DIY Videos: Saving Weeks For Financial Planners

Video SOA's: DIY Videos Save Weeks For Financial Planners with Andrew Zbik (Episode 103)

diy diy video production video coaching video marketing podcast video training Apr 19, 2022

Assisting clients to manage their finances through financial planning is a long and arduous process. And because Australians are wary of financial institutions and advisors in general, it actually takes a recommendation to establish connections first.

So how can videos help to speed up the process and build connections now that the pandemic has changed the way people do business?

Welcome to 'Video Made Simple' video podcast featuring marketers, entrepreneurs & clients who help take the mystery out of video and break through the monotony of day-to-day communication. 

In this episode, Chris Schwager and Brendan Southall (Co-founders and Video Marketers of Ridge Films) are joined by Andrew Zbik (Director and Senior Financial Adviser of Creation Wealth) to discuss how asynchronous videos for financial planning has sped up the process and shaved off six weeks of meetings, preparations, and answering questions to two weeks. Learn more about how better video quality improves credibility and why the DIY desktop studio is a go-to for professionals like Andrew.  

Our DIY Video Program has everything you need to bring your videos to life quickly and easily. With access to top-of-the-line video hardware, resources and practical training programs, you'll have all the tools and knowledge needed to create amazing content on a budget. Our program is perfect whether you're looking to kickstart your video production career or create great videos.

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Video Transcription:

Chris Schwager 0:04
Hello video marketing professionals. Welcome to the podcast that takes the mystery out of producing videos. I'm your host, Chris Schwager joined this week by Mr. Brendan Southall. Hello, Mr. Brendan Southall. How are you?

Brendan Southall 0:58
I'm very well, thank you, Mr. Chris Schwager. That's such a formal intro. I love it.

Chris Schwager 1:02
How do financial advisors build trust?

Brendan Southall 1:04
There's I think lots of different ways to build trust. And obviously given that we're video marketers, we have always advocating video as a way to build trust within the financial industry.

Chris Schwager 1:13
Well, today our guest is Andrew Zbik, the director and senior financial adviser and personal financial coach of Creation Wealth, which helps clients understand their strategic investment. We've known Andrew for 10 years, he's managed our finances. He's one of the first DIY Desktop Studio financial services clients, and he's married with three children, enjoys woodwork, cycling, and rowing in his spare time.

Chris Schwager 1:39
Andrew is also the local community of Lane Cove Council. He's the mayor, and he's the counselor, which is absolutely exciting for him. Andrew is going to show us a little bit more about what he's doing to get more time back into his day using video in particular, the DIY Desktop Studio. Here's our chat with Andrew Zubik.

Chris Schwager 2:05
Andrew, what happened, bro? Oh my god, I was so pumped to see you. Under the professional lights, camera, sound. And now you look like you're in some kind of crappy webcam heaven? What's going on?

Andrew Zbik 2:18
So I did this, this foreign thing called travel to the city in an office for work?

Chris Schwager 2:23
Oh my god, what's that? Did you actually coordinate my socks with my shirt today?

Chris Schwager 2:33
Whatever's happened, you need a portable desktop studio to carry around with you? Is that the case?

Andrew Zbik 2:38
Yeah, I'm waiting on you guys to provide that?

Chris Schwager 2:40
Well I'd say what? Chuck is a lead mate, we'll make it all the word worthwhile. Look Andrew, what is the general sentiment of Australians when it comes to financial institutions and advisors at the moment?

Andrew Zbik 2:54
A lot of suspicion, a lot of people know they need advice. But I've definitely noticed the advice process of engaging with someone is taking longer.

Chris Schwager 3:04
It's interesting because our clients, our financial services clients, when I guess it comes to video or even marketing services, kind of quiet, I might, you know, you might have to call that qualify this for me, but it seems like they're quite behind in just marketing in general. There's a lot of referrals slash, you know, walking in the door, type of lead gen, word of mouth, that type of stuff. Why do most Australians hesitate? I guess when it comes to seeking financial advisors?

Andrew Zbik 3:34
I think essentially, there's trust deficit following the royal commission. So most people will generally seek a financial advisor by someone they know, because that to them is the first way of going well, my friend or my work colleague can trust the adviser. There's a chance I may be willing to trust them as well.

Chris Schwager 3:53
Right? So how do you build rapport and trust?

Andrew Zbik 3:56
It's meetings, but number of meetings of getting to know people. And I think the challenge of that with COVID is you can't meet face to face.

Chris Schwager 4:03
Right.

Andrew Zbik 4:03
So it's about presenting yourself and zoom is now our best friend. So it is now a lot of video content. And to give you an idea, pre-COVID, I never took on a new client without meeting them face to face. I now have clients I've never met in the flesh. And the difference there has been obviously the COVID lockdown but it's forced people to become comfortable with a format like zoom to build a relationship to build trust.

Chris Schwager 4:34
You know, it's funny because I actually find it really weird when I'm talking to someone on the telephone now that I can't see them. Like it's it makes it so much harder, I reckon to, I guess be memorable in a way. Do you know what I mean? Because you just don't have the visual equity to kind of have you know, if you're a visual-type person you could cross each other in the supermarket and you would never know because you've not had that facial time together.

Chris Schwager 4:36
I see Brendan having a bit of a smile there, which is, step in any time there mister sales.

Brendan Southall 5:13
It's all good.

Chris Schwager 5:14
You Brendan you spend most of your time on, you know, phone calls, I guess as opposed to the Zoom style stuff. But do you find the same thing?

Brendan Southall 5:23
Yes. Yeah, definitely. I think it's always great to come on to zoom, because then you can start to read all that body language and even tone of voice is a lot easier to decipher over things like zoom.

Brendan Southall 5:23
It's, yeah, Andrew, how are you are using asynchronous video? So the video that you sent to someone and they watch it in their own time? How are people responding to that?

Andrew Zbik 5:44
Yeah, we definitely will use a three to five meeting process to develop advice with a client. And other than now that a lot of that is done via format like zoom. I think the big game changer for us was traditionally we would finish writing what was called a statement of advice, which is legally our main document in which we are formally providing the advice to a client. Now we would get that finished the draft, and then we'd have to wait two weeks to try and book in a client to actually see them face to face to present the advice document. The clients will then go away with questions that could be another two weeks before they write down these questions.

Andrew Zbik 6:16
So we're now talking four weeks, give it another two weeks before they sign the document. So traditionally, it was a six week process. So one of the most biggest shifts we've done is, what we do now is as soon as we have finalized that statement of advice, I do a 20-minute video. So what used to take me an hour face to face with the client, I do a 20 minute summary. And it almost the next day gets sent to the client. And from a compliance perspective, you know, we can actually see that the clients watch the whole video.

Andrew Zbik 6:49
And I can tell you we ever had a 100% uptake of people watching the entire video, because I can present to people and most of our statements of advice will vary from 60 to 100 pages that that freaks people out. Seeing I've got a 20 minute video that summarizes 100 pages, they instantly we have seen they literally within 24 hours of opening that email, we can tell they are watching that full video the full 20 minutes. And then what we've found is now they then do go read the statement of advice because the video helps to break it down. It's not a scary document, I've pointed out the main sections, where generally finding most people are now reading that statement advice within the week, whereas previously was two to three weeks, and we're finding within pretty much the fortnight we're then getting a full list of questions. And again, for a lot of people were then finding we only need a half hour Zoom meeting to provide answers. So a process that used to be taking us six weeks on average, to engage a client, we're pretty much condensed down to two weeks. And that is solely because of using video.

Chris Schwager 7:55
Just an efficiency. What's that look like? In terms of hours back in the week? For you?

Andrew Zbik 8:00
I reckon it shaved around two to three hours off the process off us meeting, prepping, answering questions. It is a lot more succinct, and we are getting excellent feedback from clients over the videos. Brilliant. Yeah, and you know the relationship with the client to you know, what was their questions, what their objectives, what their values are. So, of course, every video is tailored to the client's individual needs. But I'm talking straight to the client in the video. Yes, so it's relevant, straight to the point...

Chris Schwager 8:32
Massive efficiency. And look, let's not attribute all of this to the DIY video program. Well, you're doing videos before you went pro

Andrew Zbik 8:39
Actually no.

Chris Schwager 8:39
Right

Andrew Zbik 8:40
Video in our industry has been talked about for a long time. And this concept of what they call the video statement of advice. The video SOA has been talked about for a long time, right. From a compliance perspective. You know, our licensees have been saying, Well, how fantastic is that? You've got a record of you explaining the advice to the client.

Chris Schwager 8:56
With accountability, I guess that you could say at least that they've watched you can't say exactly how much of it they've listened to or alert from but you haven't had to sit down and do it to them. Do it with them face to face?

Andrew Zbik 9:09
Yeah, well, I think too, as I said, generally when it used to be getting the advice documents to them, because we never know how long it would take to prepare. So we could never really book in the meeting to go through it. So we've knocked out a week to two weeks of just trying to line up directs. The turnarounds much faster. But absolutely, it was the confidence of going on charging 1000s of dollars for these plans. So there's no way in the world I would use this format for my SOA. But yeah, and I think it's a it's a professional professionalism. It's that they go, I've paid and some of our plans are up to $12,000. Well, this format is not a $12,000 video, but when we do use it, it's clean. It's crisp, it's clear, succinct, it gives people compliments.

Chris Schwager 9:58
It's sort of like differentiating here between the crappy webcam that you've currently got versus the DIY professional. Okay, cool, because I just wanted to clarify that crystallize that. So what you're saying is that you wouldn't be satisfied as a professional to do what you're currently doing using that crappy webcam,

Andrew Zbik 10:15
With all due respect to the wonderful gentleman you are. Maybe it was a bit too casual coming into this as hence why I was doing this format. Otherwise, if it was a client, it's at home. And my schedule is literally now planned around. When I'm doing face to face meetings, I'm in the novel office, which I see once a fortnight probably. I'll line up my day with all face to face meetings. And then I'll line up a day of at home, zoom meetings, but I've got the DIY. For me, I'm a father with a young family. As you know, as you mentioned, there, too, I've got quite an interesting side hobby, being the mayor of Lane Cove. So this whole notion of COVID has meant that I've literally saving six to eight hours a week from travel.

Chris Schwager 11:02
Yes.

Andrew Zbik 11:02
So the fact I can line up three meetings from home in a day. With clients. It's it's fundamentally the difference right? Every day, now I'm dropping my children off at school in the morning, to three days a week, I can help with potentially picking them up. And I think too, it's important that, you know, my business two years ago, it was just me, I've now got four staff in total. But it was that concept to have, when you know what I went through and restarting my business, you don't want to look like the one man band working from home. So essentially, what the DIY video did was make sure I didn't look like the one man band working from home.

Chris Schwager 11:39
Right COVID has meant that we've been able to build trust through the DIY video program, that's awesome. But it's also meant that I can add some credibility with my wife, because now I've got more time to hang out the washing. And she loves that, like Otherwise, I'd be on the road, like driving here, there and everywhere.

Andrew Zbik 11:54
It's actually it's really interesting, the sound a lot of clients have mentioned and even and I do videos as well for my counselor role. And I noticed there was a lot of feedback when I switched from my own DIY attempt on an iPhone with a $1.99 lapel I bought off eBay. Versus when I jumped to the DIY.

Chris Schwager 12:17
Yes.

Andrew Zbik 12:17
I had all these feedback around, the clarity is excellent. What are you doing?

Chris Schwager 12:23
Right?

Andrew Zbik 12:24
And they don't know I've got a microphone above my head.

Chris Schwager 12:27
Yes.

Andrew Zbik 12:28
In the confines of what is a concrete dungeon that I work out of with a little novel window to see the sky, you guys helped set it up, that the environment was right that it just sounds clear and crisp, and there's no feedback noise, and there's no reverberations, it's just comes across professional and, and that's the feedback I've had is that people, it's actually the sound quality as well. Yes, that people really notice the difference.

Chris Schwager 12:53
Yes, yeah. Well, I mean, legit, right? It's, boom, no, I mean, you will get the audience to see your wonderful setup once once we do a legit recording. Right? But yeah, it's gonna be about and I'm going to show you this as well, right? I'm very proud of this. At the moment, this is the latest, it's called the prompter max. So I'm giving you 100% of my attention here. Because this, this, what you have is now the the standard, and this is the prompter Max, which is, you know, 10 inch screen here. So I can fit the entire teleprompter and you guys in there. So I can give you my full eye contact without taking my eyes away from the prompter.

Chris Schwager 13:33
Because my editor has been complaining all this time saying when we go to the two shots of you and Andrew like side by side, you've you've got your ear hole over here looking at him, you know, and you're never able to kind of look and give full eye contact to the camera. Well, this is actually assisting with that. So I just thought I'd cross sell you on that.

Chris Schwager 13:54
But hey, look.

Chris Schwager 13:58
We'll, we'll chat after the podcast, what I'm interested in because I know how amazing you look on the DIY desktop studio. And you've appeared in multiple guests things like Ausbiz, you've done a lot of seminars. Does video quality, quality matter? In relation to does it affect credibility Do you think?

Andrew Zbik 14:22
Absolutely. And particularly when you've been interviewed as an expert.

Chris Schwager 14:25
Yeah.

Andrew Zbik 14:26
Even though COVID changed the way we work? There's still I think a bit of a question mark on your life crossing someone down at the kitchen table.

Chris Schwager 14:33
Yeah. Well, it's so common, though, isn't it? I mean, it's so common. And in fact, I've seen other black Ausbiz style web recordings done. And they've sent me the link to have a look. And they've actually shown up better in some reason, some aspects. Well, certainly the sound quality was better in this particular occasion that I saw it versus the studio, their studio that they were broadcasting from. So there's so much opportunity I guess for this but yeah, it's It was so good when I first saw your your Ausbiz cross that I was like, Oh, we've got to get that on the website. We had it on there for a while. Because we just thought it was just, yeah, just look looked, you know, like it was professionally done.

Chris Schwager 15:14
So let's bring

Andrew Zbik 15:17
It didn't look like. It was professionally done.

Chris Schwager 15:19
Well, yeah, I mean, look, I guess the irony of this is yeah, you're absolutely 100% right, you know, what I'm kind of very interested to know from you, in your words, I guess is what do you believe? Keeping in mind this pre recorded versus live video type of accessibility you have now what are the benefits of having a desktop studio at your desk? Desktop, so yeah, you desk

Andrew Zbik 15:45
Prior to doing the DIY video setup with you guys. I was doing a monthly video newsletter for both my clients and also for my responsibilities as counselor. And it was a long process of setting up itself editing. The big difference now is literally with the flick of a switch and under 30 seconds, I can have a complete studio setup. And it's been able to do the things of impromptu videos to update my clients. So if there is a decent share market correction, or there's been some big news in the Super world, I can now spend 15 minutes working out what content I want to talk about, walk into my studio, under 30 seconds we can be recording. And I think too, you know, we've taken that to another level now the post editing that you guys do, because that, for me was still taking myself two to three hours to do post video recording. So that for me now is a real streamlined process that I've got planned on the first Wednesday of every month after the Reserve Bank meet. On a Wednesday mornings, I've scheduled to do my filming, I upload it to you guys. And by the end of the day, I've got a version that I can put in my newsletter and it goes out to the clients. It's timely. It's professional, and I'm current. And that's any you'll remember to for my clients. I've got 70 Odd clients.

Andrew Zbik 17:09
So in a big news day, it's impossible for me to pick up the phone and call 70 people. But the fact that in 15 minutes, 20 minutes, I can prepare content recorded and then it goes out to all my clients. Well, that's my value proposition to my clients that they get. No, they're reading the news headlines, there's panic out there. And they can then have a quick two minute video from me of just what my thoughts are yes, and what my general advice is, but then a call to action. So when I send out all my videos, they then have a link to my diary via calendar. So I actually find, again, the agent with my clients, I've got about a 60% open rate on my Video Newsletters with clients. And it's interesting, I'll have a call to action in my video. And I will then get all these bookings from my clients, if they go that's relevant to them, they'll schedule in a time to them, but I'm being proactive, yes. And it's made it really easy for me to be proactive in that way.

Chris Schwager 17:51
And have to be really, really ensuring for them that you are being responsive and that you are thinking about them even though it's in a pre recorded sense that you do pop up there when the time is important, I guess what do you see as being like the biggest benefit to everything you've done not not just from a technical aspect of you know, saving time you know, on the edits and getting content out in a timely manner but what if you looked at it from big picture down? What do you think is the biggest benefit of having the the DIY being part of the DIY video program

Andrew Zbik 18:43
I think again, it's just helped to advance my business forward of this new way of doing things with how we interact with people and you know flies on to the right tech, you know, the the Zoom links with auto which are which is a transcribing program. So in the spaces of again because then we transition to video meetings with client zoom meetings with clients but I was confident of holding them because you look professional. It's actually easier now for me to meet a client via zoom because I get a recorded transcript and again that says what used to take me 40 minutes post a meeting in note taking I just got to brush up in five minutes because I've got a recording it's really forced me to think of yeah, just how do I advance my business and make it a truly a modern business?

Chris Schwager 19:35
You're not shy when it comes to be on camera, I guess but were you able to still get some polish up on performance? And if so was that beneficial for you?

Andrew Zbik 19:45
Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Schwager 19:47
And what about the scripting and and I guess the workflow around the editing and things like that as they're working for you.

Andrew Zbik 19:53
Yeah, look, I think one of the best things even for the shorter format, you know, what I've learned from you guys is you can see so many other people just put us Some information in a video. Yeah, you guys have told me just cut straight to the end. And we used, we use the details part of my council reelection campaign. It was actually pretty powerful for my colleagues who are running with me on council. We used it for creating video content for our election campaign and the fact we had the teleprompter, and took them a bit of practice, because they hadn't done that format before. But basically, we had it to the point where I then helped them script.

Chris Schwager 20:32
Yeah.

Andrew Zbik 20:33
You've taught a process that is not giving someone fish for the day, you're teaching someone how to fish as well and hold their hands. And as I've done with you guys, you helped me for a little bit and then down the track, we'll touch base again. And you helped me refine and constant. It's almost like continuing education with how we present and there's still so many other ways. Like I think he right now and go, actually, you know, I'm doing the statements of advice videos at the end of the process. Why aren't I doing a proposal video?

Andrew Zbik 21:05
And that's something you got promoted to you. You've stated all these other ideas going yeah, I should do that I should, when I'm sitting down with a client in the first instance, rather than a summary and writing, there should be a video as well. So there you go. There's a call to action for me to work on another project. But that's a point of difference.

Chris Schwager 21:25
Well, Brendan, if you've got any further,

Brendan Southall 21:28
sure, there are just a quick run, Andrew, basically, we've heard you using video for client retention, operational. But what about lead gen using video to start conversations with people that you don't know yet?

Andrew Zbik 21:44
Not yet. But I think that's the point there too, is that you guys present it in a bite sized chunks. Because I think that was the fear initially of going, Oh, how am I going to change everything to video. And I think one of the things is once I had mine set up, I found what I was comfortable with and how I've adapted to use the video is growing. So it's, in anything I'm using it more and more and more in many aspects of my life.

Chris Schwager 22:10
Except for except for now,

Andrew Zbik 22:11
Except for now, which is a bit but seriously, it is there'll be a point in my business where we will need to order another DIY setup. So I actually envisage that our business will probably have three of these set up in various locations. Because I don't want my colleagues when they step up, and they're doing a lot more client work. I definitely don't want them zooming from home or zooming from this dungeon here. So yeah, it's a matter of time. And I think that's, uh, that is very clear, in my mind. That's what we'll have at some point in time. So

Chris Schwager 22:46
oh, well, that was short and sweet. But that's great to hear. Thank you so much, Andrew. And it sounds like I mean, we'll we'll actually like confirm that when we've finished the recording here.

Chris Schwager 22:57
And if you are going to watch this recording, don't go to YouTube, scour the web, try and find his video you won't see it anywhere we'll put a we'll actually just put like a DIY coming soon sort of image over the top of his face.

Chris Schwager 23:15
But look, hey, if you like we'll come back and do this again. If that's all right, we'll see how you're progressing in a couple of months would that be okay?

Andrew Zbik 23:23
Absolutely.

Chris Schwager 23:23
Well, thank you so much.

Andrew Zbik 23:24
And I promise next time I got to be where it counts.

Chris Schwager 23:29
If there's one thing about coming on this show man it goes everywhere. So who knows and the clients you know, our guests Do do do achieve new clients out of out of coming on and us kind of speaking you and your business as well. So yeah, definitely do that. And that Chris, Chris has coaching tip for Andrew for the day.

Chris Schwager 23:49
And then if you want to learn more about Creation Wealth or Andrew Zbik, have a look at the shownotes for some details and you'll get everything you need and click through and see that he's he actually is Mayor of Lane Cove Council, which is I'm talking to a man now. This is amazing. It's clear if you're new in business, you're adopting videos and you're adopting a new studio concept. It really can revolutionize the way that you build trust for your financial institution. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you so much Andrew and Brendan. And that's all for this episode of the VIdeo Made Simple podcast. I will see you next week.  

 

 

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