Lessons

Lesson Info

The Possibilities and Setting Goals

A lot of us uh we think video is like a big scary monster and we're afraid of it and it's something you know mysterious hiding under the bed but I believe that video is actually more like a cute little puppy can I get a bigger that's rocco the pug my rescue pug but like a puppy video needs a little training and discipline maybe not potty training but training and once you do master it, you've got a long and lasting friendship so as russ mentioned on lube or tone and I want to show you how to turn that video monster into a video puppy cuddly little easy to love poppy so I'm going to show you how to make video easier, which is gonna make your business better, which will actually make your life better and I do believe that video is not just a game changer it's a life changer and I'll give an example my son spencer plays baseball that's him diving into home plate I can't remember if he was safe out on open he may be watching so he can tell me but this past august we played in myrtle beach ...

and new jersey new york, connecticut basically I took the entire month of august off and my business still kept running and were you traveled to showcases and camps and colleges and this is a really important time for him as a student athlete because he's, a junior in high school, and we'd like to see he'd like to play baseball in college, so I want to be around for that. I don't want to miss it, and if that means I have to take the whole month of august off, I will take the whole month of august. But fortunately, online video has given me the freedom and flexibility to be able to spend the summer moment about with my family and still keep my business firing on all cylinders and making money. So I was gallivanting around all summer, but I was still making money because of the video. Now the irony here is that a lot of my colleagues would say like, oh my god, I see you everywhere you're on youtube, you're on facebook, you're all on all over online, you must be really, really busy, and I didn't really have the heart to tell them that I was barely working because what was happening was that my videos, we're making me seem very visible, and we're making me appear to be everywhere when I was actually kind of sitting by a pool or yankee stadium and all these things in the middle here videos that I had kind of cute up and ready to go, and my videos were working for me well, I was kind of gallivanting around all summer and that's the power of video and that's the power that I want to share with all of you so that you could take august off would that be kind of cool way so after I show you how all this works after we do this together follow along with me you are going to be able to create videos as well that are easy and not intimidating after we go through this workshop you'll be able to create video anytime you want anywhere and it won't be hard and it won't be scary a promise and that way video will be like your little foot soldiers out there wandering around working for you twenty four seven while you're off doing something else so that's pretty cool now I want to say that first of all I want to give you kind of a confession and let you know that I'm not a video guy I am not a very technical I know that may come as a shock to you and I don't like being on camera I will do anything to avoid being on camera so uh I am actually a card carrying introvert and by that I mean actually have cards that say I'm a card carrying introvert do we have anybody else who considers himself an introvert as you can all share the cards with you anyone know you're not in a urine extra vote introvert okay into trust you're not in a million really anybody else now I have the card to prove it I you all now card carrying into votes and that's okay, because if you look at the back of the card it says that video is your superpower and the point is if an introvert like me could do video you guys here at home can do video because video gives you super powers it's true you'll see. So the first time I was ever on tv I was seven years old and I was completely terrified so my dad worked at the nbc affiliate in boston and one year they decided that they would have the employee's kids come to the studio and do a little holiday promo zone with that cute all that all the little kids will do holiday pro most so my mom just us up in these terrible boy men little suits and my little brother and I had to go to the tv studio and tape our little christmas promo and even then I was like, oh my god, a camera so I actually found that very first video from when I was seven years old and I'm going to share it with you here I am rubato high and mary tio I know I know oh so cute I like just play that three or four times but I did survive that ordeal and despite my father's warnings I ended up following in his footsteps and went into the tv business and since my dad worked at w busy that's him way back in the sixties I guess but because he worked there and he worked a lot of weekends I'd go to the station with him and I'd run around the tv station like it was my little playground I'd sit on the news said go for a ride alongs with the news crews I would sit in the back of the booth when they did the news when they directed the news so tv really the tv studio was really my playground and television is really in my blood it's all I ever really wanted to dio so after growing up at wnbc tv in boston I went to college I got my degree did a few internships and finally got my first real tv gig so I'll go through my little scroll here so I want to tell you a little bit about my first job in television I was kind of uh in a little bit of a pickle and by that I mean I had to actually dress up as a pickle for a local parade so this was the glamorous world of television so they said ok you're going to be the pickle we've got to do this parade at the topsfield fair and you need to march in the parade and be the pickle okay welcome to television so what happened? Wass uh I got in the pickle outfit it was about eighty five degrees and behind a news van kind of breathing this exhaust this was a really top heavy mr pickle costume and I'm breathing the fumes and I'm getting light headed and I'm staggering down the street like a drunken pickle so but you know, the pickles swaying back and forth and for some reason a little kid in the audience and the audience are on the sidelines they've got excited and decided to run up and hug mr pickle, but mr pickle was kind of lightheaded and didn't have breakfast this morning it was breathing exhaust fumes so he knocked me over and I couldn't get back up because the pickle costume was round and I had these big bozo feet so that was my illustrious first for a into the television business. Now I did survive that and eventually I moved to los angeles and got a job e entertainment television and I was assured in my contract that I wouldn't have to wear costumes but I did have to do at e wass produced videos for pre screen entertainment, so that meant we'd run videos before the movies on the big screen so back then it was kind of a big deal, so basically what we were doing was making videos that were going to run before the movie's so back then making video was a pretty big undertaking I mean, you needed to have an edit suite and a fifty thousand dollar avid editing system, production assistance, all kinds of things, I mean, it really looked like nasa in their control them there, so to do video back then, you really didn't need a lot of time, a lot of money and a lot of help, and that was back then today you can do video with this that's it no studio, no edit bay, no fifty thousand dollar avid editing system, you could do all of that with your iphone or your ipad or your tablet or your camera. So really, the reason I want to tell you this is it wass hard to do video, but it is not hard any longer to do video. Uh, in fact, the number one question that I get as a video person or as a tv person is what camera should I use? So I usually kind of all my eyes, and I don't really say what I mean to say like that, what can be used? But the real thing is I say, look, your your camera is in your pocket, use the camera that you have with you all the time twenty four seven that may be of smartphone might be an ipad or tablet, it might be a traditional film camera, but the camera that you should uses the camera that you have with you and the one that's easy so that's why I love my iphone android whatever it is the point is to keep it simple and don't overcomplicate video it's really not that difficult to create videos to market your business and I hope that over the next few sessions I'll be able to prove that to you because I'm all about keeping it simple and really about getting it out there one of my early mentors used to say done is better than perfect and that's kind of my philosophy when it comes to video in fact I want you to be thinking that this is so easy that you're gonna ask yourself quiet why haven't you done the sooner you know I could have done this? I could be doing this I could have done this a year ago so as russ mentioned what I want to show you is quick, easy low cost no cost ways to create great videos and these are videos that are going to help your business now I love cats playing the piano and dogs writing skateboard as much as anybody else but that's not exactly what this is about unless your business is teaching dogs how to ride skateboards but what I really want to show you is video for business easy video that you could do any time that's going to build your brand drive traffic to your website, generate a steady stream of qualified leads because leads feed business and attract more ideal clients and I'd like to say that video marketing totally rocks because video marketing totally works it's really fast it's fun and it's easier than you have imagined I would be willing to bet now you might be saying okay, well you're a tv guy that's fine, you know you figured all this out and you grew up in the tv business? What about the rest of us? Well, none of us were born with an iphone in our hand. I don't think uh and none of us were born, you know, really knowing how to do all this unless you're a kardashian, in which case I think you were born, but but really, I want to tell you a little bit about one of my early clients have a link from costa rica and evelyn has a vacation rental property in costa rica and during the recession business wasn't going that great and her place was renting for about three thousand dollars a week. This was a luxury vacation property, so every week that place was empty, she was losing a ton of money and she called me and wanted to do video because she's so smart but she knew nothing about video she was a total newbie she knew that if I congenital rate interest and awareness for my vacation property and kind of show them what it looks like I might be able to get more people down here to rent it now I love evelyn but she'd be the first to admit that she wasn't that techie and when she first called me she said I just bought a new mac and I'm not really sure how to turn it on so so I walked her through ah turning on the computer and using I movie and using her iphone to create videos you know we really worked on you know, some of the basic stuff but more importantly we came up with a plan and a strategy that was going to help her generate awareness for her vacation property so we decided that would she would make some tips siri's telling people about vacationing in costa rica we wanted to make her kind of the expert and the go to person about vacationing in costa rica, so I want to show you one of her first videos that she ever did hi avlynn gallardo here coming to you from paradise with more vacation rental home tips now today we're going to talk about costa rica and I am going to uncover three hidden truths that will overcome your fears of renting a vacation home here now hidden truth number one you can't drink the water that's pretty exciting too may I travelled from the amazon who's cyrus a wildlife photographer in my former life and I never drank the water anywhere in costa rica you could drink the water it's safe perfectly safe and not only that you can eat unpeeled fruit and you can eat the salads those were my big no nos hidden truth number two is costa rica is the happiest country on the planet probably didn't know that well there's a british non profit foundation called the new economics foundation and every year they do a research study on what countries are have people who are the happiest and costa rica is number one now hidden truth number three is there's security everywhere I sent out uh my own personal survey and I was amazed I asked people what is the one thing that you fear the most about traveling to a foreign country? Ninety five percent of the people said security now in the current world environment that's totally understandable people are afraid, you know in their backyards own backyards or read about security. But in costa rica look around there is security everywhere this country has more teachers than policemen and therefore businesses and neighborhoods and well, you know, just private citizens take, uh, security as a personal responsibility and higher security guard, so even if you're at the local market and you're in the parking lot, you're goingto probably see some guy right in around on his bicycle uh, and handling the security so their private security guards all over so that's a great thing everywhere you look there, security. So I'm very happy you tuned in today for some more vacation rental home tips. And I hope that I overcame your fears about traveling the costa rican running a vacation rental home here because they're over twelve hundred of them and costa ricans, one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Until we meet again, paradise awaits. Wait, you want to go to costa rica? So that shows you that really with just a little bit of time and effort, zeeland made this with my movie that you, khun, create video. And again, this is somebody who went from not really knowing exactly where the on button was, mac, to creating her own videos in costa rica. Yes, john. So it was that video on the home page of her website when people came, it is yes, well, now there's a different one, but at the time, so she created a whole series of these videos and started putting them on youtube and started getting a lot of views. So the really cool thing is today, evelyn's beach houses venting for seven thousand dollars a week and she has a waiting list. A mile long like evelyn when can I go back to costa rica she's like how does two thousand seventeen look for you so her property was awarded the top vacation mental in her part of the country two years in a row by trip advisor but what I think is even cooler than you know obviously she's making tons of money with videos but what I think is really cool is that she went from zero videos on youtube to hundreds of videos on youtube and some of those videos have over seventy five thousand views. Now, just to put that in perspective the vast majority of youtube videos never get more than five hundred, views so that's the reality unless you're a justin bieber or beyonce something eso she's got videos with seventy five thousand views in fact her total viewership on youtube is over a quarter of a million views what I did when I side with video I was also kind of nervous about it I knew how to turn on the mac and I kind of knew how to end it but I didn't particularly want to be on camera but the way that I decided to tackle my stage fight was just to be as goofy as possible so I would do you know put rocco the pug in the video I would wear costumes I would use props basically anything to deflect the attention away from me so I called my videos blue tube videos kind of like youtube and I want to show you one of those early videos you could see that it's kind of cheesy but I just want to show you how I started in this online video world hello moses here yeah burning bush let's see all that anyway I'm here to give you the ten commandments of online video so st hello it is I moses back the ten commandments online video first audio person could give me the voice of god effects crew number one that shall not be boring man number two should make a plate sale's finished you use way remember you you keep it short hundred minutes number five most had something coming pairing to say I know I'm not big into chevelle but after forty years wondering desert you look let's move on shall we commandment in six short months stealing neighbors studio ideas command number seven shall go forth to bury your video on the social letter like number eight must perfect technology using sites like living tv used teeming booth commandment is thou shalt not fear like cam and I was tenth amendment on my video is now eliminated professional job way next time tio I forgot how bad that wass and how old that wass but yeah so as you can see I think I look more like kurt cobain than moses but I didn't spend a whole lot on costume and effects and that kind of stuff I was just kind of fooled around for me it was just about getting the message out there trying to have a little bit of fun with it trying to be a little bit different and again that's how I saw overcame my stage fright but when it really struck me you know, doing these lou tube videos I do other kinds of videos and just try and be kind of goofy as possible but when it hit me was I went to a conference in philadelphia actually will was there and I remember walking into this conference walking into the bar and I thought I heard somebody call my name or something but somebody said, you know, hey it's the loo tube guy and I was like, oh my god, somebody recognized me it's like a loo tube dude, dude, come over here will buy you a drink so that's really when it hit me, that video equals visibility and again it goes back to the video giving you superpowers. So what I want to show you over the next few sessions here is how to do that stuff. By the time you watch this class, we're going to create three at least three videos together don't be afraid I'll walk you through it step by step you're gonna have three videos done and uploaded to youtube you're gonna have videos that will be able to attract clients will show you how to use off camera videos and on camera videos. I know some folks don't like to be on camera, you can start with off camera videos, we'll show you how to use videos, they're gonna build your brand. We're going to show you how to use google hangouts, so you'll be ableto do webcasting whenever you want, and basically you'll have the ability to create video anytime you want. Um, sometimes, like when I'm making a, uh, on camera video uh, the minute I go to stop making the video, the guy next door decides to moe's long blow his leaves and you know, so sometimes you just gotta go with the flow and that's the time when I say okay, I can either do the video with a lawnmower in the background or I can do it off camera video, so you want to have the flexibility to be able to do both. We're also gonna have some really special guests appear with us via google hangout to tell us how to perform on video as opposed to performing on stage. We're going to have another guest who is going to show you how to make video with nothing more than an ipad or an iphone. And it's gonna be a blast. We're gonna do all these fun things over the next few sessions and you're gonna learn a lot of stuff and you're gonna get your video's done. So what I want to do first here, then before we dive into all that is asked you guys and the folks at home. What is your biggest challenge with video? Why haven't you done video yet? Well, maybe you want to do video because you're watching this and you haven't done it yet or maybe you have done it and it hasn't been as impactful or successful as you want, so I want to ask the folks to russell feel type in the chat and you guys here, what is your single biggest challenge? When it comes to video? Anybody have tony, I'd say my expectations around the kind of technology I need to use technology, okay, that makes sense, so I say just the script or whatever I'm gonna say, right, my insane and I just don't know what you know that's, a really good point, but there's, a lot of people kind of get all excited and fire the webcam and like, oh, crap, what I say, john, I think it's the intention of the video and the idea behind it and staying consistent with your brand. No because every video obviously needs to have an intention behind it I think staying consistent and staying focused on what the purpose of the video that's a great great point because really you do have to know what you want your video to accomplish we're gonna get a little bit more into that we're gonna be talking about goals because unless you know what you want you videos to dio you're going to be just kind of like throwing stuff against the wall and see if it sticks x I think we'll have it in harmony with with what john was saying with regards to consistency is having a plan video strategy plan and like instead of just shooting a video this week kind of knowing what's going to happen over the next several weeks several weeks for several months and you know heaven and overall strategy for that excellent and we're gonna work on that and it's interesting you say that because a lot of times people think the first videos the hardest I think actually the second or third videos harder because now you have to get consistent with it that I think my big problem is uh wanting it to be perfect right the perfections into him well as you can tell by my moses video wasn't around the world who are agreeing we've got noodle on who says perfection procrastination is a big one yeah, we have nell who says getting smooth shots diana editing my videos pierce fourteen never know what content tohave like lin a photo video the reality of how I looked when I talk to all of us can agree with on a lot of them were coming in lizzie, ensuring video's irrelevant to my audience. Melanie dc getting traffic, sia feeling self conscious, a lot of issues that people are sharing anybody else in the audience want to fess up why they haven't done yeah, I think, just echoing what they said looking, how you look on camera, keeping your voice natural, trying to really maintain who you are, so does that light comes up all good stuff and all relevant, I want to excuses, but all relevant reasons for being a challenge with video I mean, it's not, you know, like I said, unless you're a news anchor, a kardashian, you're not used to just have constantly being on camera, and sometimes there were challenges with, you know, you're speaking with an audience, but if you're also speaking online or you're talking into a webcam, that can be really challenging because it's, just you in this little screen and this little bed dot so we're going to go through all of these concerns and issues, and we're going to tackle all of that stuff anything else for us from the chat it's it just keeps coming in, and I love it. Uh, karen hacker don't know what to say or where to get started. Kj getting more viewers. Kelly terra, joanie challenges to put together various clips into proper sequence editing, lighting and seeing my wrinkles. Yeah, I did ask the makeup person, like, do you have that george clooney lens that makes us all look like, which, obviously we're using. I mean, look at it, come on itself, so, yeah, that's, a tough one for everybody.