I’m really professional here and that content performs better than the straight talking to the camera. Content it’s fascinating. And there again, like, if you’re not comfortable looking at the camera, well, don’t like look, look off to the side and, do you know, do that.
Brad Powell:
One last thing I say about being on a podcast is that the typical thing of a podcast host is they’ll say stuff like oh you know, tell me how you got into this business, or tell me how you did the thing that you did, and typically most people in that situation they go oh well, I don’t know where to start, but let me go back to high school and they’ll tell this pretty long, shaggy dog story about a lot of stuff that most of us don’t care about. Don’t do that. When you go on a show. Be like a politician, and what I mean by that is that all politicians have in mind their bullet points, the things that they know that they want to talk about, and no matter what kind of question people ask them, they will give these answers, these key points that they want to get across. And you want to behave in a very similar way. So come up with an interesting story about your business or how you found your work or something like that, but keep it short and, in fact, in all of your responses, try to keep your responses within 60 seconds. And this is something you can practice, that and get really good at, so that when people ask you a question, you respond and you respond in a way that, oh, this reminds me of a little story or this reminds me of an anecdote, or talk about a client that you worked with and the success that they got, anything like that. Keep it within 60 seconds and then stop and then the guest will say something else and then you can go on and if you do this consistently, you’ll end up with a lot of really great content which is showing off all the stuff that you know and your expertise and your relatability, especially if you are sharing anecdotes.
Brad Powell:
When people ask me about my work, all I say the story I tell which I could tell all kinds of different stories is that when I was in high school, I took my very first photography class. It was a class in documentary photography class. It was a class in documentary photography and what we learned was how you can tell an entire story in a single image. And this just fascinated me. It was a time of, you know, life magazine and all these great kind of famous photographs, and I was like, how do these people do this, how do they tell stories with just one picture? And I wanted to learn how to do that.
Brad Powell:
And ever since then I’ve been making images, and now video, where I’m doing kind of the same thing. I’m figuring out how I can tell a story, a deep, rich, meaningful story, from an image. That’s it, and I just related that to you in well under a minute. And this is how you do it. This is how this works. You can do this yourself. You can do this in these moments that occur to you. In fact, you can even do it with a friend, like you can sit down in a cafe and you can have a friend ask you questions, take your phone out and record your answers. You know it’s very low pressure and this is the way that I work with my clients.
Brad Powell:
I call my process Mic Drop Moments, clients, you know I call my process Mic Drop Moments and it’s really all about capturing these moments of insight and brilliance that everyone has. Who’s been doing any kind of thing, these passions that we have, these things that we really care about, and wanting to share that with the people who we’d like to serve. And it’s really not about sharing information. It’s really not about teaching how to. It’s really about declaring, like, what do you believe in and what do you stand for? What are the things that are most passionate with you? What are the things that you see in the world that need change? You know what’s the status quo that needs to be overthrown, what are the myths, like the things that people believe that are not actually serving them anymore. What are all that? What’s all that stuff? So that you can stand there and say, look, this is what I see. This is something that really needs to happen in the world and I’m here to help make it happen. And I’d like you to join me on my quest. And if you can get people to join you in that way, that’s super powerful. That is something that people get super motivated and they want to follow you because they’re not hearing this from anyone else. This isn’t like the five steps to you know, do whatever. It’s just not like that.
Brad Powell:
My process is that I’ll sit down with people and, first of all, we get people set up so that they look and sound as good as they possibly can, so they have a professional appearance on camera. And this doesn’t mean, you know, you have to go over the top, but just that they have a good location, they have good lighting, they have good audio, they have good lighting, they have good audio and they have a good image. That’s it, you know. And this can all be done just with a phone. In fact, the software I use allows my clients to join me on their phone. They can literally be anywhere and in fact, just last week I was interviewing one of my clients and he was on a beach in Florida and it was great, like you could see the waves crashing behind him. The sound of the waves was part of the soundscape and the sun was. It was late, you know, it was early evening, so the sun was in that sort of golden state and it was just beautiful light, beautiful surroundings, looked and sounded great. And it worked for him, because he’s a real estate guy and he was talking about this property that he has in South Florida and it was like perfect setting for what he was talking about. So all of this worked really well and it can be done anywhere and it’s really simple.
Brad Powell:
I mean, on your end of things, as the person who works with me, literally all you need is a phone and then what I do is I give them a series of prompts which are all about the kinds of things that they would want to be talking about anytime, and this series of prompts I have on a worksheet and it basically provides them with an endless amount of material to talk about. In fact, if you’re interested in what those prompts are, I have a worksheet. It’s called Endless Video Ideas and if you want that, go ahead and comment endless and I’ll make sure that you get it. I think if you go to 40 video ideascom and that’s the number four, zero video ideascom you will find where you can get that worksheet. You can download it. It’s a PDF.
Brad Powell:
It’s basically a series of prompts that when you answer the prompts, it will give you ideas for what to talk about in your videos, and so once my clients have filled that out, then we get on in a situation just like this, where we’re doing a remote conversation and I am asking them questions based on what they’ve written down in the prompts and they give me answers and usually what happens is we start talking about a particular thing and I’m gonna go deeper and I go oh, tell me more about that, tell me how that feels. What was the result? That happened, tell me the transition. You know like I’m just pulling out the best stuff and then I’ll take that footage and I’ll edit it down into 60 second or shorter video clips and that gets scheduled and posted across all their social media channels. For the people who really don’t have any time to do this and don’t have any interest in doing this a lot of their time and are like I don’t really want to be on social media very much, well, they spend one hour a month with me and they get a month’s worth of video content. In fact, over like three sessions they end up with usually more than four months of video content.
Brad Powell:
It’s a really really time efficient way to get your message out. People find you like. They see you as you are, like. If you become the Cinderella at the end of the movie, of all the things that you can do in your content, that will get you noticed. That will be sure that people will remember what you said is to share a story and to share a story that’s actually a true story, something that actually happened to you. You know, for instance and I’ll do that right now Like I’ll share a little story here. At the end, this is something that happened to me and what this did was it? You know, people often think that it’s going to take a lot of time for me to gain trust, it’s going to take a lot of time for people to know me. I just want to suggest that, actually, that process, that threshold of people feeling like they know you and they trust you, that can happen in an instant.
Brad Powell:
A few years ago, I was traveling to a conference. This was like a three-day event and I was really excited about going. When I go to conferences, I’m getting to my gregarious mode. I’m thinking, oh, I’m going to meet a lot of people, I’m going to get to talk with lots of folks. This is going to be super exciting. Going to get to talk with lots of folks. This is going to be super exciting.
Brad Powell:
And in this case, when I got on the plane to fly to the event, I was thinking well, I’m flying from Boston. You know, it’s possible there’s somebody on the plane who’s going to the same event, I wonder if they’ll be here. Maybe I’ll sit next to them. But when I got to my seat and sat down, next to me was a quite young woman. She looked like she was maybe 20 years old and instead of talking to me, she was sitting there with earbuds in and an iPad out, and on the whole entire flight she totally ignored me. I didn’t think too much about it.
Brad Powell:
I went to the conference, spent my three days. When it was over, I got on a plane to come back home. I was like, oh, I’ve been talking for three days. This is great. I want to keep this energy going. And again I thought maybe there’ll be somebody on the plane who I can chat with, who was at the conference. And so I walked down the aisle, I sat down and guess what? Next to me was the same woman, the same 20-year-old young woman. Only this time, when I got there and I sat down, she looked up and our eyes met and we both started laughing. And then we started talking and I found out all these things about her. Like she was a student here in Boston and she’d been down in North Carolina visiting her sister and she was studying accounting. And I said, oh well, you’re never going to have trouble finding a job if you become an accountant. Everybody needs one of those.
Brad Powell:
And so what made it possible that second time for us to be able to have the conversation that we had was because I had become a familiar face. Because I had become a familiar face and, in fact, in the context of the plane, I was the only familiar face in a plane full of strangers. This is how easy it can be like just that little bit of recognition. She didn’t know me at all, we were complete strangers on that first flight. But because when she saw me again, she was like oh, I’ve seen you before. Because when she saw me again, she was like oh, I’ve seen you before. She was able to open up and she really represents your customer avatar, like all of your people out there in the first instance.
Brad Powell:
When they see you the first time, they’re like got their earbuds in, they got their phone out and they don’t care about you. They’re not thinking about you at all. And they see you on the feed and they just keep on scrolling. But when you show up one or two more times, it doesn’t take much. They see something that you do. They see the title, like the title of this series get your butt on video.
Brad Powell:
They see something and they go oh wait, I’ve seen that guy and they will open up just a little bit. And they will open up just a little bit to where you can start having a conversation with them. And you can start having a conversation that’s actually meaningful to them. And when you do that, you’ve broken the ice, you’ve become this familiar face, and it doesn’t take a lot of time and it can happen instantly, happen instantly. With that I am going to sign off. Thank you so much for being here. I just want to say that if you’d like to go and binge the entire archive of the Stand Up Business Show, you can just go to standoutbusinessshow and it’s all there, the entire archive, all the video, all the audio. You can listen and binge to your heart’s content. I go live every single week. Next week it’ll be Thursday at 11 am Eastern time, and until then, so long.
