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Which Format is Right for You?

So the question is which format is best for you? Now you, in your workbook, I ask you this question. The first thing you should answer is what format appealed to you most? Which ones seemed the best for-- As you were listening to me talk about it, you were like, "Oh yeah, I would like to do that." I want you to write down which one appealed to you most, and then you want to answer me and let me know, which format did you guys like? You're all looking at your workbook. Which format did you like, yeah? Well, I interview (crosstalk) and I love it because then I can connect with them in person. They're then relatable, so that's why I love doing that. Yeah, that's so great. When you highlight your customers, or your clients or students, it lets other people see themselves in that person, so then they're like, ooh, I'm going to do that. I want to buy what you're selling. I want to work with you too. How 'bout you? Yeah, the testimonial format is absolutely the best for me. Awesome. ...

Well, I was imagining my sister and I, we banter back and forth all the time. That's what I think our appeal might be is we're kind of silly stupid funny. I think in that regard the interview would be the best, split screen, because she's in L.A., I'm here. And maybe just instead of interview where an interview's kind of indicates you've got some questions you're asking, you just, the talking head format, like Cee Cee and Dami that we saw where you guys are just bouncing off each other and talking about whatever you've decided to talk about that day. You know? But I mean, really, you could call it either one. How about you? I think for me a combination of the vlog and talking head could be really cool. I don't think anybody else in my space is doing that. That could really be a unique niche. I think it would really take the pressure off to just get on camera and talk, rather than feeling like I need to design something specific and then make sure that it's filmed really nicely. Then I have to edit it. If I can just be real, I think that would take a huge amount of pressure off. Yay, that's what we're here for, is taking the pressure off. How 'bout you? As a fitness professional I have a lot of people asking me fitness questions, not just in the gym but lifestyle questions, nutrition questions, so talking head's definitely going to be something I want to work on. Yeah, 'cause it's going to build that expertise when they see you saying the things, they'll be like, oh I need that in my life, I want to work with her. How 'bout you? I think probably mostly the vlog. I've done that before when we've traveled in shows, 'cause it's kind of doing different things then people would do every day. That would probably be the most, teaching a little bit, showing how a technique, things like that, so that would be the most. And you sew finished hats, right? Yeah. Okay, awesome. And vlog also appeals to me. I'm a fine art painter and I love to show my process and how I'm painting things and how things evolve, so that's the most appealing to me for sure. I love that. And as a non-painter, that's what I want to see. I want to see how it became made and then it's also going to demonstrate the value because I'll see how much time it took and what you did, and it's going to build anticipation because then I'm going to buy it. Do you see how that integrates in with making the sales? I'm seeing it and I want to buy it. It might seem really, you're like, well I do this every day, but for your people who are buying it they don't do it every day. The same thing with going to craft shows. That travel, that set-up, all of that is really interesting. It also makes me realize, this is one thing people forget, especially if you have a small business or a starting business, you're demonstrating your seriousness about it. When I see the vlog and I see you traveling and I see the craft shows, I'm like oh, this is what she does. She's an expert and that's why maybe her products cost what they cost. That's why she's got the whole business. I want some of that. The same thing with the customer or student testimonials. If I see someone else say that they love what you made or sold or did with them, it's just going to build all of that yes okay, I'm going to buy that for sure. Also, when you talk about the format, you also want to go with one that's in alignment with your goals and your skills. If your goals are to build a big relationship amongst a new industry, then the interview format might be best. If your goal is to connect on a personal level, the vlog might be best. If you just want to sit around with your sister and connect and people love that, then that's going to be what's best for you. Also when you're thinking at home, you might not have decided yet which is the best one for you, so you think about which appeal to you. Then I want you to think about what's in alignment with your goals and your skills. Also start with what's easiest. Actually, I have more to say about your goals and your skills. If you are super chatty and you love meeting new people, an interview show might be great. If you just can talk to anybody and get them to open up, an interview show is going to be totally awesome for you. If you love to take photos and videos as you go through your life, you're already doing that all the time, a vlog is going to come really easy. If you want to talk about what you're working on or the new products that you get, the talking head is going to be really great because you're gonna always be getting new stuff in that you can talk about and share. If you're in any kind of industry or make a kind of product that has a process, like painting or knitwear design or spinning or ceramics and it takes awhile to do it, that kind of ongoing process shot is really going to be awesome, which you could do in a vlog format or you could just do talking head, like hey, today I'm working on this painting. This is what's behind me. This is the progress I've made since last time. People are going to love to see that progress. Then I always tell people, just start with what's easiest. Talking head for most of us, especially now that we're all on Instagram all the time, just hold out your camera and talk to it, if that's going to be what gets you started. New people are going to find you because you're doing that, then just go with that. You don't have to plan some massive show, just start with what's easiest. Are there any questions about the formats? I've got lots of people chatting about the formats that they feel might work for them, and questions as well. Let me have a look. Essa said, "Is it bad that I like all three? "I could see me doing a mix of the three, is that bad?" No, I think you're fine. If you want to mix it, I'm sure that's- Absolutely. If it works for you in your business and your craft then that'd be great. If I were to use all of the formats, what frequency would work well for each of the formats? This might be something we'll come into a bit later on in terms of questions? Well, I think that goes back to the consistency question. Whatever format you choose, pick a consistency. It's not dependent. People want to see you weekly or daily, so I would go with that. The thing to keep in mind with an interview show because it can be really hard to line up that many interviews. So with your schedule and their schedule, it can be hard to get them, get enough interviews lined up to do a weekly show. That's something to think about. If it's just you, you could do it every day, right. You always have you, you always have your phone, so you're good to go. But the consistency that YouTube is going to most reward you for is going to be daily to weekly, somewhere in-between there. Keep in mind if you don't want to do daily, you could do twice a week or three times a week or just once a week. It's not either/or, anywhere in-between there. We've also had a question about your own system, your kind of typical week, what tasks you tend to batch together. What days would you, do you really work through a system or do you kind of, I guess it depends on what's happening. We're actually going to talk about this in segment four. I talk all about how I batch tasks. The short answer, to get you ready for the much more detailed answer later, is I record them the week before almost always. They come out every Wednesday. I record them the Tuesday of the week before, so that there is time to put it all together. It's both an audio and an video podcast with transcripts, so there's a couple different moving parts. The YouTube videos I can basically just post and put a description, but I also have the blog post and the transcripts and all that to go with the audio show. That's my answer, I do it the week before. If I'm traveling like this, I recorded three in one day. That's how I could then be away from my home for those Tuesdays. And more questions, "I like the vlog idea "but a lot of crafters seem to do that. "I'd love to be different "and somehow stand out from the crowd. "Any ideas?" Ah, I want to ask her all these questions, like what kind of product does she make, 'cause here's what I've seen. I see a lot of crafters doing tutorials, which I'll talk about in a minute, and I see them doing like talking head, they're just talking about what they're doing, whereas a vlog is a lot more like a log of your day or your progress, where you're shooting maybe multiple videos and editing them together. Or you're sitting down and you're showing, this is what I'm working on right now and you actually show yourself working on it, not just sitting there talking and knitting, but actually showing the progress of your knitting or showing all the rest of your day as you walk your dogs. You get inspired by these colors and then you come home and you pick the yarn, that whole process. I asked my audience for samples of all of these kinds. It was really hard to find crafters and makers who were doing a true vlog. I went searching to find Hannah Eleanor, the jewelry artist who has that vlog style, is very hard for me to find more vlogs like that. I think it's wide open. The other thing to remember is that no one else is you. No one is going to create the kind of videos that you create, and no one is going to come from your perspective or have your expertise or have your home life, or even live in your same city and your same neighborhood. When you do that, it doesn't matter if there's a million other people doing that. You are still going to be, people are going to watch you because you're you. It doesn't matter how many other people are doing it, because they might not see themselves reflected in that other person. They might just not connect with them in the same way they connect with you. Also, there are so few, especially handmade businesses doing this at all, that you might know a bunch of them because they might be your friends and co-workers and colleagues, but in the grand scheme of all the YouTube videos, there are way more Pokemon Go videos out there then there are people actually sharing their handmade business. So it's not as saturated as it might feel to you. Just a question relating to, when you've got your episodes and content, "I'm planning on doing daily content. "Should I include episode numbers, "for example, day 1, day 57, in the titles "or is that off-putting for an audience?" Yes, so we're going to talk a little bit more about titles in segment three. Basically the first couple words of your title matter a lot to YouTube and YouTube search because sometimes it's shortened. If you see videos in the sidebar, it just shows a little bit of the title. So those first couple words are important. Absolutely, if they're going to have episodes, like my podcast has episode numbers so that I can refer to them. In one episode I might say, oh I talked about that back in episode 167, so I need those numbers. But you don't want to make that a bunch of the words. Mine often say 167 colon, and then how to blah blah, or blah blah et cetera. Yes, use those numbers but don't take up a lot of space. Not like day one, week 35, video 759, how to blah blah because that's going to take up way too much space. I want to answer the question tutorials because you notice in all of my formats, we did not talk about tutorials. The reason why is that unless you are selling to other people who make what you make, don't do a tutorial. A tutorial shows people how to do what you're doing. If you sell a service or a finished product, they don't want to learn how to make what you make. It's different for you because you do stamping supplies, right, and stamping classes. The people who come to those classes want to do stamping. They're interested in tutorials. But if you sell hats, you sell the finished hat. You don't want people at home making their own hats. You want them to come and buy your hats. You might show them what you're working on, but that's different than a tutorial. What I'm talking about for a tutorial is the, they actually shoot them here at CreativeLive all the time, the camera over the thing of you doing what you're doing, or you walking somebody through step by step, this is how to make DIY lip balm or this is how to, I don't even know, there's so many cooking tutorials online. That makes a lot of sense if you want to be a cookbook author, but not a lot of sense if you want to sell people your meals. Think about that with your own product. This goes back to that question we got earlier about how to decide how much content to give away versus what you sell. If you're in the content service-based business, you want to help them get to the stage where they can purchase your thing. With a marketing client, get them to understand why they need marketing, how marketing works, what they get when they work with you, what other clients say about working with you. But then the actual plan, you guys are going to develop together. That's the same thing with the tutorials. You can tell them how long it takes you. They can see it in progress, but you're not teaching people how to paint. They're just watching you paint. You're not talking to them about color and shadow and light and all that, or mixing paints. They're seeing it and that builds value but you're not necessarily teaching them. Does that distinction make sense? So many handmade business owners start by doing craft tutorials for the thing that they sell. They build an audience of people who want to make what they make, and not an audience of people who want to buy what they make. That will lead to massive frustration and no sales. So it's really important that if you're using your YouTube videos to sell what you make, that you don't just teach people how to make it. You might want to do tutorials if you are a professional blogger or you want to be a professional video maker. That's what you want to do, that's what you sell, your service is making videos. Or maybe your service is selling supplies, like we talked about in the, if you sell the handmade bags that people put their projects in, maybe you do knitting tutorials because you sell knitting bags. You wouldn't do sewing tutorials because you sell the sewn bag. This is a really important distinction. If you want to be just a DYI craft star and get your own show on HGTV or the DYI network, then you could do tutorials. But if you want to sell a finished project, stay away from them.