Professionally Assisted Do-It-Yourself Videos with Christine Blosdale

Professionally Assisted Do-It-Yourself Videos with Christine Blosdale (Episode 95)

video marketing podcast Feb 18, 2022

Producing a video is as easy as pulling out your smartphone and hitting record, but sales and marketing videos require hard work. For business owners who are planning do-it-yourself videos, you need a more-than-average level of skills when it comes to scripting, filming, and editing.

With professional assistance however, making DIY videos will get easier, faster and more powerful.

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

In this episode, Chris Schwager (Video Marketer from Ridge Films) is interviewed by Christine Blosdale (International #1 Amazon Bestselling Author, Mindset & Confidence Coach, Podcast and Radio Expert). Enjoy a lively banter as they talk about the key advantage of professionally-assisted do-it-yourself videos to help business awareness, educating prospects, and converting faster. Learn why communication beats creativity and how prospecting through personalised videos is changing the game for businesses.

Chris Schwager: You know, all these years in video production, it's not about creativity. It's all about process. And I think a lot of young blood coming up, forgets that having a kick ass camera is not the key here. It's about building process. It provides sustainability in the long term so that you can continually get into the flow of video marketing and do great things for your business.

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.

 Links and Resources

FOLLOW CHRIS and let us know you’ve heard the podcast.
FOLLOW CHRISTINE and visit her WEBSITE.
THE POWER OF VIDEO MARKETING  View on demand in 60-minutes. 7 lessons to kickstart your video marketing journey.
DIY VIDEO PROGRAM Create your own videos with a push of a button.
 

Here are more DIY Video articles you may find helpful:

DIY Video Success: Insider Tips and Strategies with Brendan Southall

DIY vs. DFY: The Battle for Creative Control and Convenience

You Don't Need To Be a Video Pro to Make Professional DIY Videos

Professional Video Studio for Young Leaders with Chris Gardiner

A Sexier Way to Produce Your Own Videos with Den Lennie

Why Your DIY Home Video Studio is Holding Your Business Back

 

Video Transcription:

Chris Schwager 0:01

You know, all these years in video production, it's not about creativity. It's all about process process. It's a process. It's process. That's it, man. And I think a lot of young blood that's kind of coming up now is forgets that having a kick ass camera is not the key here. It's about building process. It provides sustainability in the long term so that you can continually get into the flow of video marketing, and do great things for your business.

Christine Blosdale 0:26

Today, you are in for a magical treat. If you're watching on YouTube, you're extremely lucky because you get to see my handsome handsome guests. If you're listening to us on Apple podcast, or Spotify, find the video somewhere because this is all about video. And we're going to have a great time. My guest today is Chris Schwager. Although I like to call him swagger, because it sounds so like, I don't know, sounds so hip, Chris Schwager, who is the video marketing specialist from Google's highest rated video company in Australia. It's called Ridge Films. And he is here to tell us all about the power of video. And I've been saying this for the longest time, Chris, that if you are an entrepreneur, if you have a podcast, if you have a business of any sort, you need to get on video. So I'm so happy that you're joining us. Thank you, and welcome to Out of the box.

Chris Schwager 1:26

Thank you so much, Christine.

Christine Blosdale 1:28

I'm saying that you're here in Australia, why don't you give the folks a little bit of an idea of where you're at where you're located. And as I'm watching on the video, here, you have a beautiful set. I have just a white wall. But you have this absolutely beautiful set there. Where are you exactly in Australia?

Chris Schwager 1:47

Well, it's a funny story, isn't it? I mean, Marrickville little suburb in Sydney, Australia. And where I am right now is a master bedroom of a townhouse unit. And it's it's so interesting, because I think a lot of video production companies fixated on the big studio and the makeup room and all this other stuff. We do it in this very tight space. And it's interesting how much you can achieve in and economize on in terms of space in such a little area as this. So we had the big studio years ago. And then last 10 years, we've been here and doing some amazing stuff. We've had billion dollar companies come through here and it's like, is it okay that you like come into my house here? No, okay, fine. It's all perfect. It's great. You know, I've got an ensuite behind me, I gotta walk in wardrobe. So people are, you know, we have no reason to leave really,

Christine Blosdale 2:43

you have a pantry full of snacks?

Chris Schwager 2:45

Well I don't, it's a food free zone. No, we do stuff very comfortably here. It's, you know, for the size space that we have, we can pretty much shoot film people, you know, roughly half half body up, we have a couple people on camera together. But what I'm doing is presenting from my desk, and the studio is actually behind me. So we've effectively got two studios in the one room that you know, use this for podcasting, and video calls and all sorts of other stuff. And behind me is where we actually film our clients because we can drop in backgrounds and do some amazing things.

Christine Blosdale 3:18

And let's talk about I mean, the work that Ridge Films has done, I've checked out your work, it's it's fantastic, wonderful. But let's talk about the power of videos. As far as marketing is concerned, promotion, publicity, just letting potential customers and clients know what the heck you do. Talk about how important creating videos are and particular in this in this time right now with our attention span. Being that of a net. The power of video I think is quite important, don't you think?

Chris Schwager 3:49

Oh 100% I mean, we wouldn't have been in business for 20 years if we've not believed in its power. It's not so much about the creation of content that's been enthusiasts kept us enthusiastic. It's been very much about how we help businesses achieve I guess and it sounds a bit corny but achieve their goals achieve their ambition to be better business operators and you know that is not back you know, when we started Ridge films, it was all about the polished corporate video. And it was all you know, very expensive exercise and there was moving parts and there was hardware and it was just you know, it was a it was a completely different environment to what it is now and in the last 10 years really technology has kind of crushed the pricing of what we do in in in the business and you know the with the invention of the DSLR video camera as well as you know Mac laptops and affordability around editing software and the golden goose the iPhone, you know, which which is you know, if you've got an iPhone in your pocket, you're a video producer, give yourself a hand it's it's a rewarding A rewarding thing to have that power. And what we realized in our journey over the last six or seven years has been that just because they have that power in their pocket doesn't mean they know how to execute on it, and how to extend, you know, life of content and leverage people and draw people closer to their business. So there's a real pain point in the market that extends beyond producing content, it's very much like all the one percenters that make up a video are totally underestimated. And once people go down the track of trying to buy a ring light, and a tripod and whatever, and realize that it's actually a lot more work than they first thought, then they find it's too hard. And then it becomes a huge pain and the equipment ends up dusty in the garage, right? What we're trying to do is remove them from a lot of that pain and process that they would otherwise have to build on and build on their own. And fill in the gaps.

Christine Blosdale 6:03

Absolutely. Well, and, and here's the thing, there's, it takes a certain person to know, it's like an audio engineer, right? There's this what we call the IRS in the industry, I worked in radio for 20 years, and there is it's having a certain ear, mind. In other words, knowing you know, knowing when to edit, knowing what to edit, knowing what sounds good knowing a pause, knowing the power of a pause, the same with with audio, when it goes to video, it is 10 times more. I mean, it is so powerful, because you're talking about something that people are actually looking at you and when I talk to anybody that I coach in podcasting, and I say I'll show you how to be a great podcast, or I'll show you the technical stuff of being a podcaster. I said, but if you don't have the video element, you're missing out on such a huge audience. Because right now, people are watching videos, on YouTube, on Facebook, on Instagram, hello, Tiktok, hello. There's things that are coming becoming viral because they're funny or you know, inspirational. But really, you can communicate some of your best messages through video. And the power of that I think can really actually change people's businesses completely. Because that's how people are going to gain trust with you. If they're looking in your eyes. They're gonna look in your eyes, and know that you're not a sheisty little you know, shifty. Yeah, yeah, shifty person

Chris Schwager 7:38

facial reaction -- I mean, flip faces in the buying process, right at the buying decision process. This is funny, I played my daughter's a video that I produced over the weekend on SodaStream hacks. And it was just a little pet project that I decided to do with my kids, right. And the first part of the video was me much like this talking down the barrel, very, very intimate, very close. And then the second part of the video was me demonstrating how to install this thing. And it was kind of more off camera, and more of a voiceover right, pretty much at the point where it started to go off camera, my kids phased out, they got distracted, they looked around, they, they they started to lose interest. And you know, maybe because it's highly technical stuff around, like how to connect your sodastream bottle or whatever it was. But also, I think there's a big part of that is that losing that facial contact, they're losing something to latch on to, and it's the eyes, the mouth, and the face is very much the hero of the visuals in pretty much any of our videos that were produced, we just realized how important that was to first of all have the face out there, but for so many businesses to put the face out into their market. So for instance, like websites are the biggest sort of like, digital brochure you can find and when they first came out, nobody had faces on there, you know, it was like text and stock images, you know, and over time people are starting to, you know, get to understand that people buy from people and that there's a huge advantage to having somebody guide and nurture and Sherpa you through their product service brand, website, whatever it is. So but yeah, faces massive, massive thing and we make sure that faces are in every one of our professional videos.

Christine Blosdale 9:28

There's different types of videos obviously, you know, there's this your commercial type videos that you're you're going to be posting on social media, you know, paid ads, same thing or on YouTube as well. But let's give our audience a little bit of an idea of all the different kinds of videos that you I mean, I know there's so I'm right now my brain is just going oh, as branding, promotional videos, there's how to videos, right? There's so many that you can that we can talk about even the profile on your like Facebook, you know, there's a little tiny video. A little tiny. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But tell our listeners and our viewers about some of the videos that they can be creating to enhance their, their business and their presence online.

Chris Schwager 10:16

Yeah, well, if you don't mind per se, what I'll do is I'll go back a little bit because we believe that video doesn't start with type, or duration or creativity, or, you know, how many cameras we should be shooting, we avoid the tech in those early conversations with our customers. And we get them to understand why is it in the first place that they need video? What are the marketing problems, the business problems that they're faced with that warrants having a video? Like, why wouldn't they just go in like, you know, hire another staff member or, you know, put in a digital brochure or whatever it might be? Right. So the clients come to a very quick understanding that this starts with the overarching challenge that from that derives the goal in which they're using video to achieve something. And it's now not one video fits all and everything, it's not about the three to five minute video anymore, that kind of concept for inbound video marketing is pretty much dead. And you need to be starting to think about micro touchpoints of video communication to address specific needs of the customer or the client or whatever, whatever particular situation you're, you're trying to combat.

So for instance, an example might be that if somebody does an inquiry makes an inquiry, the receptionist picks up the phone, she takes a little the basic details. For instance, I email phone number it says all have Jimmy call you back. But in the meantime, what I'll send you a little video and say our company profile video that'll demonstrate to you our capabilities. And we'll help you understand what we are all about. Just have a look out for that. And when you meet, you'll be more familiar with what it is that we do and all the products and services that we actually offer here. So you know, the video is not just about having it on your website or having it on your YouTube channel. It's constantly advocating and remarketing, the content marketing your video marketing, it sounds a bit weird, but that's, that's important, right? It's if you don't tell people that you've made a video, then they'll never know. And you'll come back from your YouTube channel in two years time and realize there's only 13 views because you never talked about it, your internal team did not know about it, your sales guys were not using it within their processes.

So now I've got that preamble out of the way, let me give you the three different areas that basically make up. And there's probably marketers have different versions of this, but it's effectively videos for awareness videos to educate your audience or videos to convert them faster. Now you can talk about retention and other areas of the buyers journey or the sales process if you like. But those three are the divisions effectively they are content. So for instance, if a client is struggling to get brand awareness, then we need to focus on some brand awareness content. So company profile videos, for instance, high selling product of ours, they demonstrate the capabilities, your organization under 90 seconds long, you know, they basically do everything they don't go deep into product or service they don't get, then you're not going to get customer testimonials in that video. It's nice and taut, nice and manageable, right? Because you don't want to unveil the entire story of your business, right, that's gonna eventually put them to sleep rather, they're gonna tune out because it won't be as relevant to them. But if you serve that up, or if you have that's perfect placement is you're on your homepage, for instance, it's a perfect placement for somebody to get to know your business because they have an understanding of your capabilities first, and then when they start to inquire then you start to deliver the product or service videos. And then when you're trying to then close the deal, you want to serve up the customer testimonials, the case study videos, those types of content. And then you've got this sort of like McDonald's Happy Meal of content that's, you know, burger fries and coke of video marketing that should satisfy their need. And then it's not just one big fat video that you're trying to serve up in one hit. But it's all these areas of touch points that will hopefully Convince and Convert them faster. And because they'll feel well looked after

Christine Blosdale 14:22

you touched on something that was really important and I tried to encourage this with so many people is that longer is longer bigger is not better. It's the same thing with copy on a on a website I got I get crazy when I go to somebody's website and it's in this it's like a mile long of copy and you know a stock photo here stock photo there. It's just like Ah, it's so it just turns me off completely because I'm not getting anything else out of it. You know, I'm saying but and especially when there's like testimonials or reviews like that I'm like No, first of all, If I read it, yes, it can be fake, it can be famous. But yeah, when I see a video testimonial of someone who actually experienced the product or the service, and they're looking at the camera, and they're saying, I just tried Christine's, you know, amazing podcast course. And wow, my life has changed for the better. I've lost five pounds. Yeah, you know, when I see that, then it's more believable, absolutely more believable than just reading it on a text. But the the idea is some, sometimes people think that you've got to go really long and really explain a bunch of stuff. No, that's not the case.

Chris Schwager 15:37

Yes, yes. Well, that's the craft of the interviewer asking the right questions, and the editor not doubling up on a lot of the content, right. So we have a huge belief that video testimonials are typically done very poorly. You know, for instance, if you're thinking as a business that all look, Jimmy's just, I've just done that job for Jimmy and he's just about to leave the office, maybe I'll just pull out my phone, just see if you can just say something for a couple minutes. Right. So Jimmy says "Ohh, great, the best product I turned up on time, the budget that came under budget, it was just I was just perfect."

That's not interesting, right? That's boring is batshit. You know, and so the whole process of understanding what Jimmy could have said, he could have gone deep, right. But Jimmy was on the spot. So Jimmy didn't know what the hell was going on. Right. So there's a whole, you know, without testimonials and case studies, there's scripting that goes deep, you know, and then we understand what the unique proposition of the businesses and how that experience that that particular person has had is impacted them. And, you know, what the uniqueness of the organization is not just a frivolous kind of fairy, hairy fairy sort of stuff, but really talking going into, you know, analogies and stories to be able to, to, to tell it better, you know, what I mean? And, and, and distance themselves from, from the stereotypes of, you know, our best service and best product. Now, it's not, it's not until people actually go through the process themselves. It's hearsay, until somebody goes

Christine Blosdale 17:18

As a lay person, right, as someone who, who went through the process of working with you, or your company can explain what it was like, and and, and how it benefited them and why it can benefit other people. Yeah, I think that's absolutely important.

Chris Schwager 17:34

So in scripting, in scripting, it's not like, Okay, well, we just want to make sure Jimmy said, you know, Jimmy is one of our class customers. And, you know, we taking off the sort of like, you know, easy sort of, hey, best birth, best service, personalized service, one stop shop, all those cliches, right? They're horrible, but actually looking at what the business is actually putting out to the market from their own, you know, say if they hit the website, and they've got some really good, strong, unique propositions, we want Jimmy saying that shit, and we want him saying it in his own voice. So and his own story, and but it's a perfect thing for Jimmy to be talking about right to be taking off those things, because they aligned to the greater purpose of the organization. Right, they back up, they back up and support the whole purpose of the business. It's kind of like mission based marketing. It's kind of like this, tying it all in. So So Jimmy is not the Wild West anymore. Jimmy's, he actually got a purpose. And it's through the types of questions that you had that an interview with, ask them that would then work, that response would get that best response. And if you know what outcome that you're looking for, when you're going into that interview, you can go tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, and he hasn't said it exactly as I've got it here, my bullet point, but he's he said it. He said it in his own voice.

Christine Blosdale 18:53

And then when you have others, so it's not just that one video testimonial, because that's kind of questionable. But when you have others and you've you know, you've got the, you know, the male, the female, the young, the old, all the different, but they're it's uniform a bit in their responses, you can make multiple videos out of that, right, you can make multiple testimonials. Exactly, yeah, that

Chris Schwager 19:15

yeah, that's what we call a company testimonial. And look, just so that you guys can get a visual on what we're talking about here. And just just so that you have a reference, go to Rich films.com.au/store. And our whole product gallery is here, and it's about 30 different types of videos. And so if you scroll through there, you can watch as much as you like, right? But the company testimonial video is, again, one of the biggest sellers, so it is actually at the top of the page, but it shows you this combination of some of the heroes, I guess, of hero clients, you know, so, you know, we don't we don't sort of say to our clients, we'll just go and pick anyone off the street. You know, like, pick the person that actually looks like the person you're trying to attract, right? So if the, if the demographics 25 to 35, females, then make sure you interview a 25 to 35 female, like, it makes sense. But a lot of people miss that and don't understand that very well. Because as a buyer, as a potential buyer, I'm watching this video and try to frame myself and put myself in their shoes.

Christine Blosdale 20:30

You're trying to relate exactly.

Chris Schwager 20:32

100%. So if I come across someone in a video that looks and sounds like me, and is like me, then maybe I'm going to have that similar experience.

Christine Blosdale 20:42

Absolutely. Yeah, we want to see that's why also, when it comes to content, video content and, and commercials, they're going more for real people as well, you know, they're not, they're not going for the actors to play a mechanic, they're actually looking for mechanics to play us and 100% We tend to buy from people that we can relate to, yes, yes, we recognize, you know, the familiar, so to speak,

Chris Schwager 21:10

All the nuances of people talking. But there's a lot of people like all But Jimmy won't be able to string two words together, and you go on set, and you talk to the interviewer and they're like, Oh, I'm really nervous. So I'm shooting myself. And you just start talking to them. And I've got my agenda, because I've got a script, right, I'm working from that. But it's my job as an interviewer to help them come up with those beautiful one liners. And ultimately, the whole thing is based on soundbites anyway. So and then it's down to the editors to make all that sound cohesive and beautiful. If you know, all these years in video production, and it's not about creativity, you know, it's all about process. You know, it's process. It's a process. It's a process. That's it, you know, man and I think a lot of young blood that's kind of coming up now is forgets that, you know that having a kick ass camera is not the key here. It's about building process. It provides sustainability in the long term so that you can continually get into the flow of video marketing and do great things for you

Christine Blosdale 22:16

and have that consistency as well. That's, that's, I think, what what people find it difficult is to have that consistent video presence right on, on their website on social media, on the different platforms. I think that's something that's difficult for them to because it's not it is it's not like you just, Oh, I'm just gonna create a video, you know, yes. Sometimes you can't, I do that from time to time when I'm doing reels on Instagram. I'm just like, Oh, I'm just gonna do a silly, silly video. But when we're talking about something that's gonna represent your business, or potentially reach customers and clients, you want to make sure that you do it right.

Chris Schwager 22:56

We'll be back in a short moment. Video is everything again, because the world is now demanding that you appear on camera. in some fashion, it's time to get the skills of a professional presenter. Go to rdirgefilms.com.au/diy Because Do It Yourself videos should be easy and they should work. The DIY video program helps you personalize sales, produce video emails and record videos regularly without the tech hassles. look and sound amazing in every video meeting go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy

Christine Blosdale 23:31

When I'm talking to people who want to get booked on podcasts and radio shows, because as for 20 years, I was a radio host and producer and I got lots of pitches. I got lots of emails, tons of emails, I want to be on your show my my, my client should be on your show because of Baba Baba, they wrote a book Baba Baba. And it's just all text, right? So it's very dry, very generic. And it's usually you know, delete, delete, delete. And I had one gentleman who actually now is a is a dear friend of mine. And we've done lots of co-ventures, I've had him on the radio several times and on podcast several times. He's a marketing genius, really, really smart. He one time, send me an email, but it was very little words. And there was a video. There's a video link. And I clicked on that video link. And it was a message directly to me. And it was short, and it was sweet. But I got to see his personality. I got to feel his energy, his presence. And I said, Oh my god, I love this guy. Whereas in an email, you can't you can't fully get the the style of a person or the energy of that person. But in a video, especially when they're talking directly, they're talking directly to you. You feel it. So since that moment, I've been doing it too for quite a few different resources as well when I want to get somebody's attention. If I want to be on somebody's stage or you know a guest speaker something, I'll send them a very short, quick video. And it's it's amazing the response that you get, because they're not used to it. They're used to just getting this the same old emails. Have you done that? Have you done

Chris Schwager 25:13

every day, the week, every day of the week? No, I'm serious every day of the week. It's not, I'm not lying, I mean, we had to evolve out of this kind of like, oh, it's all professional video production. If you're not doing professional stuff, like you're dead shit, you know, like, go stick to your iPhone, like, we need to embrace it. COVID was the biggest eye opener for us and the biggest opportunity for us to leverage video in a crazy way. Because overnight, businesses needed to convert into an online video format, right. And so we saw all types of technical issues through that period, participants with their camera off noisy interruptions, poor background and space, camera angles, webcam, quality, internet speed was horrible. And then performance issues. Bought it even made it even worse, right? So ever, you know, COVID caught everyone off guard. Now video is everything. But at the time, it was all about on camera confidence, and people just being thrown into meetings and all of a sudden having to try and string two words together and look presentable. You know, so a lot of the lack of preparation and effort was the reason why it sucks and, and why so many people that we surveyed was saying yeah, like, it's got so much room for improvement. So many, so much opportunity to do better. Casual wardrobe was another thing on my little list that I've just read out here. But

But what was interesting was the birthing of this concept that we could, you know, take

all the pain and suffering of people in the world of video. So price points to Hi, how do I get it going? Do I need a full on strategy? Why wouldn't I just use my iPhone and like, but I use my iPhone and it didn't work and I couldn't edit it and you know, all those things, and just ripped them out from people and said, look, you know, we're going to provide an easier streamlined solution for you that's going to remove all those things. And we're going to just give you the you know, camera techniques and some basic technical capability. But after that, don't worry, let us take care of of everything else, you know, script templates, and you know what video should go where and how to get video and sales emails and how to put video in inmail and things like that, like

so in answer your question. Like we were hitting high profile guests for our show via LinkedIn using personalized video in mails or videos uploaded to email within LinkedIn. So we've been doing that for a while and with great results, but the but the hero of personalized videos is the reply inquiry video that goes in an email so just today, for instance, I had an inquiry for the DIY program came through basic information Name, email, phone phone number, so I drummed up, just pulled up the DIY unit, turned it on and recorded a 30-second video that says Hi Jimmy, thanks so much for your inquiry you know I'm just about to go on domain authority quickly send you this video. Go ahead and book in a 15 minute video chat using the link in the email because I'd love to learn more about XYZ business and provide you with exactly what you need. Thanks Jimmy.

And the poster is this don't see, I'll jus show this for the YouTubers. I'll just show you this for the YouTube, Joel... gets that as a thumbnail. Right? So that happens very quickly within that happens in five minutes. So Joel has a very hard time not watching that video, how can you not click exactly right? And so that the conversion on that is so amazing. And the process that we've built means that we're not picking up the phone and spending four hours to only lose a job, we're doing things at a time that's convenient to both of us. And working this through in and I'm getting them into a process where I can control it a little bit, and get them kicking along and verify them and etc, and take them through. But that that as a conversion tool from inquiry to booking that video call is, is, you know, 90%, 95% happens every time and they do it within an hour. You know, it's so quick,

Christine Blosdale 29:33

is that a clickable link? is that

Chris Schwager 29:34

it's an image

Christine Blosdale 29:35

So was that also, did you attach a video like an mp4 video to the email? Or is it served somewhere? Because I know so if you guys can get large even Yes,

Chris Schwager 29:47

look, it's always served, it's always served, I mean that very, very much. There's very few, I really don't see any video floating around that's attached as an attachment anymore, I really don't, you know, like, you know, like, it's usually a drop box or it's up there somewhere. And then we we grab it. So the tool I'm talking about for your listeners and I think this would be really great have a look into it, but it's called Vidyard and it allows you to do a plug into say Gmail or or Outlook or whatever. And which means that you can open up your email to send an email and you can click this little camera button and up pops you know your webcam or in this case, the DIY camera and you go ahead and record it and then once you're finished recording it's like populates with the thumbnail and the image and the play button everything in the email ready to go. So that as a process streamline so how am I getting these reply inquiry videos out in five minutes with a predefined script, bloody all the content of the client and our thumbnail? Vidyard has been a great tool for that. So that's that's pretty much all we use Vidyard for. But it's Jesus, it's bloody, it takes the takes a lot of the clicking in bits and pieces and uploading and, you know, copying and pasting out of the process, which is exactly what we need. Yeah,

Christine Blosdale 31:10

absolutely amazing. In every, every couple months, there's something else that comes around you're like, what? Where did you come from? How did yeah, so even just doing the transcriptions, you know, doing transcriptions for video, that technology has expanded from when it first started as well, like where they would always misspell my name, they still misspell my name, but that's all right. Yeah, but it's getting better and better to the point where you can read through it, you go, Yep, there's no corrections there. You know,

Chris Schwager 31:39

yes, I mean, different different platforms really do doing different things, you know, and I know, when I talk about platforms, I'm talking about YouTube versus Wistia, or Vidyard, or some of these big hosting platforms. I mean, we have so many subscriptions going on, because we kind of chip away at all these different tools that really make up and harness the business and keep it functional, operational. So it's not Vidyard all the way. It's like, for instance, in a proposal, we would send a personalized video, and that video usually goes just under two minutes. And it's done by my business partner, Brendan. And we, he basically outlines everything to do with the proposal so that the opportunity is getting it firsthand in video form, rather than waiting for a PDF and scrolling through and just going to the bottom and looking at the price. They're actually getting a walkthrough of what is in the proposal.

Now that is, again as a conversion tool is unbelievable. Game Changer. And when and this is the thing to your point, we're not talking about, you know, razzle dazzle videos, we're talking about videos that fundamentally help and nurture and Sherpa people through what is our process, right? These are two camera pieces, nothing fancy schmancy about them. Obviously we look and sound great, but that's our business. But the Yeah, that that's that's the key man is like, just be helpful. And if you're video marketing and inbound, you know, externally out to YouTube or whatever, just be helpful. Don't dick around, you know, keep it tight. Attention is scarce. You know, give them what they want and you will be loved forever.

Christine Blosdale 33:19

It is, it's so important. What you are proselytizing is so important, and 99.9% of businesses out there, don't do it. They don't do it. They don't get it. Because I think I I think because maybe it's that thing of like, just doing one thing, keep throwing it against the wall and seeing if eventually it will stick, right? Throw lots of money at marketing, throw lots of money at this social media thing, throw lots of money here and there. And these older traditional models, you know, let's put a newspaper ad No, no, when you're able to have a video also explained to potential customers and clients, what it is that you actually do for them, then the conversion will be much higher. But so this is what we're, this is what we're saying today. We're telling everybody get into videos, create videos, contact Chris, it get get, because you have you have something to you have different price points I know for people, but you have everything from sort of in that little bit of that Do It Yourself model to full, like a full package will do everything for you kind of thing, right? Tell it tell. Just tell us a little bit about the services that you offer there.

Chris Schwager 34:34

Yeah, so we're basically professional video marketing. And we've been doing that for almost 20 years highest ranking highest rated video company in Australia that is, but COVID was a divider for us, it really gave us an opportunity to explore the world of businesses investigating their own video marketing, yet not such a big price point, right. So they wanted the convenience of having better quality video calls, video in email, like I said, and also being able to do their own social updates and whatnot, without the pain of either pulling out their iPhone and trying to figure it out themselves, or getting a professional video marketing company to to, you know, with all the expense that comes with that.

And so they're happy little neutral ground on the happy medium is this thing that we call the DIY video program. If you want to check it out, it's available for the world. And it's ridgefilms.com.au/diy. And it'll give you a bit of insights as to how it works. But it's a combination of hardware. So what you're seeing now, if you're on YouTube, looking at this is the DIY, this is indicative of what our clients would look like background lighting, beautiful light, beautiful sound, great. Camera, teleprompter, you're not seeing the teleprompter right now, because I'm looking through it. But I'm actually looking at you, by the way, in the teleprompter right now. So that's how I'm keeping my eye contact some of the time with you. But that's the hardware, then helping you through all of those unknown script edits, on camera training, buddy, how to get video and emails, all of the messy stuff that is associated with getting videos up onto the web up onto YouTube. That really, it's endless amounts of things that our clients clearly don't know themselves. They may have some experience, but they can't, they can't get into a repeatable process. And that's what this requires. And we do it well, because we this is our business, right? We do it every day of the week. But if you're a financial planner, you're cold business is not producing videos, right? And so they might get like close to producing the video, but then I've got to edit it now, how do I do it? And that opens up another can of worms, right? So we take care of all of that. And just make it super silky smooth and streamline for our clients so that they can just focus on their business, and really just get the videos recorded. And let us load up all that heavy stuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's unbelievable.

Christine Blosdale 37:11

It's in the editing where the magic really happens.

Chris Schwager 37:14

100%

Christine Blosdale 34:16

Because it's all it is, it's all about those, those transitions, those swipes, music, all of that, yeah. And knowing when to cut and knowing when not to, and you've been doing it for so many years to that for you. It's easy. It's fun, it's you're passionate about it. So that's the other aspect that I that I love. And you know, it's something too that I find I want to do personally, and I I have to wrap my head around it. But I want to do more funny. I love humor I love you know, life is so freakin serious. And it's just like I find it that videos that I watch short that the short the shorties that I watch the when they're when they're really funny and really clever. I become hooked on them. You know, I'm like, Yep, I want to make sure I want to check out that person's Instagram page, you know, all the time because they're brilliant. They're funny. And they're going to actually attract a much wider audience than if you're just Hi, I'm selling you know, insurance, you know? Do you do you have you had your fair share of like, you know, really funny videos?

Chris Schwager 38:30

Yeah, of course, like we do it every once in a while for our own business because we suffer like everybody else from this kinda like corporate dryness, right, and just been, sort of, like, you know, here's another podcast that we've produced. And he's, you know, and I mean, we have a process in our back end that kind of does that really well. But if we don't throw a spanner in there every once in a while and do a SodaStream dad hack video, or something like that, or Christmas, funny Christmas video or something like that, it becomes kind of stale and boring. Now, that's easier said than done. I think there's a lot of people that, you know, the viral mentality, I guess, if people, you know, would be there. That's exactly what our business needs. But the reality is, and I have this firm belief that, that communication beats creativity, communication, if you can't communicate, you're wasting your time trying to be like creative, right? It's gonna lead to nowhere, right? So you still would be better to produce a kick ass company profile video. If you're starting from zero, then to try and do something funny. That's, that misses the mark, that doesn't communicate correctly, and is not something that you can leverage, right?

We're talking about in the world, in our world, at least the leverage point on on $1 spend of our client, you know, if they're going to spend 5k on a video for a company profile video, then they need at least three social versions of that, right? They need things that they can turn into ads. We want to extend the lifespan and ROI of content, not just go or There you go. There's a video see you later. You know, we want to help them you know, we want to diversify and get them to understand that this is about, you know, not one play on your website. I put an email out about it. You know, this is about constant advocacy, right? Well, it's about talking about it and and, and telling the world you have video, you know, hurrah and continually doing it until someone says Shut up. Will you shut up? Right, repeat it. So recycle, repurpose, repeat, reuse,

Christine Blosdale 40:32

Repurpose, recycle, reuse? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And

Chris Schwager 40:37

don't just read everything.

Christine Blosdale 40:38

Don't just keep it a secret on your website. You know, don't don't just do that. I just, I and it always depends, of course, the industry depends on what business you're in. Right. But, like, on some industries, where it's, it is kind of serious. I do like to see bloopers, I do like to see my wife is a real estate agent. And we're talking to very serious business because we're talking about people's assets. And they're probably their largest asset that they have is their home and it's very serious. But man, I love looking I love watching the bloopers on on Tom, because she's human. And we like to we like to connect with

Chris Schwager 41:15

100% and that's what testimonials are so like, big right? Because people are just real and the roar and the rugged and assignment how they should you know, but yeah, I agree. The the the point, I guess, around the bloopers as about rewarding, right. So you don't let the bloopers get in the way of the communication so that that's like rule 1, don't break it right, because I've seen like a property research group. You know, it sent their Christmas video out once and they like, Okay, the first 30 seconds is like, here's our corporate message. Thanks for being such great customers blah, blah, blah. And then the next minute after that was them doing their bloopers and it was shit. Right? I like bloopers but in moderation, right. So it was long it was drawn out and and it was just put such a bad taste in my mouth because I went Ah, now this is all about them. This is all about them joking around being bendy kids. This is not about me and thanking me for doing business with me. This is about them now. And so you've got to keep it in moderation and the perfect placement for for those bloopers is very much just these short microsecond edits at the end of the video snip snip snip out. Just reward. That's the reward they get for watching the video.

Christine Blosdale 42:34

That's like watching like a like an action packed movie or X when you watch a really cool movie Yeah. And and with the credits are going up and then you see us it'll be like somebody with the clapboard it'll be up somebody or some silly little guy or a line that was not it featured in the film, you know, like, some kind of scene that wasn't in the film.

Chris Schwager 42:55

So they're doing that over a 90 minute feature, right? They'll they'll put that bloopers in and maybe they go for a minute, right? If you're showing a minute video, you don't have a minute bloopers to kind of like include in there, right? You gotta keep it to the point, you know the agenda of the viewer to open that video, watch the video, immediately know what's going to happen to them when they watch the video, watch the video, then get to the end, be rewarded. Conclude. Get out. Okay, next action. Right that's you're moving them through time. Right now if you can't get them to the end of the video, it's not as good as you think it is. Right? So you need to almost thank them at the start of the video. Thank them at the end of the video. And then tell them what's going to happen next. And if you can't do that you're not Video Marketing well enough.

Christine Blosdale 43:42

Everybody should be calling you right now Your phone should be ringing. Okay? Yeah, no, because I'm my brain is like sitting there going, Ah, they're the the pool. The purpose is the multi purpose, the uses for a video that people can be doing right now, like they can actually be doing this right now. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to make sure that in the show notes, of course, we include the main link to Ridge Films, it's ridgefilms.com.au, that is going to be in the shownotes. But also we'll put a link to the DIY the Do It Yourself program, right, we'll make sure we have a link for that. But let's put a challenge out to people right now let's, you know, if you if you haven't done video at all, and I know there's a lot of people out there that are in business. And then they don't understand why people aren't calling them why they're not booking, you know? Well, because people don't know what the hell you do. So let's put a challenge out there. And let's encourage people to start, just start even thinking about creating video, and just getting on camera, trying to get a little confidence up and explaining what it is that you do. But go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy, and jump into it and get started. Yeah. And if you have a major project, or you have a major business, and you need the professionals to take you from start to finish and let them do it, let Chris and his team do it, then just contact you. Because I know you do all different kinds of videos and different kinds of work for people. So I highly encourage this is great for consultants for coaches, I need to do it for authors. You got a book that's coming out, don't just send a boring press release out.

Chris Schwager 45:29

100% Yeah.

Christine Blosdale 45:31

Oh, my goodness, where have you been all my life? Chris?

Chris Schwager 45:35

You know, like, we you know, it's funny, because we put out videos every week, right? And lots of video, right? Like in terms of out to the public domain. You know, we're a micro business in Sydney, Australia, and we service Australia, and we service the world, right? If you need us, we're there for you, right, we have crews all over the world that we can that we can tee up for you with all of that activity, you would think that there'd be you know, we'd be like a multi billion dollar company right now, you know, business is tough, right? It's not about trying to just say, Oh, I'm going to try this next new thing. It's called Tiktok, or I'm going to try this next thing. It's called video, you know, and, and, and giving it a crack. And then walking away, anybody that's invested in marketing or sales realizes that it is a long, long game, you know, what is old to you is extremely new to them. What is been posted on your buddy profile for last 18 months is just now is the time that they're ready to buy. Do you know what I mean? And that's how this crazy cycle of marketing works. But if you're not, if you're not, you know, activity creates activity, if you're not doing something, and marketing and using video and finding useful ways to use video and be be there, be present, be visually present using your face, all the time being out there out there. And it may be you're that type of person that goes out I want to be on camera, that's fine, too. But there are solutions to to work around that. But get yourself out there and you will reap the rewards.

Christine Blosdale 47:06

Chris, thank you so much for joining us today. Interesting. And I would say that this point, people, I've been convinced that that video is the way to go. And do check out all of the work that Ridge Films does. You can go to the website ridgefilms.com.au. And take a look at the sample. That's what I did. I was like, let me just see how good they are. They are amazing. And maybe you'll get some ideas again, you'll get inspired. That's what the show is all about to inspire you to not only to share your wisdom and your expertise with the world, but to do it in a way that people can actually find out about you and and promote you and work with you and everybody wins. You win. They win the World wins. That's the best way to go.

So thanks again, Chris, for joining us on out of the box with Chris.

Chris Schwager 47:54

You. You're very very welcome. That's all for this episode of the video made simple podcast if you want to start on the path to become a video marketing professional go to ridgefilms.com.au/learn and for only $47 you get instant access to our online course plus live coaching sessions with me every month. Let us help you take the mystery out of producing video. So go to ridgefilms.com.au/learn and see you next week.

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