How to Make Video Content Work Harder for Your Business (Episode 200)

Welcome to DIY Video for Professionals. This is Episode 200. Boo! Pew! Pew! Yes, I'm so excited for this because it's been five years, almost five years, since we've started our podcast. A lot of people have asked me about podcasting in general, how to get content built and then, you know, economize on your time.

And what I say to them is This is the origin. This is the, where the video content for us starts. We record it as a podcast. It ends up as audio. For those that like to listen to me while they're driving their car or working out. And YouTube channel, of course, long form content right over to YouTube. And then we snip it up into small social clips, which is really smart, right?

Promote the content, market the marketing. And then the most powerful. Form of ROI, I guess, out of the podcast has not so much been from the audio, but from the Interactions that we've had with all these wonderful people over the last five years The last 200 episodes not all of them have been interviewed.

Not all of them have been We've reached out to some have been clients and the best asset really for recording testimonial videos and case study videos You spend one half hour session, doing a HD quality recording in this way to your client, anywhere, wherever they are, anywhere in the world and leverage that for years and years to come.

And that's what it is on the Ridge Films website. If you go to the homepage, you'll see all this beautiful quality content there that's all been recorded from the convenience of people's desks. I haven't had to do anything. So we've, we've had that content. We've been so privileged to have those people give us their thoughts and insights around ROI on video, on the desktop video studio, on the video coaching.

And this has just been so powerful for us to investigate this over the last five years, grow with it, understand things, be more confident when it comes to speaking, podcasting, look at the backend work. flow, what it takes to build a podcast and promote it. I mean, this is not just me running this, right?

This is a whole team of people that get involved in making sure that this works every single month and that we are still reaping rewards and the results from it. And I will welcome, uh, Ben, uh, from New York and a lot of the West coast guys that are currently watching. If you're in the West coast of America at the moment.

Um, thank you, thank you so much for your support. We are planning to open up our channel into the States this year. This is, um, big news for us. We think it's going to be really, really massive, a great opportunity. And if you want to register your interest with us. in either the desktop video studio, having a studio like this in your neck of the woods or group video coaching this year to make sure that we can open up all opportunities for everybody.

So if you suffer with video confidence or lack of video confidence, and that could be anything from lack of performance skills, lack of, uh, messaging, getting the confidence to understand what to do. The videos built, editing, distribution, you know, then all the tech, of course, these are all things that make up really the seven big pillars of video marketing that people usually get stifled by.

They can't bed down a process and habit, and that's what the video coaching is going to do for you. So if you want to jump, jump on, then again. Get in touch with me, DM me in this episode because, um, I'm going to give away the first video coaching session for free. It's coming up in the next two weeks and I would really encourage you guys to jump in, test the waters, see what you think.

See if you get a lot of value out of it and if you do, become part of the community. Um, come on with all of those other wonderful people that also suffer similar challenges to you and let's grow this together. Okay, now I'm not some monkey video guy, right? I've been around for over 30 years producing videos.

We've had Ridge Films for 22 years. I've been on camera training and coaching for 15 years. Okay, so there's a lot of wealth and knowledge that I bring to it and a lot of the things that people also get stifled by is their inner, Voice, you know, the thing that stops them, the doubt, the lack mindset, they, they've got to really stop that internalization and really start to understand who is the most valuable part of this mechanism.

And it's not them, it's the audience that they're trying to attract. It's the audience you're trying to attract. That is the most important person in this equation. In this episode, I'm going to go over one of the most valuable training that you'll ever. Go through and that's called on camera training.

It's something we've been doing for a long time. It's part of our video coaching pack. You will get access to this and understand this in more detail. And I want to specifically go through a case study of a guy that we helped recently, Michael from, uh, Monarch, Michael Clark, he is the CEO and co founder.

Of, uh, Monarch, they're a, um, uh, property, um, in finance company in, uh, Melbourne. They are a beautiful company, the very stylistic, really brand focused. And when they came to us, what I was seeing from their videos was the complete opposite. And the lack of confidence they had, not only in their ability to convey a message and perform that message, but also just in with video in general, like that's a thing that a lot of people are still trying to come to terms with, like what is going to be ROI.

On video, if they invest, right, because you know, like a lot of these guys will be looking at professional video companies and they'll be looking at equipment. They're all trying to ask themselves, like, what is going to be the true tangible return on investment from this? And, um, how much time and energy is it going to take them to produce it?

They understand the power of video. Everybody keeps telling me, you don't need to sell me on video. I was like, yeah, but maybe I do, because, because if I'm selling you correctly, you're, you will understand what the tangible ROI is. And that's the thing, like they're probably not. Understood that yet. Okay, so the on camera training.

I'm going to go through step by step and give you really in depth look at how this works. This is not something that I've done before. I have a highlight video, which goes for about four minutes, which covers off effectively what's in the on camera training, but I don't expect anybody to learn anything from that video, but just really just get an overview and an insight as to what the on camera training provides.

Whereas in this video, maybe you'll be able to take a couple of things away that you can implement today that will get you a bit more razzed on camera. So. Let's rip in and and first understand where michael was right because in my training i always always always get their first recording because i want them to understand how positive and how progressive they've become by learning their skills in a very very short period of time now let me just set the stage for oncoming training it's a 90 minute session that have one on one you'll pop out a diamond at the end of it.

And you can go and try this and do a course and do a two week thing and do Toastmasters and all this other stuff where you can just rip in and get it done properly once and for all. And you will be better person. You'll be a better communicator because of it, not just in video, but in presenting yourself in relationships.

These are all very interesting insights. Um, so let's look at Michael when Monarch came to us every year. I have the great privilege of putting together the CEO's letter in which I share my thoughts and insights with you, our investors. Okay, let's just take a little pause there for a second and go through a little bit of an observation here.

You know, when we go through the on camera training, it's not all just about camera confidence. It's also understanding in situ with other things. What's happening? Why is this not working right? We're going to understand the obvious. It's obvious here, which is, you know, the echo chamber that he's in, the fact that he's not mic'd up and he's quite stilted, but let's, let's go back.

Let's go back a little bit here, right? So we've got a Monarch, uh, brand at the start. Now I'm more and more getting people deterred from branding at the start. I think it's a waste of time. I think in situ of where the video is actually placed, say on the website, people know that they're watching a Monarch video.

So I guess, is it necessary? Is it just chewing up two seconds? He hasn't said anything yet, but two seconds, three seconds. It's not going to hurt, but just think about that. Increasingly milliseconds in the world of video, particularly on things like social media and TikTok. These are things that these, these count, these, these seconds, vital seconds count.

Now, the other thing just to make mention here is he's super titles coming up on the left here. That's cool. But then what happens? I'm Michael Kopp, the CEO and co founder of Monog. How long has that taken? So he's up to seven seconds. He's taken, it's already on the screen. Okay. And do I care? What I really do care about is the value that.

This video is going to bring to me. Okay. Just remember that as we progress through this video, this is the value that I'm going to get watching this video, or at least going through the white paper is what he's, what he's insinuating now. It's 37 seconds long. Let's continue. Every year. I have the great privilege of putting together the CEO's letter.

Okay. So the great privilege and it's about him, the CEO's letter. Okay, so so still no value for me yet. Okay, let's continue in which I share my thoughts and insights with you our investors So he should so I would probably expect as an authority that he would be always sharing thoughts and insights I try to challenge Conventional thinking rather than serve as an echo for that thinking.

Okay, cool. So He's challenging conventional thinking. Again, if I was a, if I was a client, I probably would expect that I'm going to get the best result. This year, I talk about the power of storytelling on financial markets. Okay. So the power, he talks about the power of storytelling on financial markets, but what's in it for me.

I hope you enjoy the read. Please let me know your thoughts. Then that's the end. I hope you enjoy the read. So, so the, the hope, the word hope. Ooh, I just despise that word. I really do. So, so lack. It's a hope. Oh, I don't know. I hope you, I hope you enjoy it. Um, and then followed by the monarch logo at the end.

So in all 37 seconds. Now, it's not uncommon that I get presented with these types of videos that offer zero value. Now, I love Monarch. I love the guys. I love the fact that they've entrusted me to help them with this. Okay. And when I go through and audit these types of videos for people, I want to get to clarity as quickly as possible.

And if it comes off harsh, that's what I'm acting as the conduit between them and their potential market. What I know from years of investigating these types of videos is this one in particular offers zero value. It offers absolutely no value apart from some brand or facial recognition for Michael to pop up in this way.

If you've got on camera presence, that's fine. But if you don't have the knowledge around what you're saying and how you should be. Um, performing with that script, then it's going to be really disjointed. Okay. They have a nice presentation and say nothing like it's going to give you some, some visual equity and that's about it.

Not a lot of value for them to take away. So this is really trying to entice people to get them to watch the paper or read the paper, but really it hasn't, hasn't explained in detail what the viewer is likely to get from reading this. Paper. So what I'm, what I'm showing you here is that is a lack of structure.

The script just lacks a lot of detail and structure. Okay. It's not a real hot opener. There's no hook. There's no real strong, you know, the body where there's a load of value and there's no, you know, strong call to action, you know, this kind of weak hope. Uh, word that's gone into, into the, so when I, when I spoke with Monarch, I was really excited by the fact that they were so willing to give this a good crack and they invested their own time to, uh, listen to my concerns around the message and to take those on board and all credit to Karen who, who really.

You know, all three of them, but Karen in particular, who, who sat down and actually nutted out the bolts of the script, um, which was just really great to see her progress with that and understand that every video needs a structure, every presentation, everything has structure, right? Recipes, banana breads, building a car, you know, it's all, it's all structure based, it's a step by step, right?

And the video. Creation process is exactly the same. It's not just rock up, you know, like Michael would have been under so much pressure to deliver that video. Like, can you imagine this is one of those stories that people always tell me is like, Oh, they set up for their little iPhone video, but it took like, you know, there's probably multiple people involved in this as well.

You know, he'd set it up. It's time to set it up. This, he, he told me that he remembered the lines, so he didn't actually have any little post it notes or anything to read from. I've had a lot of guys in finance, um, who have told me that they're the, they devalue the video content because they, they can't see how the market's responding, how the audience is responding.

And so there's a disconnect. They're, they're just jumping on and presenting the content. They actually don't know at the other end, whether it's. Okay, but I'm here to tell you that if you get these first front end things right, you will see an increase in people having a better connection and understanding more about not only Monarch, but Michael as well.

Right. Like they will get a better bearing on it. He will become more familiar to people. Things will become more sticky. Like the use of taglines can be really, and repetition can be really useful in messaging. Okay. Now let's have a look at what's happening from a technical perspective. Okay. So there's nothing in this at all.

It's it's, you know, some people. I hear it a bit where people are like, Oh, we want the rough version. So it just looks like he switched on and he's gone like he's picked up his iPhone. Well, you just don't get that from this video at all up against the wall there. Yeah, it's really, um, rigid in his, in his body movement.

It's slow, the performance is just really slow. There's not a lot of high tones in there. You know, he's doing his best to try and grab, grab some pleasant, I guess, a pleasant expression, so little, uh, to communicate there that, uh, that's not really much in it. So technically he's a long way from the camera, so you don't need to be far from an iPhone.

For the audio to be crappy. That's why these wireless, you know, road microphones and whatnot are so prevalent now is because people are using those so that they can get that pickup to the mouth really close and sorted once and for all, right? So they are valuable. I think you should definitely, if you're going to do some of this stuff, you should definitely be investing in this.

get a decent microphone. Audio is everything. Audio is everything, right? Listen to me coming through. I've got the fan blowing in the background. I've got an old laptop in front of me that's blown and you know, it's, it's relatively quiet for you, right? And this is the way it should be. Should be just no distractions.

Just leave this, let it go. Should be sinking into my voice now. If you're driving a car. Please, please don't shut your eyes, but if you're on our resources area, you got to be looking at Michael and you'll see what I'm talking about or on YouTube. Okay. So visually let's go back. So yeah, it's framed off.

It's not a bad framing. It's actually perfect framing. So it's all good there. That's probably the best thing going for it at the moment. So let's have a look. Michael came and flew up all the way up to. Um, the studio in Sydney. And as I mentioned, we got him into the studio. We had a bit of a chat for a bit, understood that he hadn't read from a teleprompter before he had kind of limited, uh, knowledge about presenting in front of the camera, but look, this is not even set properly.

Uh, and look how amazing he's, he's come up. Now these guys are very adamant that makeup was going to be a big sort of deal clincher for these guys. And we provided the makeup, but. As I said to them afterwards, I don't think makeup is actually the thing that they need to worry about under these lights, which is the same lights that I'm under now.

It just is a beautiful thing, right? Like it comes up, people just come up looking great. Some men in particular don't need a lot of makeup. Women on the other hand, they like to make sure that they're perfect. So they usually come into the studio half made and then our makeup artist, Susan, goes and takes care of her and.

She, you know, just, just goes up a notch in terms of, uh, being camera ready. And that's what these guys probably want to just be camera ready. However, Michael's already got a nice complexion. I expect when he came up from Melbourne that I was going to have this white pasty guy, but because I'd seen, I only seen the iPhone version of him, um.

You know, you actually come up nice and tanned, which is cool. And of course, once it goes to black and white, then you'd argue what value does makeup play when it then ends up as black and white, unless this blotches and he's been out on the boat all weekend and he's got peeling skin. Then I'd say, yeah, let's get the makeup artist in.

All right. So let's look, let's look at Michael first take, right? Private credit has become the hottest asset class around. providing investors with double digit returns and secured by First Mortgage Security over Australian property. However, we believe that storm clouds are forming on the horizon. Wow, he's still so slow, right?

Like he still needs a real spark under him to understand. Just get on with it. Get, get the words out. Our latest CEO letter examines what this may mean for you, our investors. There are two important matters you should be aware of. Firstly, you would have seen that recently there's been a significant amount of consolidation in private credit.

Several private credit providers have been bought by listed companies. Looking to establish a significant presence in private. Alright, alright. I think, I think that we've had enough of that, right? It's, it's the slowness, like, that really catches me out. Like, there's no urgency, there's no energy behind this.

And because of that, my brain's starting to switch off. You know, the animalistic part of my brain's shutting down to conserve calories. The relevance is not there. The message might be, but just his delivery is putting it to sleep, putting me to sleep, right? And this is the thing he's going to have to overcome.

And these are the reasons that he's quite rigid, right? He's not really moving. His eyebrows aren't moving. See this? None of those eyebrows are lifting, meaning because there's nothing else. That he's focusing on apart from reading the script that is presented from the teleprompter there really isn't anything else going on his unconscious brain is doing all of the work he's not really consciously putting any effort in because he hasn't been trained yet okay he hasn't had the skills he hasn't understood things like smiling speed tone body language.

He hasn't been taught these things. So his number one goal, and this is for everybody, is to not mess up the words, right? Just read the words as clearly as possible. Right. Let us rip in and go to take two. Now, this is 90 minutes later, and then we're going to look at the difference here. Standby and action.

Private credit has become the hottest asset class around, providing investors with double digit returns whilst being secured by first mortgage security of Australian property. Right, you can immediately feel the speed increase and also just the, the body movement. So you can see his arms Starting to wiggle around and whatnot, which is great Even though his hands aren't in shot.

You can see a lot of energy, a lot more energy being put into this. Okay, let's continue. However, we believe storm clouds are forming on the horizon. Our latest CEO letter examines what this may mean for you. There's two important matters you should be aware of. Firstly, you would have seen recently there's been some consolidation in private credit.

Several private credit providers have been bought by listed companies. This consolidation will no doubt increase at the larger end of the market, which will inevitably drive down returns. Monarch, however, operates in a separate You can hear he's got structure at least. He's got structure. There's still quite, um, delayed breaks between the paragraphs.

Like, you've got to think these paragraph breaks are not there to like do massive pauses and breaths. Like, you've got to get through this. This is speed, speed, speed. You've got to get this video out. You can't be stuffing around like Get on with it. Get on with the task at hand. Let's continue. Part of the market described as middle property market, boutique residential projects in high demand locations.

This sub market is underpinned by strong demand from downsizes. As the Australian population ages. Second. Okay, so you can see the big upward inflect on downsizes. Um, and, and nice taper down to ages. These are all important parts. Look at this, uh, movement in his head here, right? He's really starting to move around.

And he's, he's only doing that. I didn't teach him that, right? He's only doing that because I've worked on his speed, I've worked on his commas and his full stops, and he knows where he should be pushing and pulling with regards to his performance. I've narrowed the gaps between paragraphs, he has big long gaps between paragraphs in his take one.

Um. And his body is now going to reflex mode. Okay. Meaning this stuff's happening on his own. Like his number one goal is a smile as best he can, but it's his eyebrow lifts and his head moving in the rigidity is loosening up, loosening up. Secondly, we expect builder and developer defaults to continue as the economics around property development remains challenging.

We measure the success. See the big measure. Of the quality of each deal in our portfolio. So that big measure we've highlighted just, just as a, a word to push out more than the rest. There's no comma in this paragraph. So we pop that in just to give it a little bit of a lift again, and you can hear that that is, um, uh, just coming out a little bit clearer, which is cool.

Rather than simply relying on diversification for risk mitigation. As we enter a more challenging market, we believe it will become more and more apparent. Which lenders have been selective and which haven't in the CEO letter and the and the big and the big smiley face, right? He's hit those marks really nicely and then that smiley face because again This is his reminder to come back for the final paragraph Make sure he comes with a big finish with a big smile at the end.

Let's continue Gus these market forces in greater detail. No doubt. You'll find it thought provoking and we look forward to hearing your thoughts Right, now this is not his final take, this is still This is still before he's actually gone on camera. This is the end of his training really. So, but what, uh, what a difference that script is now that is so much stronger.

Um, there's no, um, or we hope you enjoy it kind of crap. There's really lots of certainty around that. And, uh, that, you know, I had something to do making sure that they were very. Very well adjusted for that outro, you can see he still hasn't quite got the knack of that final frame here. Um, you know, when you get getting to the close, you really want to respect the editor at this point, making sure that you end on that final frame, you hold, you wait for the directors.

Uh, cut signal, and then you're released to turn. So he's just kind of, he's just going to look straight at me. That's a no, no, because the editor will be very annoyed that they can't use the tail end of that take. Okay. So we've learned a little bit about. Um, timing, you know, speed, obviously tone, body language, uh, using commas and whatnot in this.

And, you know, these are the things that you need, you need to factor in when you're writing your content. Let's go on now and see again, this is 90 minutes later. We've splashed a little bit of makeup on him, right? Uh, and. We wanted something that was on brand, right? This is very cohesive with their Monarch brand.

It looks stunning. This is the first frame, by the way, of their final video that they have on their website. And, um, so, uh, great to see them roll with this again. He's had his training. He's gone for 90 minutes, bit of makeup and away he goes. He is camera ready and let's have a listen to his performance.

Private credit has become the hottest asset class around. Providing investors with double digit returns whilst being secured by First Mortgage Security over Australian property. Isn't that interesting, no delay in that video, there's no big logo at the start, there's no hi, I'm Michael, all that sort of stuff.

He's really just ripped into it in 10 seconds, he's making a statement. It's not high value yet, but it does get to it, right? Let's continue. However, we believe storm clouds are forming on the horizon. Our latest CEO letter examines what this may mean for you. There's two important matters you should be aware of.

Look at that, hands! Oh my god! We've seen some bloody mobility! This is so exciting! I love the fact that he's put that in. Now I didn't direct him on that. Actually, no I did, sorry. Let me just see. Let me just see. I think I did. Now, I don't say, oh use your hands here, I just kind of give him a guide. Uh, I give him a guide on the script.

I say, if you want to use your hands, use it on the yellow word that we've highlighted. Let's have a look. There's two important matters you should be aware of. Several private credit providers have been bought by listed companies. This consolidation will no doubt increase competition at the larger. It makes us such a big difference.

Now he might have just slightly overlooked, but larger, I think he's gone. He's gone well there. Of the market, which will drive down returns. Monarch, however, operates in a separate part of the market, described as middle property market. Boutique residential projects in high demand locations. This sub market is underpinned by strong demand from downsizes as the Australian population ages.

Secondly, we expect build and developer defaults to continue as economics around property development remains challenging. We measure our success by the quality of each deal in our portfolio, rather than simply relying on diversification for risk mitigation. As we enter a more challenging market, we believe it will become more and more apparent which lenders have been selective.

And which haven't. In the CEO letter we discuss these market forces in greater detail. No doubt you'll find it thought provoking and we look forward to hearing your thoughts. Look at that beautiful close. Oh my god, still got the N logo in there. That's It's fine. But look at the way he's closed that out, right?

Forward to hearing your thoughts. And look at the amount of movement he has. Now I just, I just want to drum home here. This is not about him leading with that body language. The body language has to support his auditory, not the other way around. Okay. And it needs to be subtle. It needs to be so subtle.

The body language must come along for the ride. It cannot dominate. If it dominates, it will be distracting. And people will go, Oh, geez, there's something wrong, but look at the, look at the eyebrow lifts and the head tilts and the hands. Like this is all a derivative of him really focusing on tone, speed, making sure he's getting all this organized and his body is reacting.

It's reflecting as a result. So that's the unconscious part, but otherwise he is a completely conscious state right now. All those cues, all the things I've taught him, make sure he looks at camera right at the end. These are all things that I've guided him through. What a beautiful, uh, way to close out that video.

What an amazing way to close out that video. So good, right? And I, I remember we went through this and I said, look, these eyebrows, man, if they're not lifting, um, we're not doing enough to raise the energy. And look at them, they're up in the sky for a vast portion, no, no, they're kind of moving around. I think at one point they were really high.

Look, boom. But there they are, right? Like, they're there. These are all the parts of the body that we're not really that focused on. So much more value. This is so on brand with the black and white. Get these skills organized. You're not going to learn this from watching this video, right? You're just not.

You're going to get some tips, but you're just not, you're not going to get someone right in front of you drumming at home in a very short period of time. So, uh, look at the group video coaching for this year. We'll put a link in there so you can start engaging with that. It's a low cost opportunity to get involved, be part of the community.

Get some tips, understand how to improve the value of your videos. I would really encourage you to participate. So, thank you for being part of this, such a, I find just such a big, important, valuable 200th episode. I really appreciate your support over the last five years. Well, big shout out to my peeps in the US and we look forward to continuing this podcast and giving you a great amount of value for the future..