Transforming Startups using Professional DIY Videos with Ross McKay (Episode 117)

Chris Schwager: Welcome to the Video Made Simple podcast where we help take the mystery out of video and break through the monotony of day to day communication for marketers, entrepreneurs and clients. Watch and listen to the world's best video strategists, business leaders, and communication experts to supercharge the way you sell market and teach.

Brenden Kumarasamy: How would the world change for you are an exceptional communicator?

Dr. Greg Schreeuwer: You said it the way you said it, cuz that's the way it needs to be said in the moment.

[00:00:23] Chris Schwager: Open your mind to the potential of video.

Phil Nottingham: It's all about showing rather than telling people.

Sian Jenkins: The whole idea was to create bingeable content.

Chet Lovegren: This guy actually made me a video. He took the time. That's probably the type of support and care I'm gonna get. When I'm paying these people a lot of money for their product.

[00:00:37] Chris Schwager: And lead your business into a world of modern communication.

Kate Robinson: You don't have to spend millions of dollars, your Spielberg production to get an outcome.

Andrew Zbik: Within 24 hours of opening that email we could tell they are watching that full 20 minutes.

Todd Hartley: And video's the most powerful tool for convincing and converting. So we are in the driver's seat.

[00:00:54] Chris Schwager: With practical tips that will help you become a better video market. This is the Video Made Simple podcast.

[00:01:10] Hello video marketing professionals. Welcome to the podcast that takes the mystery out of producing videos. And I'm your host, Chris Schwager. And I'm so happy to be joined this week by Mr. Brendan Southall. Hello, Brendina.

[00:01:24] Brendan Southall: Brendina I haven't had that one for a while. That goes back to school days, isn't it?

[00:01:30] Chris Schwager: Well, we've got a special guest today where I'm so personally so excited to have Ross on the show. How did we find Ross, Brendan?

[00:01:37] Brendan Southall: I find him really quite a lovely guy.

[00:01:40] Chris Schwager: Yes!

[00:01:44] Brendan Southall: We, we found Ross on, uh, on LinkedIn initially I think a LinkedIn outreach campaign. And then over time we gauge with a lot of our content and build trust and whatever, and then, uh, yeah, came time to reaching out. And there he was.

[00:01:58] Chris Schwager: Ross McKay is from Canberra Australia, and he's the director of Yonder, a lean startup consultancy, and brand new DIY Video Program.

[00:02:08] Uh, yonder focuses on training corporate and private teams to quickly commercialize product services and processes using bespoke education. Since 1985, he's used his expertise to reboot tech startups that hit the wall, that hit the wall. And we're really curious to see how he's using the DIY videos to help his business and improve the experience for his clients. Here's our chat with Ross McKay.

[00:02:40] Ross McKay: In 2003, I did start an MBA. I did an MBA, I finished an MBA and, um, they didn't tell me anything about startups. The startups just didn't exist.

Everything was about existing, existing businesses. Right. Okay. And then, um, I thought there's gotta be a more scientific way of doing this. And I stumbled across, uh, in 2013, Ash Meer who invented leans stack and went, aha! Scientific testing with a customer problem focus was what he was on about. There it is.

That's, that's the thing, because it takes so long and so much effort to start a business and then realise that it's not going to reach what you want it to. And that's what, where I kept on stumbling all the time. I wanted bigger horizons and I was building for myself. And so, and, uh, so then I started a few more and then I crashed and burn spectacularly.

I did a passion project. You know, where they say, follow your passion, never working the day in your life? Follow your passion and you'll go broke ass is what is my lesson for you. Because I thought, because I know everything about this, because this is my driving force, I can ignore all the stuff I've learned over the past 20 years and just go ahead and spend my money. So, and I had plenty of superannuations stacked away from my stint in the government. Yes. Let's go and do this. Oh, buy this. Oh yeah. Build that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, start this line. And so it was supposed to be a multidisciplinary line and, and it's a great way of starting is starting small and the director, but I just started spending money and, um, realised that I wasn't getting, you know, this wasn't going to work and too late.

And then I thought, Hmm. Education costs and a greater education costs a lot and me spending my superannuation on this great education of how not to do a startup. Look, maybe I can help other people out.

[00:04:44] Chris Schwager: Ah, well that sounds like such an amazing journey that you've been on and for you to go and burn yourself so dramatically, I feel for you.

[00:04:52] Ross McKay: Oh yeah.

[00:04:54] Chris Schwager: I do feel, yeah. So tell me, how does, I guess you're in this world of video now, right? This is a video podcast, but I'm so interested in your, um, interpretation, I guess is where, how video plays a role in the world of startups.

[00:05:08] Ross McKay: There's two constants in startups. One is that you never have enough time.

And the other one is that you're always learning something. You've gotta learn something every day. I forget who said for someone's, it was Gary Vaynerchuk, someone like that said, embrace the suck. And so, um, it probably wasn't him, but anyway, uh, do something every day that sucks.

And I thought I hate doing video, uh, because I'm just, you know, I felt I didn't have the head for it. I was just, you know, it was too much too. It's too difficult to learn how to do all this stuff. So, I mean, alright, well, let's, let's start doing video because I'm a kinetic, uh, visual learner. I thought video is obviously the way to do it. Let's try and see how we can invent this. So reinvent it so that it's not a talking head.

So I'm still working on it. You've gotta do alternative channels. That's the real big thing, because I don't have time to watch video. Unless it's five minutes. I'm, I'm not I'm out of there, you know, unless someone's at the point I scroll through. So I'm trying, I'm now going through the process of how to have on demand video that really works for visual kinetic learners and then alternate ways of delivering that.

[00:06:31] Chris Schwager: You're looking like Steve Jobs. I just kind of point that out right now. Um.

[00:06:36] Ross McKay: You you like you like the, you like the, the mock crew?

[00:06:39] Chris Schwager: I just wanna pay particular attention to, to the amazing image quality that Ross, uh, that we've set up, I guess, for Ross, but it wouldn't be as good as it is, unless you had such a stylish hipster as, as Ross. Uh, we're definitely paying tribute to Steve Jobs in this episode. Um,

[00:07:04] Ross McKay: yeah, that's right. Yeah. I just, didn't the first thing that I found to put on.

[00:07:10] Chris Schwager: What, what what's been, what's been the findings here, you know, because, uh, we are very aware of where you've come from the trial and error phase of trying to do videos yourself. What has been the revelation in the last, maybe three, four months, uh, since kind of adopting a new professional way of producing content?

[00:07:27] Ross McKay: I really notice shitty video right now.

[00:07:30] Chris Schwager: Yeah.

[00:07:30] Ross McKay: Uh, or I really

[00:07:31] Chris Schwager: it's on your rise it's yeah,

[00:07:34] Ross McKay: it stands out, right. It stands out so badly. I found that even for just a Zoom meeting, that video quality really matters. And you know, if people, if people want to use their phone, as they're walking down the street, good luck to 'em. It's not me, but, um, I, the way I've got this set up and the way you've set it up for me, um, But is to have a teleprompter, is to have, uh, the video. I know where it is. I press a button and I'm boom, I'm ready to go. I'm, I'm learning how to present. I'm learning how to edit and all that sort of stuff. It's a whole new world, but, um, honestly, it's, it's changed my life. You suddenly see a different way of doing things. That's way, way better than what you were doing before.

[00:08:28] Chris Schwager: What, why is it important? You know, like you say, quality is important, but, but why do you believe? Cause I, people have different variations of this, but yet majority of people still, uh, suffer with this substandard image, quality and, and present. I mean, there's so many things that are wrong with it, but why do you think it's important to, to revamp the way we look?

[00:08:50] Ross McKay: That's really interesting. I, I, and I can't speak for anybody else. I can only speak for myself. I switch off more videos than I watched even stuff. That's got quality in there. I will stop watching a video, find the transcript and read it, lying in bed rather than watch a poor quality video. And I just get this tick, tick, tick, uh, fast forward, fast forward, fast forward, trying to get, get to the blasted point. And when you've got poor image, quality, poor sound, quality, poor editing, uh, ill thought out formatting, it just drives me mad. And it's a, it's a, there's a huge, it's a crowded market out there. It's a huge amount of competition. Get, get to your shit together and start doing it properly. And suddenly you've, you've taken away the variables. That you can control quite easily. And then it's down to your quality of the content.

[00:09:52] Chris Schwager: So by minimizing all those distractions, and there are, they are distractions. I mean, the, the amount of tasks that one has to go through to produce a video properly. And you, you hadn't mentioned in that mix, messaging and present presenting that message, right? yeah. So they're editing, editing is right. Like you're right. And saying, yeah, cut out all the crap. But you know, if they'd got the crap right in the first place, maybe they, they would've had a more coherent and more valuable piece of content.

[00:10:17] Ross McKay: That messaging is, is really super important because I do the old Winston Churchill thing. I'll write everything out that I want to, that I want to get in there and slowly start boiling it down, coalescing it. And I'm the worst one to be talking for the next half an hour about something I'm passionate about. Just you have to cut me off, but, uh, I know nobody else is. No, but nobody else wants to hear my interesting anecdote about, you know, stubbing, ma Mateo on this. They want the, to get the information so they can get the purpose of watching the video is to learn and they want to learn. So, and the quickest way to do that is to get the message up front. Work out how it's the best way to deliver it and then get the message at the back. And that's, that's what I try and do.

[00:11:07] Chris Schwager: We'll be back in a moment with Ross Mckay. Are your DIY videos, holding you back nowadays, videos, everything, and there's a more streamlined way. And you saw it with Ross, how good does he look, to present yourself professionally on video rather than a crappy quality webcam, and you can do it, all from the convenience of your desk, it's called the DIY Video Program.

The DIY Video Program allows you to create course content sent personalised sales, video and emails, record regular video updates for social media and looking sound just amazing in every video interaction with a single push of a button, uh, anywhere in the world. So you get in professional lights, you're get in professional sound, camera, teleprompter, and all the skills you need to supercharge how you sell, market, and teach.

Learn more and go to ridgefilms.com.au/diy.

[00:11:58] Brendan Southall: How you, uh, use video to help market the startups you you're working with, uh, as well as yourself, you know, what, what's the process look like there? How do you use video to, to do that?

[00:12:08] Ross McKay: That's a terrific question. And, and to be honest, I'm still working on it. I've got a business coach who blasts me all the time for being a perfectionist. And I know I am, but I, I still haven't nailed what I'm trying to do. What I try and do is to get, is to use my iPad as a drawing implement, uh, and zoom in, zoom out. Uh, so I, I record my iPad. I record my screen and I record me, me being me. I sometimes do them at a separate. I I do, I do different takes and then record them and overlay them.

And what I'm trying to do is to replicate the, an in person, one on one experience, as you would, if a person was sitting in front of you, when with kinetic learners like me, it's watch, see, do. And so I make sure there's a doing component in there, and that requires graphics. I'm trying to invent what I'm, what I'm trying to do without being derivative of somebody else.

But, you know, it'll be much easier just to copy somebody else who's quite successful, but I'm trying to get the best of those things and figure out what they're doing and then try and recreate it. And I've got a whole bank of stuff that I'm, I'm, I'm working on at the one time, you know, About 40 different tools. I, I think I've got about a hundred all up in the bank, um, ready to go. And so I'm just trying to make sure that there's a consistent templated format that I'm working with.

[00:13:38] Chris Schwager: And one, one of the things that you have been able to do is just cut a vast portion of what it takes to produce a video by having this ready at your desk to turn on and go. So then it's just about how you increase the engagement for the viewer. By integrating those, I guess, three sources of imagery to kind of keep it alive.

[00:14:01] Ross McKay: You, you, you are taking away the variable of image, quality and reliability. And so you just know, I mean, I reach over, I, I hit the button. I, I check that, um, I haven't got a burger hanging out my nose and the way I go and it just works.

And the being able to go, I think I'm gonna do a video. And that, that thing that you taught me of going, oh, uh, gday Ross. Um, just thought I drop your line. Yeah. Uh, Hey going what call me, blah, blah, blah. This is really good. Have a look at the, have a look at the document I sent through. That's so super powerful.

It blows my mind. Every single day, I find there's a different way that I can use video. It just it's makes life a lot simpler because I don't have to write stuff down. You don't have to write stuff down. You don't have to do any graphics. You don't have to call anyone and say, could you do a video for me?

You just go and do it, spend a bit of time on Camtasia, make it a great video. If I want a really great video, I'll send it to you guys and then get you to do those that, you know, wizardry that you do. Um, but normally it's just bang, bang, bang, zipper dip, and, and it's done and you get it out there. I'm not spending, you know, I, I.

Honestly, I can do a half a dozen videos to reply to the people who've sent me emails in 15 minutes. Yeah. And yeah, it's super personalized. It's direct. It's um, it's it's me. Yeah. I, instead of going, uh, you know, write down another video, write down another email and cut, you know, even if you, even if you're doing the same things over and over again, it still takes a lot more time to write it down and, and cut and paste it into an email than it does to record it and just send it off.

[00:15:51] Brendan Southall: How are people responding to that? Do they prefer it over reading a text based email or?

[00:15:57] Ross McKay: They're sometimes surprised. Uh, but I, I get better openings. I get better opening rates and hopefully it's the people I'm talking to. So hopefully it's the content. Right. You know, they, they love what, I'm what I'm saying, but the having a video there, especially when you embedded into your email, Is fabulous. I just go click and, you know, there's a message, message below.

[00:16:19] Chris Schwager: The, the, the, the types of clients that are, uh, kind of bamboozling us. Wow. Wowing us more to the point are the ones that are, you know, taking on this homework, I guess, and, and actually producing content. They're taking it for what it is, but they're also distributing it. They also getting it out there. Yeah. Understand that it's not perfect, but keep, keep chipping away. Um, and incorporating that with the coaching that they're getting and this sort of onboarding with the DIY Video Program is, is a really good indication that they're serious about what they're doing, and they're proactive about really learning on the job if you like. Um, and you know, the fact that they've got a great support mechanism to be able to do that, it's not just like, oh, I bought a ring light. Isn't that the answer to everything, you know, they've actually, yeah.

[00:17:09] Ross McKay: The way I look at it is that if you have, uh, a long tail video, um, or a long tail object that you're creating, then you up the quality. If you have a short life video, then just pump it out there, cuz they can look at it once and then go see you later. I believe that you could even do more wi with the person to person thing. I, I, I think that there's still questions to be answered that could be coached through in what you guys do. And I think that's one, the, the two real value points, the video equipment, the, and the back software backup.

But the coaching that you do, and there's a lot of coaching that still could be done after that to get a person it's beyond video ready, it's video comfortable. Uh, and there's a, there's a lot more, I believe that you could do. And there's a lot more that I might, I can only speak for myself that I'd pay for.

[00:18:11] Chris Schwager: Well, hey, Brendan, Brendan, can you knock up an invoice, this arvo? Cause, uh, we've got some more we've got some more, there is some more coaching to do for us. Uh, I think that's probably the next step, but yeah, I agree, man. I agree.

And the way that you talk about responding with video is makes complete sense, cuz I know how easy it is to find the perfect text based wording of emails to make sure that nothing is misinterpreted because email and text is so easily, yeah, misinterpreted is like, can go either way. You've gotta make sure you take, you keep emotion away from it. You stick to the point, you try and keep it singular in its in its messaging. So you're not trying to add too many things into the mix and that is a lot of work for someone to actually knock up an email all the time.

[00:19:01] Ross McKay: I will say things that I think are humorous and uh, if I'm saying them in video, it actually comes across. Exactly you, you're not missing the cues that you do in, in, uh, in email and that's, and, and to me, that's super value because I, cuz I know that if you, if you don't know who I am, that I'm not that real, super slick down professional guy, I'm, I'm a guy who likes, who, who just likes to live in, in the moment and, and deliver what I, what I'm, what I'm doing that I'm passionate about. Sometimes that can get re misinterpreted in the written word. So therefore, uh, it cuts out the middle man.

[00:19:48] Chris Schwager: One of the things that you said in your recent interview with us was that you are adopting a video first, you know, mindset that you know, you're not... Your instinct isn't to reply, uh, and do things the way that they've already been done, because that's becoming inefficient and slow. You're actually looking at video to improve the efficiency and the authenticity, I guess, of your communications with anybody. Um, but primarily because you are taking, removing all of the uncertainty and all the potential questions that could actually derive from not getting that email right? Like it's creating more questions than it should, you know, whereas you can kind of square off a lot of that by, by having it real, you know, by having it real, you know, obviously that's it, we all know. And I, I don't mind your booger line earlier, by the way, like keep the booger in. As far as I'm concerned,

[00:20:47] Ross McKay: that's bit too real for me.

[00:20:50] Chris Schwager: Okay. Just, just for the, for, for the audience, uh, there is a, there is a replay button you can actually rerecord your gun that you don't have to put up with the booger. Alright. As long as you catch it early and you don't go too long in your video message, you can just hit the redo button.

[00:21:07] Ross McKay: And the beauty of editing, the, the beauty of being able to edit out the ums and the errs, cuz I, I think as I'm talking and sometimes it just veers off and being able to edit that out, man, that's, that's super powerful.

This video, first thing it's TikTok for grownups. Is is the way I look at it because I'm never gonna be on a TikTok, but creating the stuff that really smart people are creating on TikTok and looking at it from a business sense and going, yeah, I see what you're doing here. And then trying to redo that is what I'm trying to do.

I am a victim of the same thing.

[00:21:45] Brendan Southall: Uh, so Ross I've seen on your LinkedIn profile that you you've got in your tagline there, that you reboot startups. What, what does that actually mean?

[00:21:53] Ross McKay: Midday startups. So they're after funding, and they've got a runway and they're generally getting either a product, uh, solution fit or product market fit. Rebooting a startup means, uh, transformation in a moving feast. Uh, business transformation is something that I was really interested in back in the day, where you've got established business, um, uh, plans, your business model works. You've got customers, all that sort of stuff. You're just a bit stale and you need to reboot.

Um, and that was, that was called business transformation. Startups, they've been funded to do a certain debt, to get to a certain point, to do a certain amount of research, to find either problem solution fit, which is where the customer problem is matched to a solution that is both, uh, viable, uh, feasible, and as well as being desirable or to product market fit.

Product market fit is the, is the holy grail very few startups ever get to product market fit. What's happening is that the, is that you have startups who are funded and then they, their runways running out. And they haven't got the growth figures that I anticipated. . And so, basically, it's a, alright, let's just stop and pause for a moment. Have a little think about the major things in, in, uh, within your organization.

And shall we, uh, shall we pause, uh, shall we pivot? Shall we persevere or change something? So we, we, we look at the evidence that's already there and then, um, and then gather some new evidence. Uh, often there's not, there's really, very little evidence of, of it at all in in startups. Yeah. cause, cause we all know, right. As, as entrepreneurs, we know the customer better than they know themselves.

So yeah, we, we don't need to get their evidence, but you know, I'm guilty of that too.

[00:23:56] Chris Schwager: What can you do for the DIY Video Program?

[00:23:59] Ross McKay: You've got three things. You've got your customer, you've got the value proposition and I think that's, I think your value proposition is different than, um, is better than what you think it is. Uh, you've got your channels and I think there's other channels that you could be using, uh, or you've got your revenue model. And that revenue model, I think is I, I, I believe you've got a better revenue model than the one you've got now.

[00:24:22] Chris Schwager: And I say this, uh, seriously, because it was brought up in our latest board meeting that whilst, you know, the DIY program is not necessarily a startup in its own entity or whatever, but it is like a, a pretty significant product offering.

For, for us where it's, there's a lot of engineering that, you know, still needs to, to go into it for it, to be, you know, viable to the masses and, and kind of have the polished edge to it that makes purchasing easy. And so, yeah, certainly wouldn't rule out, uh, yourself to, to be able to support. And in, in the development of the, of the rollout.

[00:25:01] Ross McKay: One thing that I really like is working with, uh, people and products that inspire me and look not pissed in your pocket at all.

This inspires me the, um, there's. I believe that there's money being left on the table in almost all organizations. We love our solutions. With just a tweak suddenly, dozens of people more, uh, every day you start loving our solutions and you get that hockey stick curve and you're going, yeah. Yeah. I'm really smart.

And you forget about all, all the hassle and all, all of the, all of the sleepless nights that you went through to get there, but you, you just go, yeah, good on me. Uh, but it's, it's generally the little things on the outside, the outside view of the, of the whole that you can't get when you're in there. And that's just someone really special, like Steve Jobs or something who obviously could, um, but, um, really special like Steve people like Steve Jobs when, when I reckon that with perseverance and resilience and, um, uh, a bit of kindness, ordinary people achieve extraordinary things. And that's what I try. I, I reckon that most of us are just ordinary people. All startup owners are just ordinary people. Who've got itchy feet and ha see a, see a long horizon, wanna follow that horizon.

And by applying a bit of scientific methodology to it, we can do that. And what I really, I just hate seeing really great products go down because they've got a poor business model. It's just, it's such a shame. Cause what always happens is that a week, a month, a year later, someone else has come up with the same idea, but using a different business model and going that was, I mean, imagine how Skype felt when, uh, when Zoom took over.

Yeah. They'll go. What the hell?

[00:27:03] Chris Schwager: What Skype.

[00:27:05] Ross McKay: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

[00:27:09] Chris Schwager: That was a really great, a great response too. I mean, I really appreciate you, uh, crystallizing that as, as well. And, and in the process, I guess, uh, getting us to understand more about where your expertise lies and I'm serious about, you know, a consultation or some way to, to see how we might be able to work together, because we know...

[00:27:30] Ross McKay: anytime

[00:27:31] Chris Schwager: We know that people raise their eyebrows, unlike anything else that we talk about, when it comes to promoting the DIY Video Program. And it it's because it, it is addressing someone's, um, ethos ecosystem, whatever you wanna say, to the rawest part of their body. They've all gone through the eight hours sitting in their car, trying to perfect the video, they've all gone through buying equipment and having it sit on their desk or, or in the bloody thing, collecting dust, they've all gone through, uh, the editing hassle and not knowing what to do and coming out with a crappy product after spending six hours.

So these are real pain points of real people that, that think that video is just a couple little 1, 2, 3 steps, and then it's done. Right. And I'm not understanding that there's actually more like 25, 30, 40, 50 steps to getting it right. To repeating that process. So it's kind of like for us, I mean, it's like, how do we keep tapping into that, to that person, that behavior, um, to then come out the other side with a solution that is ultimately, you know, far more superior than they do it?

[00:28:44] Ross McKay: All great solutions come from the problems from the previous great solution. So whatever you did before we feel was great, then there's, by asking your customer where, what problems they have with it, you'll find the friction points, you'll find the thing. And that's why you'll find that there's a different solution to be had with you from within your own solution. That's why, uh, innovation is a continuous and ongoing process. You just can't, uh, you, you can't do your customer discovery, then you go, that's it done?

Which is which a lot of us do. Right. Um, but you can't do it. You've got, you've gotta structure that customer discovery in, uh, and into your processes and have a, uh, a curious startup mind throughout your business life. When I was considering how to solve my, I, I, I had decided that video was where, where I wanted to go.

Uh, all I wanted to find out was how to, and, you know, you, you, you get on, you get on YouTube, right? That's how you do see what other people are doing. Um, and it's always, here's, here's my setup. And you go, yeah, that looks pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah, I, I can see all the components. I just dunno, you know, where to get them.

I dunno, what I, what would buy would be, right. But everybody else had a solution that was about, um, them doing stuff for me. You had a solution that was about me doing stuff for me. And I will never lose the stuff that I do for myself. If I get someone else to do it for me, it's just it's ephemeral. It just goes, I, I haven't learned anything at all. I I've purchased a provider. I've someone's done a task for me. I haven't learned anything I wanted to learn, uh, because learnings in, in my DNA. And, uh, when you guys came up with that, I think, yep. This, this is, this is the answer. Oh, Andrew sent me a, uh, one of those really sexy, uh, figure brochure. I love that. Oh man. I'm in love with, I tell you, I, I, I just go, how could I use this? well, it was, did business. Fantastic.

[00:31:05] Chris Schwager: And it was like, going back to our, the question before we brought you on the show was sort of talking to Brendan about how we first connected it was LinkedIn, but I recall the, when we started the initial sales process, it, it fizzled at one point and the opportunity went cold and we had that flagged in our system. And so instead of, you know, giving you endless amounts of calls and bugging you on email or whatever, we decided to pop a video into a video brochure and send it off. And with this, you know, caring message of saying, yeah, well, no, we've dropped off. We're just sort of interested to see if you're still serious about video marketing in this way.

Um, we'd love to pick it up and have a chat. And obviously something happened in, in that moment. I just probably kick it back to you. I guess what happened there, like was I couldn't have been just, oh, they've sent us a video brochure. I think I'll give these guys another call or like, how did it all come about? Was it just timing?

[00:31:57] Ross McKay: The startup I was working in was tiptoeing a fine line. Uh, and I wasn't sure whether I would have anymore revenue coming in from that particular startup and I'm, and I thought, can I afford this? You know, it's, it's a lot of money. And, um, my wife is a, uh, CPA and very good at a job. And, uh, every, she doesn't bother me too much except when we are getting close to bath time.

And, um, so she was defining my runway for me. And, uh, and I, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, you know, it's, it's probably outta the question now and then you guys came up with it with what we call in startup land, a mafia offer the offer that you can't refuse. And I went, I can't, you know, I cannot not do this. And, uh, yeah, I was, yeah, I was. You gave me the offer that I couldn't refuse.

[00:32:59] Chris Schwager: Love it. I love it. Um, right up my alley.

[00:33:02] Brendan Southall: It reminds me, um, of that little video that you did the case study. You, you mentioned about, you know, wanting to do videos, buying all your equipment, going through the, the hundreds of hours, setting it up, doing the recordings, multiple takes, blah, blah, blah. Didn't work. So you tried to solve it by going to buy a better camera. I, I love that story.

[00:33:25] Ross McKay: That's right. That's yeah, I'm sure a better camera will fix it. Yeah, no, it's never gonna fix that. And honestly, you would think that a camera store would be really wide for this, but they go, here's what you want.

You stick your iPhone in here, you got a little and

[00:33:45] Chris Schwager: Here you go

[00:33:46] Ross McKay: yeah, I hear, but you know, I'm just not seeing the quality.

[00:33:51] Chris Schwager: Well, here's a third for thought for you Ross, and maybe something in consideration as to maybe how you could help, but what we came to the revel revelation the other day that we are disrupting the iPhone market, because in our particular example, it is unachievable with the same level of, um, ease, speed and scale that you can get from an iPhone.

So iPhone provides mobility, so the ability to pull it out and go for it. But the look and the audio quality and the consistency with background and lens and all of that stuff, you are still not able to get, uh, in just a standard iPhone. So I kind of thought that was nice. It gave my little Steve Jobs pat on the back, you know, and thought, ah,

[00:34:40] Ross McKay: Absolutely right. I, I remember at one stage, uh, Nokia was the, was the biggest, um, camera manufacturer in the world. Now it's iPhone must be the must be now it's as, as a singular, uh, organization, uh, you know, Samsung would probably be big too, but, uh, there's, there's a level of mediocrity that is inescapable, unless you are supremely skilled with an iPhone. And oh, look, I, I dip my lead to those people who do movies out with iPhones. I go, you guys are pros. You're really, really, really good. I'm never going to be really good. And while I, while I'm able to be able to, to, to, uh, to sit around and talk about this, uh, I will never get that good, no matter how much of a practice, because there's a, there's a skill level involved, uh, and you need to be taught and you need to, and you need to have the innate talent in the first place. I'm able to overcome a lack of talent in that particular phase by using a DIY, uh, video.

[00:35:54] Chris Schwager: Reduce the variables of the technical aspects that come at you when you're trying to simply do a recording in this way, because you, you are a hundred percent, right? You go and try and emulate a iPhone on a movie set. You've gotta know settings, you've gotta know lighting. You've gotta understand color temperature. You've gotta understand focal length and point. It's the, it's not something that needs to be taught to the average person. You do your business. You, you know, you control the narrative, but wipe out all the other technical hazards that could get in your way.

Like, I've just been doing a couple of Zoom recordings for pharmaceutical companies in the last couple of days. And this guy had gone on and he was using his Bluetooth headset to, you know, use it as a microphone and earpiece. And I I'm just, I'm not convinced with Bluetooth it's it will never be part of our, our business, because it is so unreliable interference, dropouts, you know, crackles, all those types of things that just get in the way of, of, uh, get in the way of getting it right and getting it right the first time, you know, that's why the sound, you know, is hardwired directly into the camera. That's why we don't rely on Bluetooth and all those other things, you know, just you, anytime you add another piece to the puzzle, you increase the potential for, uh, errors and problems. And, and with those errors and problems comes like comes frustration. And then if it's frustrating, it's like, ah, it's bloody too hard, never works.

[00:37:24] Ross McKay: I've got apple gear everywhere. I, I have, my whole ecosystem is apple except where I'm forced. I I've got a system behind me that I keep locked away for when I've got, when I've gotta use, um, um, um, and Microsoft, but this, he phone, it links to random.

Objects. I might be talking, using video and go what the hell's going on. Why can't I hear anybody? You know, it's

[00:37:50] Chris Schwager: CB radio from the truck driver coming down there, (singing). Um, look, I'm, I'm very aware Ross. We have gone over time. I know that you and Brendan are got better things to, to, uh, to get on with for your day.

But, uh, I just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing some of your experience, I guess, uh, both from a video only perspective, as well as how it's integrating with startups. I'm very keen to continue this conversation outside of the show and see how we can work together.

[00:38:17] Ross McKay: Absolutely. Look, it's been absolute pleasure. I love what you guys are doing. I get inspired by seeing smart people solving problems that in a different way and more power.

[00:38:31] Chris Schwager: If you wanna learn more about startup transformation or Ross McKay, have a look at the show notes for details. Transformation can be highly disruptive. It can in most instances, but with the right strategy, it can be what your business needs to move forward. Thanks for tuning in that's all for this episode of Video Made Simple podcast and we'll see you next week.