Redefining NDIS Providers Marketing: DIY Video Strategies in Action with Greg Standen (Episode 164)

Chris Schwager:

Okay. Welcome to another episode of Video Made Simple.

[00:00:04] Greg Standen: I'm your

[00:00:04] Chris Schwager: host, Chris Schwager. Thank you so much for joining me. This is an amazing, amazing session today with Greg Standen. Now I've got my daughter here. If you can hear some googly sounds, my daughter's right next to me and cause it's late here. And, oh my God, now they're really getting in my way.

[00:00:24] And this week, God, this week, Greg is talking NDIS and I, I didn't know what NDIS actually really means. I've had very little exposure to it, but the principles behind NDIS, uh, the same to a certain degree than any other business. They still struggle with the same type of thing. Visibility is a problem, right?

[00:00:45] Can you keep it quiet now?

[00:00:48] Visibility is a problem. And that is a problem for a lot of businesses. They struggle to get things out. Social media seems to be the default answer for everybody, but there are so many other things that need to be done with regards to visibility. And you know what? Video is part of the answer, but we go deeper in this episode. We actually talk about a lot more than just video. So. Let me stop talking and hand over to Greg,

[00:01:26] Greg Standen: Everyone, welcome to the NDIS Marketing podcast. I'm your host, Greg Standen, and today we're going to be exploring the ways in which you can use video to get your message out to your target audience and increase your participants and more engage, get more engagement from your participants. And we'll be speaking with Chris Schwager from Ridge Films. Welcome, Chris.

[00:01:51] Chris Schwager: Thank you, Greg.

[00:01:54] Greg Standen: Well, Chris, let's just start off. As you know, we This podcast, most of the listeners are NDIS providers, uh, so they work in the disability space. They're mostly, um, home based, sort of not so much home based, but that small family type structure. They come from a very clinical background, so they're, they're not very business savvy, don't know a lot about marketing. Why would they want to use video?

[00:02:22] Chris Schwager: Well, they need to explore a problem first. What's the problem with them? What challenges do they face? Yeah.

[00:02:29] Greg Standen: What, what the, some of the challenges are, they just want more work. They don't understand, they don't, they don't understand the whole business and marketing side of things. They've just, they're good at what they do and provide their own service. So yeah. So why would they, someone like that want to use video?

[00:02:48] Chris Schwager: Yeah. So if they're wanting more business than they're wanting more visibility, right? Like they need to get more people looking at them rather than others. Would you agree that that sounds pretty straightforward, right? So, so it's a visibility thing, right? It's just purely getting people to see them to get attention into the business and, and therefore transacting eventually down the line once they start stirring up some trouble. But what I'm trying to get out here is making it very clear for your clients that any marketing activity, no matter whether it's video or, you know, sending flyers, really does start with the challenge that they need to overcome first. And I don't think a lot of people, I think a lot of new business thinks about that. They're thinking, well, let's go and produce a video, we'll chuck it on to social media and... Boom, you know, immediately people are going to look and it's going to go down. We're going to, we're going to be inundated with calls, right? Well, you've actually got to smash people across the face these days. It's not just a case of doing a little video on your site or doing a little video on social media and expecting the world to open up for you. Um, and I think that's, that's really important for your clients to, to know that with any market activity, nothing guarantees success, you know, just because you did your video, just because you did your fly, just because you started to hit the phones and call people and be more prevalent and get in, get a higher amount of visibility doesn't guarantee business growth, it doesn't guarantee sales, you know, and it's tenacity and grit and persistence and consistency and bloody discipline. If I haven't already said that, I probably did, discipline, right? The discipline of this bloody thing we call business is insane to regulate yourself when you're down and have somebody go, no, no, that's the way it is. That's an important part of running business. I'm such a big fan of this because I've been down, I've had, I've lacked confidence. I've, I've gone in the dirt and gone, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing anymore in this fucking thing. You know, like this, this, you know, like, like I'm hurting and Having somebody to guide you, and I'm not going to sell video here at this point because I think we're, we're quite early in this discussion, but it's about having a mentor, a business coach, a guide, a networking, a network of people, friends, family, people around you that, that get small business to, to make it a little bit easier for you to understand that, you know, it's tough and it's volatile. Like you could be up and making shit and stuff's going on and you're doing deals and, and the cash looks great. And then, oh, I did, I forgot about my $56,000 tax bill. Right. And then all of a sudden you're back down to where you are, you know, you don't know what you don't know. You know, it, there's 101 million bloody things to try and figure out when it comes to running a business. And I think that's, that's an important thing just to acknowledge here, because if, if, if anybody is talking about video before they understand the concept of marketing, before they understand the concept of why they're doing it and the problems that they're trying to solve, they need to prioritize themselves first. And that's why I told you that big rambling story.

[00:06:29] Greg Standen: And that, that's why I encourage all listeners actually, before they even watch this, uh, episode further, go back and listen to our other episodes and, and we'll watch our other episodes where we actually do cover off what is marketing, how to identify your target market and how to, uh, there's a whole lineage of things that you would need to do before you even get to the step of actually considering the video.

[00:06:56] Chris Schwager: And it's like I was always fixated on this analogy that was told to me years ago, and that was, you're overwhelmed that you feel in business, which I got to say, I mean, is a universal truth, right? Everybody would feel this the same way. That it stifles your ability to move and to change and to do new things, right? And so this idea of the elephant, how do you eat an elephant? Well, it's pretty bloody simple. It's one piece at a time. You take it and you eat it. And you move on and you go to the next thing. Now, what happens with people is they usually look at the elephant. They go, fuck this. Where do I start? Do I do the trunk? Do I do the hooves? Like, you know, it's, it's, it's impossible. And, and that's, that stops growth. That, that, that stops growth.

[00:07:46] Greg Standen: And my advice to that is just, just start.

[00:07:50] Chris Schwager: 100 percent.

[00:07:50] Greg Standen: Stop, stop sitting there going, do I eat the trunk first? Do I eat the tail first? Do I eat the hooves? Do I eat the, yeah, just start.

[00:07:59] Chris Schwager: Yep. I think when it comes to being coached in business, I think people need to really respect that they actually play a huge integral part in the, in the, the future planning of an individual or a business, because they enable the pathway to success by keeping you accountable to someone that's not you. I used to get this asked to me a lot of time. Oh, well, you got a business partner, which I, I'm just on the exit with our current business partner at the moment after 21 years, by the way, I mean, that, that's a huge transaction transition in itself. The people used to say, but you're accountable to Brendan. And I used to say, yeah, that's true. But when Brendan doesn't know what the fuck, I don't know what it is, then who are we accountable to? Right? So having someone outside of your business is a huge value add, is a huge asset for them to look at your business subjectively and look at things differently to the way you see it.

[00:08:59] You know, so for instance, we, Brendan and I were creatives. We used to, we used to kind of obsess about, you know, products and videos and creativity and systemising the kind of the production side of things. We weren't looking at the marketing, the sales, the finances. That was our, that was our big problem. That's the thing. That's the elephant we needed to bite off and, and, uh, get on top of, and now it's very balanced with regards to how, how I spend my time at the moment. I'm not out there shooting. Like I'm, I'm very rarely out shooting anything these days. In fact, I'm, I'm really, it's not really not a good use of my time. I'll be much happier standing here in the studio with you recording, recording podcasts every day, um, but you know, because I, I believe that there's more value to give now and so that, that is a nice place to, to play and just for your listeners as well as acknowledging to, to them that everything they do right now contributes. Do you know what I mean to, to be in the dirt and to acknowledge that no, it's not, it's not the same thing, the groundhog day effect. It's not that it, it can never be that, right. You, by virtue of failing and succeeding, are then going to transfer that into information and feedback and a skill set and expertise that you can reapply in the area that you're that you're valued at in your business, right? And therefore becomes easier for you to charge what you believe you're valued at, right? And I think that's that's a really important acknowledgement for anyone, either personally growing or trying to grow their business is that it's an evolving strategy. You know, people talk about, we've got the plan. We've got the business plan. It's like, yeah, but that business plans out of date in a month. You know, everybody knows it, right? Everybody, um, Um, and the thing evolves, the thing changes and you've really got to be able to grow and and evolve with it. And my final point here is I've had people, uh, business that I video coach, for instance, and they said, I want to everything that we do together, I want to process up. Like that all sounds really great in theory, but you don't know what you don't know. And you need to be able to test and measure the things that you either succeed or fail at. So that then you can process it up. So there's no point in trying to get ahead of ourselves and say, Oh, well, let's just process it. Unless we know it works, right? Why are we going to process something that doesn't work? So that's, that's important. Yeah.

[00:11:32] To have a professional look online, you really need a professional setup with a solution that allows you to switch it on and start shooting videos. With the DIY Video Program, you get a fully equipped Desktop Video Studio. You get expert scripting, on camera training, video coaching, and all the skills you need to simplify and speed up your video creation process. If you want to learn more, go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy.

[00:12:00] Greg Standen: Cover off on this, you mentioned about, uh, what you charge and charging what you're worth, all of that kind of thing. Now, what, how does it, from your perspective, how do you think, how would that all work in an industry where you're dictated to what you can charge?

[00:12:16] Chris Schwager: Yeah, that sucks. That's a hard one, man.

[00:12:19] Greg Standen: I don't know if you know the way the NDIS model works.

[00:12:23] Chris Schwager: Go on, give me the highlight.

[00:12:25] Greg Standen: Yeah, basically a participant gets given a package of funding and there's buckets within that package that they can go and spend on certain things. It's up to them to then go and find the provider that they want to, they want to use. Then, that provider actually has a price schedule similar to Medicare and the way Medicare works or like when you go to a doctor and they can charge, they can charge above that scheduled fee, but the NDIS will only pay that scheduled fee. But if you can actually afford to go above that scheduled fee, well then in some circumstances the NDI see that as well You don't need our assistance because you're financially viable.

[00:13:12] Chris Schwager: Right.

[00:13:12] Greg Standen: And and won't fund you. So what would you speak to in that whole? Yeah, whether you're actually getting dictated to what they can and can't charge.

[00:13:23] Chris Schwager: Yeah, it's tough. Like you said it right at the start, clinical, and now I, now I understand what you're talking about. And I, I guess I equate it to being transactional, you know, and all businesses suffer from at some point being too transactional, too automated, I forget the fact that people still do business with people.

[00:13:42] There is a sense of, there is a, there is an element of, you know, can I trust this person to do the job? And, you know, they're a good person. Is it someone I could have a beer with? I remember back in, like, you know, I've been operating 21 years. I remember the, some of the first conversations with some, some people that we trusted back then was like, you know, if you can have a beer with them, you know, um, that they were going to be good people that were going to be good people to work with, you know, um, there was that no dickhead policy kind of concept. Right. But yeah, look, it is constantly building confidence in what people are gambling with you on, right? So there was an interesting video from Simon Sinek talking about the amount of touch points or the amount of questions that a sales rep would ask the audience. Um, which, which a bad salesperson asked seven questions. A good salesperson asks, you know, 25 questions or whatever. And the, the, the whole kind of, the whole concept of not selling what doesn't need to be sold. Um, and by doing so, and by demonstrating that you're not there to sell everything to them at once was creating a high amount of trust and rapport building in the process. And that was the takeaway for me. Like the, the idea, the concept that you could swing somebody's opinion based on demonstrating to them that you're not there to sell them shit they don't want. You know, you are there to 100 percent be helpful first and point them in the right direction and offer expertise and advice along the way to assist with that rapport building and that, and that trust building, which I, I've been deploying, um, already in the limited time that I've had, um, control of the business. And it's been great. People, people are investing in, in me because I have this kind of black and white cookie cutter thing approach to, to business. And it's like, I'm just going to sell you what I believe you need. You know, I'll put it in the prop and then I'll actually unsell it. Um, because if they, if they see that is that there's a high amount of trust. And so I think no matter what your selling, and it sounds ultimately quite high on transactional. I call it transactional, clinical as you put it, I think there's a high amount of input that one could have in terms of building rapport and giving them all the reasons why they should choose you versus the next person. And I think video does play an integral part in differentiating in the market. And I say this because the majority of businesses do not have a differentiator. They could tell you until they're blue in the face how different they are. But the reality is they look exactly like the next, the next company. Okay. And that's, that is something that is hard to sometimes hear for businesses, um, but it's the reality, the way the market perceives you in, if that's, you're an NDIS provider and you have the same blue website as the next company, then that's, that's what it is, right? Accept it. And just lean on, okay, how do you adopt new ways of doing things so that from an experiential perspective, you're coming off far different to what the next person, um, provides, right? And so an example of this would be potentially how you conduct yourself in that very early enquiry stage.

[00:17:21] And I talk about enquiries all the time. It seems to be a big thing at the moment. Sales videos and sales reply, reply to enquiries, proposal walkthrough videos. All of these things cost you zero, right? But time, some, some ingenuity, some care, um, the idea that, okay, where are the struggles that I'm as a business faced with in the early phases of trying to get those early conversations happening. And if it is, well, every enquiry that I get, I reply with a shit house, text based email, then that is the easiest way to dominate, right? The easiest way. And nobody's doing this. I'm preaching this every day, right? And I'm, and I'm, I'm preaching it because it's working for us. Every conversation I have almost, I won't say every, but a high probability, a high amount of our initial conversations I'm having with clients, they're commending me on the sales process. They're commending me on the reply enquiry video that was designed, the 30 second video that was designed just for them. Now for me, that's mechanical. That takes me two minutes from the time that enquiry comes into my CRM to the time that email is sent and a personalized 30-second video included takes me two minutes to do that process. It's mechanical for me because I've built that ability to develop a muscle memory, that means I can do 20 of those without even batting an eyelid. It doesn't affect me because I have a robotic, almost robotic like approach to it. Now, from their perspective, they see this personalized, unique, very thoughtful, a great snapshot of who they're going to be dealing with, perspective, and that sways a high amount of opinion and ultimately the goal in that early stage is for them to book in and that is the quantifiable answer to whether it works or not. Did they book, you know, and if they booked, that's a bloody good start, right?

[00:19:29] Because the first part of that meeting, you're talking about how great that reply enquiry video was and how, you know, it's such a clever idea. And like you're starting that early conversation, um, with, uh, by being human, and not transactional. So I, I'm a huge believer in this. I reckon, you know, and I've seen this time and time again, people lack the ability to tell a story, to introduce personalization into the way that they communicate. And I think I would argue, and I don't know enough about the market that we're talking to, but I would argue that you can do that too.

[00:20:03] Greg Standen: Uh, that that's actually something that the market actually needs. And there's been, there's been a big shift and I've just noticed sort of in the last couple of months, there is now this huge shift from an us and them mentality to, uh, let's all work together and specialize in a particular field, a particular area and anything else that we don't, don't turn around to our participants and go, sorry, we can't help you. Go, look, we specialize in doing X, Y, and Z. However, look, we know another provider that does A, B, and C. So let us hook you up with them. Whereas prior, it was very clinical. It was very, this is what we do. This is how we do it. You'll do it at, you'll live your life our way, or sorry, we can't help you.

[00:21:00] Chris Schwager: It's it's, man. It's a tough one.

[00:21:02] Greg Standen: It's yeah, yeah. Very tough.

[00:21:04] Chris Schwager: I had a scenario, I had a scenario just this week, actually, I closed a client and last Friday, I put a video on a proposal and I use that couple of minutes to articulate why the proposal was structured, the, the, the points that we had agreed to, but primarily this is an opportunity to demonstrate extra my capabilities. My, my leadership in this space. Um, and, and, again, at that tail end of the relationship where it's, you know, deal time, let's sign, is an opportunity to say, look, you know what, we talked about including this, but I've removed it. I don't think it's the right time for you. I think we should just be focusing on these things instead of that thing. So for that reason, I've removed it. Um, let me know if that's, that doesn't sit right, but otherwise this is me talking. This is my advice. This is what I'm offering you. And uh, what was interesting when I, when I met with them yesterday, they had presented that video for everybody involved. So that video became the truth. Right. So when you're presenting proposals, and I'm not sure if you're, if you guys do that at all, but you know, the same, the same type of thing can apply in, in a different, slightly different fashion to, to your client, to your listeners, but it's an opportunity to spend that remaining time that you have to remind them why they chose you in the first place, you know, and to, to be, um, to be open and transparent about it. And for them to feel, and I do, I emphasize this to feel that you're going to take care of them and that they're in good hands, that they can trust you. These are all the types of things that don't play well in the traditional sense. The world we are akin to, which is becoming more and more automated, more and more, uh, tech space and more, you know, robotic. And I guess all in all of these interactions, I think the easiest way to differentiate, the easiest way to get visibility to get cut through is start looking at adopting new concept and ideas by way of video, to break through the noise, to cut through all of the, the waffly crap that people, um, go through, because there has been an increase in this, this concept of automation.

[00:23:38] It's just been, Oh, let's automate and we'll make things more streamlined, but I reckon it's personalization over automation, over automation every day of the week, right? The ability to pick up the phone and actually communicate and actually do, I mean, that still trumps automation any day of the week, 100 percent hands down, unless you're doing hundreds of thousands of transactions, you know, if you're just working with people, they are human, you are human. And ultimately that is, you know, the, the way that you should probably look at your business.

[00:24:06] Greg Standen: Yeah, because, uh, as NDIS providers, they're, they're actually helping people actually achieve what they want to achieve through, um, uh, by assisting them with things that, you know, most people on the planet take for granted. And yeah, and the only way you can really do that is to be relational, not transactional.

[00:24:29] Chris Schwager: Yeah, a hundred percent. And like, if you're case in point, I guess, you know, I get another thing I get commended on daily is the solution. You know, the solution is, you know, just for your listeners to understand what it is that we do, I guess, providing an unlimited amount of recording of professional videos that people can do from the convenience of their desk. And that's taken about 20 years to get to that, right? Um, just so you know, it's not something that came up out of nowhere. All of a sudden, we've got a unique selling proposition, but that took three years of intently listening to people and understanding where their pain lies. And where the pain is, is people going out and buying equipment, coming back, thinking that it's going to make them look and sound better, and then just being frustrated, throwing the thing against the wall and going, I can't do this anymore. This is ridiculous. It's taking too much of my time. Right? So listening to the pain points of what people are experiencing, and I'd argue you guys right now have that ability to really clearly understand where the suffering, the pain lies, where are people wasting their time, wasting their day. And if you tap into that and understand that, and then start modeling the way that you do things, solutions and offering a streamlined pathway to success for those people, man, they'll love you, you know, because they'll, they'll see that you start to make it far easier for them to buy, based on the fact that you've worked out all of the questions that they need answered, you know, like there's nothing worse than a buyer asking a question and a seller stuffing around. To, to answer the question. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's like nah, too hard, right?

[00:26:20] So for you to acknowledge that you've, you know, potentially what their questions are going to be in the first place and be able to answer them because you've done a million times before, potentially. But if you haven't, you can certainly line yourself up to, to combat those objections. Hey man, you're in, you're in, you're, you're, you're right there. You're in the direction. You know what I mean? Yeah. Now just seal it up.

[00:26:40] Greg Standen: Generally, the way the industry works is, uh, the NDIS have a website that I can go to as a participant and type in, it's like a directory. I can type in, I want carers or I want a physio or I want a speech pathologist and, and actually ask me for a postcode or a city. So I put in all that information and it gives me a great big long list. It's up to me to then reach out and contact them. Generally the process from there is, Oh yeah, sure. Let's let's meet. It's not what, what are your, what are your needs? We have, uh, or anything about how they can help you yet. It's let's meet. When they front up at your front door, they're like, here's our playbook. Sign here. That's it. That's the discussion. Here's our playbook, here's our contract sign here. Services are, whether you want services or not..

[00:27:33] Chris Schwager: Are you suggest, are suggesting, are you, are you suggesting that a big portion of that onboarding is, is, is non-existent? Is that what I'm hearing?

[00:27:40] Greg Standen: Uh, yeah. Yeah, there's, there is no, there's no, what I'm saying is there's no thought process behind any of it.

[00:27:48] Chris Schwager: Yeah, that's a big leap, that's a big leap. And is that why they suck? Is that why they suck? All right. Okay. Got it. I got it.

[00:27:54] Greg Standen: No. Well, they, they, they suck because they then say it, don't follow through on what they can provide.

[00:28:04] Chris Schwager: Yeah. Well, you've heard it first here, heard it first here at the Hustle Free Marketing Podcast. You gotta follow up, baby. Follow up, man. Exactly. Follow up. Oh my God. It's all. This is the discipline I'm talking about. A hundred percent.

[00:28:20] Greg Standen: That, that. That to me is marketing 101. It's all in the follow up.

[00:28:23] Chris Schwager: It is. Correct. So, so, um.

[00:28:26] Greg Standen: You can have all the great websites in the world. You can have, you're going to make the best telemarketing call on the planet. You can have the best video. You can even produce it all yourself. You could do all of this stuff, have the best social media content on the planet. Yeah. But unless you follow through on that.

[00:28:45] Chris Schwager: Yeah, I got to give credit to you here, man, because we, we had the summit during the week and I was presenting that sponsoring out our company's sponsor, the, the event. And it was, you know, we had a lot of, we had a lot of fingers in the pies, I guess, with regards to that. And, and I know that you were there and you were, you were on the chat and you were diving in and you were having a crack. And then I realized this morning, um, you're doing something with Dom Procter and, you know, that's what this is about, right? This is, you know, you take it from Greg, right? That, that, that sense of not, not stopping until there's a no, do you know what I mean? That, that's, that's, that changes the paradigm here, you know, like there's nothing easy about sales and depending on how you guys see your process. It's, it's tough. Rejection's hard, but it does build grit. It does build tenacity. It does build a sense of achievement when you do win opportunities, because you really have to acknowledge that it's through your determination, grit and discipline that you're actually winning those opportunities in the first place. Like, you know, it's for instance, you know, we've got a database, there's money in it. Right. And there's money in there that is not going to close itself. It's money there that needs to be tapped. It's kind of like mining, mining money within your own, uh, sphere, within your own kind of shop, right? There's a, there's a bunch of stock back there, right? But it's not going to fly off the shelves until I start making calls. And still, till I start sending a video brochure, um, taking people out for lunch, inviting them to a workshop, um, getting them on the podcast, you know. The being top of mind is what you've demonstrated to me this week is like you, you've been on top of things and for that reason, opportunities will come as a, as a, as a result. And I would argue that just by you seeing my presentation during the week has led us to this call and has led us to the, your event in January, you know what I mean? So you, you've been able to, you've been able to acknowledge that by action creates action, and by putting yourself out there is then enabled the universe to return that back to you.

[00:31:13] To have a professional look online, you really need a professional setup with a solution that allows you to switch it on and start shooting videos. Well, with the DIY Video Program, you get a fully equipped desktop video studio. You get expert scripting on camera training, video coaching, and all the skills you need to simplify and speed up your video creation process. If you want to learn more, go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy

[00:31:41] Greg Standen: I'd just like to sort of explore a little bit further. Um, what you mentioned some of the ways in which, people during that discussion you use how people can use video. Can you explore a bit more on that, like you mentioned the email and yeah, I remember that the email that I got from you, it was like, whoa, this is different. Wow. Yeah. And that, that's, that's what got my attention is because you normally get the, as you mentioned, the text email. Hmm. Hmm. So, yeah. What, what is it?

[00:32:15] Chris Schwager: It's a no brainer, you know? Yeah. It's a no brainer. It's like the easiest way you can get on and just stand out like immediately, right? By, by being personal personable and not transactional. Trying to look at the way that you're doing things slightly differently, you know, nobody's teaching this cause it really doesn't exist yet in the, in the world. There's a lot of people I've had just recently, uh, we put a DIY Studio into Brisbane into like one of these kind of WeWork-y type places, um, Serve Corp up there, um, to give people exposure to the video where they would argue, you know, otherwise have to pay thousands of dollars for a professional video company that could come and hide this thing for 200 bucks and jump in and record their videos.

[00:33:03] Um, the funny thing when I was up there doing the install was I heard from one of the girls from ServCorp and she goes, Oh! Jane, video is so new. Uh, it's the latest thing.

[00:33:19] Greg Standen: What?

[00:33:20] Chris Schwager: I was like, well, I'd hate to say it, but it might be the latest thing for you. And there's a lot of businesses out there that have already taken the leap. But I mean, the stats don't lie. I did report something during the week that said, you know, still 94 percent of Australian businesses fail at demonstrating the basic capabilities of their organization in video form. You know, I think that's a pretty good place to start. However, it does rely on having a good, strong message and understanding how to communicate that message in video form. I 100 percent believe that doesn't need to be necessarily a polished video.

[00:33:52] A company profile that articulates who you are, what you do or who the company is, what the company, what your company does, how the, that your company helps are the three biggest questions that you could probably answer to try and create clarity instead of confusion. And the quick wins, you know, as I've said to you guys are ready is, you know, that reply enquiry, walking through people, walking people through a couple of key steps in the process to make sure that they acknowledge that you do have a process and that builds a lot of confidence, that you are delivering things differently in the world of video to economize time, to have a repeatable process, a digitized version of yourself out there, which is, man, it's like, yeah, That's how you scale right to to economize on time, record once and distribute many. You know, I've got videos in this, in this process is one that's actually a left a message video, right? And what it does, it happens after my personalized video if we don't hear from them. So the personalized video goes out, I give that 30 seconds, 24 hours later, if I don't hear from them, I activate the L. A. M. The Left A Message video. Now that's what 30 seconds long or something, but it's a generic video. I probably recorded that 10 years ago, and I got no reason to change it.

[00:35:11] Greg Standen: So they said, yeah.

[00:35:12] Chris Schwager: I mean, my beard's probably less gray and you know, all of that, but this is my, this is my point, right? Like you have with video an opportunity to have an electronic or digital version of a, of a process, of a message, of a system that can live on in perpetuity. It's, it's something that you can continually show to others and have them learn from. It's a way to move the business in the forward direction, by you not having to manage all those micro steps all the time. And that is really interesting proposition for businesses to be able to deploy these micro video touch points in this way. It doesn't need to be bloody polished. I mean, if you guys are out there thinking that you got to polish the shit out of it. Yeah, you've got to get some fundamentals, right? The messaging and the present, the presenting and the way that it's executed and how it's played. That's not too many steps in the process that people don't have to go click, click, click, click, click to try and get to your video, right. But. You've got to give it a bit of love, and I'd suggest that you, that is an easy little bite of the elephant that you could chew off to make things work more efficiently for you. It's not going to deliver bloody thousands of views. It's not a viral video, right? But it is solving a deep rooted problem of, okay, when they inquire, is it, are they just getting a sea of text based replies going, Oh, we'll be with you in 24 hours. Thank you for your enquiry. Or is it. You know, is it actually something different because it will stand out and people will acknowledging that, will acknowledge that you have something, you have a different approach and that builds a lot of trust. People buy, people really buy from us in some cases built on our processes alone. They see that the approach and the consistency behind what we're doing is enough for them. And it doesn't, and it's not about proof of work and bloody skin in the game and all this stuff. It's like, do they feel like we're in control and that we're going to be the best people to support them? And that's the thing that we get commended on. And all of that is about is consistency, is being consistent. Consistency builds trust.

[00:37:32] Greg Standen: Now, we've spoken a lot about, um, how, how to use video, um, what, what it can do for a business. And I can see providers, uh, sitting there listening to this podcast and going, but isn't that all expensive? What do you say to that?

[00:37:52] Chris Schwager: Well, it's an investment, right? So it's an investment in your time. It's an investment in your resources and out of your pocket expenses, right? The, I don't, I don't say much to that, to be honest, because I think if I'm talking to people that look at it as a cost, they're the wrong client. Now we, you know, with the DIY video solution, right? The desktop studio enables people to just record endless amounts of videos. The, I've, I've cross checked our price with people that we've done jobs for, and they've said to me, Oh mate, tremendous amount of value. I just spent $22,000 on five professionally filmed videos, and I'm not that happy with them. With your system, it enables me to just record and record whenever I want, morning, noon or night, and have accessed as effectively a pathway to be able to do those yourself. So that, I guess, in that example is, is I guess the reason why people invest is they acknowledge that it can be costly. It can be a cost and it's only a cost because they have not been able to look at it from a how do they diversify and maximized, repurpose, reused the content to leverage for years to come, right? So a company profile video, which is what I showed example of before is a single nine less than 90 second video, but it's not like, Oh, well, we're going to spend thousands of dollars putting this video together and then chuck it onto YouTube and wonder after five years while it's only had 20 bloody views, right? It's an ability to market the marketing. You've got to continually look at right-oh, we've done that video, how do we skin it and snip it into small social videos and put those out? How do we put it on our email signature on our homepage, on our about page, on our blog page? Tell, tell, tell. The minute you sit down with someone, Oh, have you had a chance to see our company profile video? Oh no. Great. Well, let's just, it's like a little short one minute video. Let's just have a quick look at it now. Right? So it's leading with the video and putting video first, is part of the mechanism of video marketing. It's not just, Oh, we shot it. We put all this energy to shoot it and cost and la la la. You've got to keep it moving. And it's, as I say, the evolving strategy, right? It's not like, Oh, we did our video and it didn't work. It's like, well, you need to continually lead. You need to lead with it. You need to understand how it can work. And, you know, just when you think it's dead shit and everything's out of date and so and so doesn't even work for the business and they're in that video still? And someone will pop up in five years time and go, Oh, I watched your video. It's really good. It really informed me on what you guys do. And you'll go, Oh, okay. So, so the, the, um, the metrics are really not the truth behind whether your marketing is working or your video is working. Often I found the most positive feedback we've ever had on our videos have been through word of mouth, through verbal, through people acknowledging that they watch X, Y, Z videos. I mean, I've lost complete track when someone says, Oh, I watched a video and you're like, which one of the thousand videos are you talking about? But um, yeah, yeah, you just can't settle for like, oh, well, we've done our video. Why isn't our business growing?

[00:41:03] Greg Standen: Exactly. That's, that's just ludicrous thinking. Hmm. Yeah. So in wrapping this up, Chris, uh, how can, if people want to know more about, uh, video and how to produce quality video or how they can use video, how do I, how can I get in contact with yourself and reach films?

[00:41:21] Chris Schwager: I reckon the best way to start is go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy. That'll give you a really good insights as to the world of economizing and scaling video in your business. There's an investment. And I believe that investment, investment is the most compelling reason you can engage with video right now. The ability to produce endless amounts of content, the ability to look and sound amazing on video calls. That would be a really great starting point. I'd say jump on there. I'll give you a half hour free video coaching just for you. No obligation, uh, sign up and let's chat further.

[00:42:03] Greg Standen: Fantastic. Well, this has been wonderful. I'd go and I'd really encourage all the NDIS providers out there to go and check out that offer from Chris. ​