RV (00:02): So I know from experience that it is extremely difficult to find quality people to work with, to help you get stuff done in a brand builders group, we are a strategy firm. We think of ourselves as architects. We think of ourselves as the air traffic controllers. We tell people what to do in the order they should do it, and in the way it should be done. But when it comes to actually getting the work done, we often have to partner with other firms. And so today I’m excited to introduce you to my personal video editor. His name is Eric, and we’re going to get inside his head about how video storytelling is really done. We’re gonna talk about four effective rules to do it. What are some of the mistakes that people make? And I want you to let to, to make this specific for you to know that the videos that we’re gonna talk about producing today are promotional videos. RV (00:55): We’re not talking about social media reels. And you know, it could apply to that. It’ll apply to your YouTube videos that you post every week or whatever, or your podcast. But we’re really talking about is like the commercial, the video commercial of you that you use to sell yourself and your services. And, you know, there’s a couple different types of videos for that. So it’s really like the high end video that you need to, to sell yourself. And so let me tell you a little bit about Eric. So he’s an award-winning video producer. He is an editor. He’s a storyteller. He’s a strategist. He does the whole thing from the concept and the storyboarding and the mapping, you know, e even site location, bringing another videographers, et cetera. And all the way down through like the actual editing and, and the final production. RV (01:44): And we love Eric because he’s so genuine. He has such an authentic approach that has the, the professional polish of true high level film production, but also the heart of, you know, we talk about mission driven messengers. And so he has that balance. And, and he he, he actually produced a film, made a film called Autism Every Day, was a project that he worked on where he weaved the stories of eight diverse families into a single narrative that showed the world what it was like for families raising an autistic child. This film went on to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival and led his client to appearances on Oprah, Good Morning America and The View. Eric has also produced trailers for TV commercials and Halloween Hollywood films like Last of the Mohicans a Few Good Men and the American President. But his biggest accomplishment in life was editing Brand Builders Group homepage videos Rory Vaden, speaker demo videos. And anyways, without further ado, Eric Buddy, welcome to the show. Thank ES (02:59): You, Rory. I thank you for that great introduction. I couldn’t have written it better myself, RV (03:04): . Well I, I, I’m so excited about this because, you know, we’d love to teach people what we do. We don’t teach people theory and, and we like to introduce them to people that we admire and that we do work with. And, and that’s part of why we want to introduce them to you. By the way, some of you are, are already sold going. I need an Eric in my life. And you actually can have Eric, some of our team members you cannot have because they are full-time employees of Brand Builders Group. Eric, however, is an implementation partner, and so he is available for anyone. If you become interested at any point, you just email [email protected]. And all you do is in the subject line, put Eric’s videos. And we will connect you directly to him. So [email protected], put Eric’s videos in the subject line and we’ll connect you to him. We’ll, we’ll share that with you again later. But so I wanna just dive right in. First of all, your philosophy about storytelling and video editing. Talk about, talk about some of that at a high level. ES (04:11): At a high level, it’s really all about being authentic. I, I think a lot of videos don’t succeed today because people try to script them. They try to figure out exactly what they wanna say ahead of time. And I think, you know, audiences tune out to ads. They, they don’t want to hear narrators. They don’t want to hear an ad for something. They want to hear something that’s real. And when you can really authentically connect with your audience, that’s when you get their attention, and that’s when you can deliver the message. That is the whole reason to make the video in the first place. RV (04:51): Mm-Hmm. . Yeah. And when you say authentic, cuz that’s like a buzzword, right? Like I think it’s, and sometimes it’s easier to understand what authentic means by talking about what inauthentic is, where you talk about like, so if somebody is you, you know, like scripting is a good example, so people really get stuck on that kind of thing. Like, what, what makes a video inauthentic? ES (05:17): Well, this is a kind of a good lead into my four golden rules for making an impactful video. RV (05:23): Let’s do it. Let’s get in. ES (05:25): First one is really all about the script, and my feeling is do not write a script. RV (05:31): Wow. ES (05:32): I believe the best videos are created by conducting interviews in an unscripted manner. The videos that I’ve made for you, Rory, I’ve, I’ve interviewed you and you’re a very polished interviewer. You have a lot of experience with that. But I wanted to ask you questions, and I wanted you to just speak to me like it’s the first time you’re talking to me. The video that’s on Ran Builders homepage that I did for you. I interviewed strategist, I interviewed clients. Nobody knew the questions I was gonna ask. It was all unscripted. And really, the reason I think to take an unscripted approach is that I don’t think a writer can write something better than what the people who are most familiar with the subject would just naturally say. RV (06:28): Wow. ES (06:30): And, you know, unless you’re Aaron Sorkin, my feeling is turn the information that you want to deliver in that video into a question and ask that, have somebody ask you that question, and then you respond with the answer. And you ask people, who are your clients that question. You ask a series of people, the same group, the same questions, and then you use their answers and you weave them together to tell the story that you want to tell, to give the information that you want to give. But you use the best moments from each of those interviews and you can create something that is far more powerful and far more engaging than anything that you could write. Or that probably you could hire a writer, a writer to write. RV (07:21): Yeah, I mean, I, I I will say this, like, this is one of the, I mean, we’ve worked with so many video editors over the years and have gone through so many processes and we’ve done it ourself and like, you know, lots of different ways. And the interview is like, part of when I think of you, it’s like you brought the interview and just really blew open the doors for us of going, this can be easy, this can be fast, and it can be amazing because if you just interview and, and, and, and part of what I found, so even with like my speaker demo video, we did this, and now we have, we have two, we have two speaker demo videos for me. We’ve got like a couple that we’re working on. We’re, we’re finalizing ’em both. You’ll, you’ll be able to see those by the way, rory vaden.com here, like, you know, probably within a few weeks af after the time of this interview comes out. RV (08:13): So you can go look at those, the [email protected] are up. Or if you go to free brand call.com/podcast, you’ll see our, our sort of like a flagship company storytelling video that Eric did. But the interview serves as such a, an incredible through line for the whole video. And it, it gives you the natural, like, cuts on audience shots and like different people saying it a different way. And, and just, I mean, what you said it, I don’t think a writer can write something better than what your people will actually say. I mean, that is so true. You do such a good job of capturing that. ES (08:52): Thank you. Thank you. And I think something you just said is really key. Also it does make it easy for my clients because they don’t have to go on meeting after meeting and what are we gonna put in the video and how are we gonna do this? And what are we gonna show here? I, my goal is to make it as easy as possible for my clients and sit down with them, do the interview, have them give me their assets. If they’re a speaker, they give me their samples of the keynotes they’ve delivered. If they if they make presentations, whatever assets they have, whatever photographs they have, they just hand that over to me. They introduce me to their clients who I also interview, and then they’re done. The next thing they know, they are seeing what I think could be a finished cut, but of course it’s not finished until they’re happy. . RV (09:46): Yeah. Well, and, and that, that really is, I mean, that’s part of why what’s been amazing is like, you know, we’re so busy. Everyone is so busy. And it’s like, if you don’t edit videos for a living, you just, you don’t realize how much time it takes and how much involvement and how much storytelling and what are the right questions to ask, and the sequencing and the timing, and then the visual effects and the music and the, and the transitions and like all of these little things. And then you get into it and you go, this is so big and scary and painful. It takes forever to get a video edited versus basically, I remember when AJ found you, it was just like, we just basically dumped everything on you. And you were like, you set up a time. I didn’t even know, it was like, I have this interview with Eric, We did an interview, and then it was like, I’m done. RV (10:35): I was like, Wait, how are we gonna put together this video? And then, and then it was just like, No, that’s, that was my only role in it. And then you sent it back. You know, I give you some creative direction or whatever, but then you send it back. And then from there it’s more like, Okay, move these pieces around a little bit, but so painless, like so, so fast. So you know, just a, just a, an elegant way of of of, of doing it. And, and you mentioned the speaking video, so I wanna talk about that for a second because even if people listening aren’t professional speakers, I mean, you, you know, your brand builders member also, so you know, that we, we believe the fastest way to get clients is not social media, is it’s, it is not, you know, funnels and ads. RV (11:20): It’s referrals from people, you know, and it’s from doing presentations and you go speak for free. You don’t need to get paid because if you speak for free, you’ll get paid in business that comes from it. And a lot of times when you do a, a presentation on stage, even a keynote on stage, the way you deliver a keynote is much different from the way that you would present a sales video or a promotional video. And so, a lot of times, even though I’ve spoke on big, beautiful stages, I don’t have exactly the right clips that I need to pull together a cohesive, persuasive you know, promotional video. And yet when you interview me, you, you’re, you’re pulling, it’s easy to get that footage in an interview. It’s hard to get it from just, here’s all the presentations or here’s all the content that I’ve ever done. But in an, in an interview, it’s like, it gives me a chance to say everything that I need to say. And that’s, and that’s also part of what you do so masterfully, is you draw it out of people. ES (12:25): Yeah. And, you know, and it’s in you. It’s in all of the people listening people, people talk about what they do all the time. They, they know the answers to the questions. They don’t have to prepare, you know, brand builders, clients personal brands who are successful. They’re passionate about what they do, and, and all they really need is somebody to ask them questions. And the information just pours out of them. And, and that’s, that’s really the key to to creating great video. It, it’s a good, this is a good segue into the second one. RV (13:00): Yeah, I was gonna say, tell me, All right, tell me this. So tell me the second one, cuz I know we got four, so I don’t wanna be left hanging. So what’s, what’s the number two? ES (13:06): Definitely the second one is you need to create videos that are a dialogue, not a monologue. And that sounds counterintuitive because videos are a one way form of communication. You right. Use them, you create them, you edit them, and then they’re done and they’re up there. But when you think about it as an audience, when you’re watching a video, you’re always listening and thinking, Well, how does that apply to me? And huh, that point makes me think of this question and well, what else do I need to know? So there’s always a dialogue going on, but as the person creating a video, you’re either conscious of that and, and aware of that as you’re editing the video or you’re not. The best videos, in my opinion, are always taking into account what is the audience thinking. When I just said what I said, What do they need to know next? ES (14:04): Do I need to answer a question or do I need to keep giving them the information that they don’t even know? They don’t even know, they don’t know. You know, it’s you always have to be constantly giving them that next piece of information that they, that they’re wondering or that’s gonna keep them engaged. And when you stop doing that, that’s when the engagement level drops. You know, we videos all start out at that high, a hundred percent, and they drop fast. But when you grab people quickly and you keep them engaged and you keep telling them what they need to know, or you tell them you’re giving them your message in a very engaging and dynamic way, then you keep them engaged, you keep them with you, and you’re able to deliver that, that full message. Mm-Hmm. . So it’s, it’s about always thinking about what the audience needs to hear next. RV (14:59): Yeah. ES (15:00): Delivering a monologue, They’re, they’re gone. RV (15:03): Yeah. I mean, it’s just, if it’s, you know, that it’s like, Hey, this is a commercial. Or if it’s just all about you, right? Like, Hey, here’s how amazing I am. And there’s no consideration. It’s like they don’t really care about you. They care about what you can do for them, right? And so they only need to know enough about you to know you’re credible. What they really care about is what can you do for me for these types of videos specifically, the purpose is not education, it’s sales. Like, we’re not just trying to just educate, we’re trying to persuade and move to action, ES (15:39): Right? But it’s not sales in the traditional sense of, of selling. I’d like to think that the videos I create are, are story driven from the the audience’s point of view. It’s not a story about Rory Vaden, it’s not a story about brand builders. It’s a story about the people who have been served by Rory, served by brand builders. And when you’re always, you always have that perspective in mind as you’re editing and as you’re creating, and as you’re gathering the material, the content to create the video, then you’re going to deliver your message in a, in a way that people respond to, because they’re not gonna feel like you’re selling them. You’re, they’re gonna feel like you’re sharing a story with them. You’re not trying to persuade them of anything. You’re, you’re telling them, Hey, this is, this is a problem that people have and this is how I’ve helped them solve that problem. RV (16:34): Yeah. And I’ll I’ll say for those of you listening that are members, of course, you know, one of our flagship frameworks and things that we teach is called the 15 Ps of copywriting. And that is how do you, what words, how do you come up with the words you need to put on the page to get people to like, pull out their credit card and buy something or to sign up for a free call? And there’s a sequence which the, that se there’s a sequence of the 15 P’s. They happen in a specific order to specific reason. The reason that is, is because of psychology, human psychology of what questions do people have about new things, and in what order do they have them and what do they need to know of which storytelling is just another, is a short, ver a condensed way of saying that is going. RV (17:25): Stories are extremely effective sales tools because they connect, they’re deeply rooted to human psychology and the sequence of how we learn new things and explore new things and remember new things. And so if you’re a, if you’re a, if you are a, if you’re a a, a messenger, if you, one of the BBG messengers, the 15 P’s to me, always serves as a initial arc guideline for the conversation. But then, you know, when you get into visual storytelling, there is a lot, there is a lot of room for creative expression, and it depends on what assets you have and, you know, what do people say in the interviews? And since it’s kind of a spontaneous collection of different things, you have to, you allow for some flexibility to massage those assets together. But like, if you look at the videos that Eric has created, we’ve gone back and forth several times on the 15 P’s and saying like, Oh, hey, I wanna move this over here. RV (18:22): But it’s, it’s gotta bend and flex a little bit just to, for the, you know, the creative artistry. And you know, I think the thing that I would say for everybody, which is good, is if you don’t know the 15 P’s, or if you are a brand builder and you know ’em, but you don’t study ’em every night like I do you, you could just give it to Eric and he’ll just do it. And that’s one thing that’s awesome, is like having someone who can tell your story for you, or, and it’s not really your story, it’s the story. Tell the story about what you do for you that, that, that helps a lot. So what’s the, what’s the third one? All right, so dialogue, not monologue. Well, ES (19:03): The 15 P’s are a great segue into the third point. Okay. RV (19:07): 15 p ES (19:09): The third rule that I use is that you focus on feelings, not facts. RV (19:17): Mm. ES (19:19): And a lot of people, when they create videos, they think about that information that they want to get across. You know, I’ve got these five points that I want to get across, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna, you know, whatever I do, I’m gonna make sure I say these five points. But your audience is not gonna remember the five things that you feel so strongly that you’ve gotta get across. What they’re gonna remember is how they felt watching you, that they feel like you really cared about what you’re talking about, that you’re passionate about this subject, that you’re knowledgeable, that you’re somebody that I could feel comfortable working with. You know, the Maya Angelou quote is repeated often, and and I’m gonna do it again here. People will forget what you say and they’ll forget what you do, but they’ll never forget how they, how you made them feel. ES (20:08): And it’s very much true in video. You know, you think about the videos you’ve seen that you liked, you probably don’t remember details or facts of those videos, but you remember, I felt like this is somebody that could help me. I felt like this is somebody that cares about me, cares about the problem that I have. So it’s it’s not that the facts aren’t important, it’s that you have to present the facts in a way that’s memorable. And the way you become memorable is you use the feelings because feelings are memorable. So any any pieces of information you can turn into stories, if there’s an emotional element to what you do, to the way you serve people, and the way you help people try to use that. You know, you, you tell a great story, Roy during your keynotes about delegation. You know, a lot of people feel like they can’t delegate what they do. And I don’t wanna repeat the story because it’s, it’s a great story. But you know, you’re, you’re telling the story and the audience doesn’t know why you’re telling the story, but when you get to the end, you will never forget that anything can be delegated RV (21:25): . It’s, yeah. ES (21:27): It’s just, it’s very powerful. And it’s funny. It’s, it’s a great story. And thank you. It, so, it’s, it’s feelings, not facts, RV (21:35): Feelings. It is. And, and, and you know, what’s this is something that I’m guilty of, and I think this is a good place where you’ve had balance for me is, is to not go so analytical and so logical. And so information like, again, particularly in a promotional video, like a lot of my content videos that I would put on Instagram or on YouTube, the purpose is conveying information. I’m del I’m delivering education. I’m demonstrating my expertise. I’m trying to be useful to people, but in a promotional video, and it’s, you know, selling is a transference of emotion. It is a way of making them feel. And it’s, it’s sort of ironic because you go, video lends itself to the rare opportunity to effectively generate an emotion without you having to be there in person to do it. And that, I think is, is, is so powerful of going it, it, it’s almost like when you’re looking at your video, don’t ask yourself, Did I cover it? Did I say everything that I wanted to say in the video? It’s ask yourself, how does this video make the viewer feel? Like, what emotion are they experiencing? And, and what emotion am I trying to create? Not, not what information am I trying to relay. ES (23:06): You and I went back and forth with the 15 Ps, you know, when I, when we first started working together, you told me I did it intuitively and I didn’t know what the 15 Ps were, and then you mm-hmm. you you had me watch them, You, you know, I learned them and I saw, well, it’s not all 15 that apply to a video. There’s really five of them that are I think are key five, five or six of them. But it’s not always in the order that you have them in the list, because when you focus on the feelings and not the facts, sometimes it doesn’t make sense to do them in the order that, that they’re written. You have to make sure the video flows and you have to pay attention to, to the feelings that are being conveyed. Make sure each point flows into the next point, You know, keeping that dialogue going and not a monologue. Mm-Hmm. RV (24:01): . Yeah. Well, so when you guys are looking at your videos, you know, particularly if they’re promotional videos, be asking yourself, What, how does this make me feel? How does this make the viewer viewer feel? Like, do they feel angry? Do they feel happy? Do they feel bored? Do they feel inspired? And part of that is also knowing like in brand dna, you know, so our flagship first, our first training of our 14 trainings, there’s a, there is a lesson called Brand Characteristics list where we help people define, and we say, these are the emotions. Like what energy is your brand about? What are the emotions that you’re, the primary emotions of your brand? Just like you would have a primary color palette. It’s like, what is the prior Mary emotion that your, your brand should kind of cultivate in people? You gotta know some of that to, to do this. Or you gotta work with somebody, you know, like Eric, who can sort of feel it intuitively and, and, and draw it out of you. So focused on feelings, not facts. Amen. Love it. Absolutely. okay. What’s the, what’s the fourth one? ES (25:06): The bad And cleanup number four is the, I call it the nonverbal rule. And it’s really that we all focus so much on the words that we use when we communicate. And we’re taught that as children, you know, user words when you communicate, a lot of brand builders clients are writers. They’re very focused on the words. And you know, Vanessa Van Edwards really crystallized this for me. She was a guest couple months ago, and she just wrote a book called Cues, which anybody who hasn’t read it, I highly recommend it. RV (25:41): Yeah, We love Vanessa. She’s been on twice, actually. We’ve had her on twice. She’s very good. Yep. ES (25:45): Brilliant. But what she talks about is that nonverbal communication really conveys more to an audience than the words that we choose. Mm. And I’m sure you, you talk about this when you’re, when you’re teaching speakers and keynote presentation craft it’s your body language. It’s your voice, it’s your inflection, It’s the energy, the emotion, it’s the, the setting. You know what’s going on around you. It’s your wardrobe, what you’re wearing. It’s all those things convey more. Then you realize, you know, if, if the, if the energy and the tone and the, the confidence in what you say is there, then it supports the message. But if you’re kind of just talking and really not into what you’re saying, then the audience is not gonna be there with you. This is a, something that the audience that I, that I think, you know, people listening can do to help them with that nonverbal communication. ES (26:52): I think a lot of people, you know, we communicate this way on Zoom now, you know, face to face meetings are just not happening at the rate that they used to. And people, when they set up their home video for Zoom, they, there are some things they could do to make sure that they look better, that they sound better. And a lot of people are still not doing that as well as they could. I know a lot of people are listening to this, They’re not watching the video, so I’m gonna be a little extra descriptive here. But one thing that people can do is make sure that their camera is at eye level when they’re speaking. A lot of people have laptops on the table and they’re pointing up. You would never sit down and and talk to a person that’s two feet below you Right. Looking down on them. And should be the same thing with the camera. It should be at eye level lighting. Don’t put a window behind you. I mean, you’ve got a window behind you, Rory, but that’s not really a window behind you, RV (27:54): . Well, and I’m also heavily front lit, so if there is a window behind you, you have to be heavily front, front lit. ES (28:01): Exactly. Exactly. And ring lights are very inexpensive and they’re available on Amazon. It’s, it’s a, it’s a good investment to have. Make sure you have good lighting on you. Sound is another key element. I wanna do a little, a little live example here. Right now, I’m speaking to you on my, on my new microphone. Yeah. Which I bought for this podcast because I wanted to sound good RV (28:27): way to practice what you preach, man. ES (28:31): Exactly. But do you hear a difference now? RV (28:34): Wow. ES (28:35): This is the microphone that is built into my computer. So it really makes a difference when you have an external microphone. It doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to be it doesn’t have to be a big deal. But if you’re using the microphone built into your computer, the chances are, you might sound more like this uhhuh. RV (29:00): It’s just sort of wimpy and like echoy and light. I mean, it just, it doesn’t sound like you have charisma and power and confidence, ES (29:07): Right? Not, and, and that, yes, it’s verbal, but it’s, it’s subtle. And now I’m back on my, my new Yeti microphone. Mm-Hmm. . And it’s, it sounds much more influential. RV (29:20): Yes, it does. I mean, what a, what a massive, a massive difference. So camera height should be, eye level lights should be in front of us on our face, not behind us. Just getting a mic. Any, any others that you would add? Quick pointers there. ES (29:39): Just remember your body language. You know it. If you are somebody who likes to talk with your hands, use your hands. If you are if you are just, just remember your energy. Think of yourself as actually being with that person, in person and, and speak to them as you would with the, with the confidence and, and dressing as you would. You know, we all dress down a little bit when we’re at home, but if you are in a, in a meeting on Zoom, you wanna look good. It matters. It makes an impression. Yeah. So it’s, it’s these kinds of nonverbal elements that I think make a big difference more than people realize when, when delivering their message. It really, it either it helps reinforce the message you wanna say, or it detracts from the message you wanna say. The words alone are not enough. RV (30:41): Yep. Yep. I love it. So those are awesome. Those are so powerful. The again, just a reminder, y’all, if, if, if you’re on the hunt, like if you’re on the, on the look right now, for someone that can help you create some of these promotional videos, email us [email protected] in the subject line, just put Eric’s videos, and then we will connect you you know, directly to Eric, and you can, you can talk with him and understand more of his process. As we start to wrap up here a little bit, Eric, there’s, there’s two there. I was gonna say, there’s, there’s, there’s two types of videos that every personal brand should have. And then I know you have some type of a surprise, which I have no idea what that is, but should we, should we do the surprise first? Or should we talk about the two types of videos every personal brand should have? ES (31:34): Well, the surprise is part of the first video. RV (31:37): Oh, okay. All right. So tell us ES (31:39): The, the first video that every personal brand should have is, it sounds obvious, but a personal brand video. RV (31:48): Ah, ES (31:48): What is a personal brand video? If you do a Google search on personal brand videos, you will get videos where people talk about themselves. Cause they think a personal brand video is about them. But if you’re a brand builder’s client, you know this, your personal brand is not about you RV (32:06): Preach Brother ES (32:07): . Where have I heard that before? The personal brand video is about the people you serve. So in 90 seconds, I create a personal brand video that tells people who you are, what you do, why you do it, and what, what unique way you do you approach in solving that problem for clients. And so this is the perfect way. I’m going to email you now, Rory, send you a link. And this will work as audio. Also, it’s a video, so if people like what they hear, they can come to the website and see the video. But I created a personal brand video for you. R RV (32:55): What ES (32:57): Surprise. RV (32:58): Check this out. Okay, so it’s, it’s, it’s 95 seconds. Can we play it ES (33:03): Please. RV (33:04): Or are you nervous? Are you, are you nervous that it’s good or you feel confident? ES (33:07): I feel confident. RV (33:08): I feel, I feel confident too. Okay. So let me do this some ES (33:12): Share screen and RV (33:13): Yeah, I can, I can share. And those of you, if you’re watching this on YouTube, you’ll actually, you’ll be watching a video of me playing the video, which hopefully will work here. So let me I need to optimize this for a video clip. All right. So we’ll share, ES (33:28): We’ll, your editors can edit it in so you don’t have this, this part of it that’s, you could just cut to it. RV (33:34): Cut to it. Okay. So here here we, here we go, announcing the Rory Vain personal brand video. Speaker 3 (33:42): My name is Rory Vaden. I am the co-founder of Brand Builders Group. I’m the New York Times bestselling author, and I spend my days trying to help people and businesses get better. So this is, and I have always been a nerd. I have always been drawn to the provable In many ways, I’m sort of surprised that I grew up to become what some might call a motivational speaker, because what I’m really interested in is concrete evidence and provable techniques and strategies that actually can be deployed to create a result. The next level of results always requires the next level of thinking. I feel like I’m at my best when I am in front of an audience, or even if it’s an audience of one, because I’m operating in my uniqueness. RV (34:31): It’s not Speaker 3 (34:32): Enough for people to know what you do. They must know why you do it. I believe that we are capable of literally creating the world around us that we want. And I believe that every single person has that intuitive calling for the way their life is supposed to be, and they don’t realize that they have the ability to do it. And I would say that I feel like I am here to deliver a message that inspires people to be their best. And that inspires people to exploit the things that they are good at in the service of other people. RV (35:17): Oh man, that’s so cool. That’s ES (35:19): The world premier of Rory’s personal brand video RV (35:22): , right here on audio podcast, the world premier of my personal brand video. Dude, I love it. Thank you so much. That is so cool. Welcome. That is so cool. ES (35:32): It’s, it’s who you are, it’s what you do. It’s why you do it, and it’s the unique way you do it. So in 90 seconds, if somebody doesn’t know anything about you and they come to your website and they are gonna give you a little bit of time, but not, not too much time, they’re probably gonna hit that video. And in 90 seconds, what I hope is accomplished is they will get a feeling for who you are and that you’re somebody that they can, that they like, that they wanna learn more about. You know, everybody is busy, everybody’s distracted. But if you can manage to get people to your website and you gotta deliver a message quickly to them that’s gonna engage them and want them, get them to want to learn more. RV (36:19): Yeah. That is the goal. So, so cool, man. I love that. So, and I mean, 90 seconds is a doable thing for anybody. Even if you don’t have a lot of video footage or a lot of photography, you could do it in an interview. One interview gives you way more than you would need to pull all this together with just a few assets, right? ES (36:37): It’s, it’s a quick interview, It’s 15 minutes. And if all they have is some photographs, I’ve, I’ve done it with photographs, I do it with graphics, if you have a lot of B-roll of you. So I was able to integrate that. Whatever people have can be integrated into this, but the main thing is the, the delivery of the message. You’re the, the, the passion you have and the, the, the confidence you have in delivering and talking about yourself and what you do. I mean, that’s, it’s unscripted it, that’s just who you are and what you do. And it comes across. RV (37:13): That is really, really cool, brother. Thank you so much for that. I mean, that is awesome, y’all. If you want one of, if you want one of those, if y’all one of those who better email us input brand builders group.com, put Eric’s videos in the subject line, we’ll connect you. Cuz you know, I mean, I, I get, I mean, I don’t, I don’t wanna speak for you, but like, you know, you people should invest a lot of money into these things, but a a 92nd video certainly has gotta be a lot cheaper than producing a one hour, you know, 90 minute feature length film. So what a great, what a great place to start if you’re, if you’re just beginning and you go, Well, I haven’t been on national TV and I’ve never spoken in front of a thousand people and I don’t have a best selling book and I don’t, you know, it’s just like, just the heart. We call this the poll P 14 in the 15 piece is the pole, the emotional like pull of just a heartfelt invitation of why you’re here and why you, you do what you do. You can create that. So simple. I it’s such, such a great idea. I I just, I love it and I love, I love mine, Eric. It, it’s really cool, man. Thank you. ES (38:19): You’re welcome. You’re welcome. I’m glad. The second kind of video that I think every personal brand should have is what people think of when they think of a testimonial video. And I know with the trends and personal branding study that you guys did RV (38:38): Yeah, preach it. ES (38:40): , anybody who’s who’s heard about that has heard that the number one factor people use when deciding who to work with is testimonials. Yeah. RV (38:50): You, if you haven’t heard this, cuz maybe if you’re just new to the podcast, like if, if you go to brandville just group.com and you click on free trainings, you can download our influential personal brand summit, which is, or excuse me, our trends in personal branding, national research study, which is what Eric is talking about. And we asked Americans, it was a US study, you know, what is the most, the most influential factors in, in the average American consumer making a purchasing decision? And we said, Oh, someone’s a New York Times bestselling author. They have a huge social media following. They have, you know, graduate degrees, they have, you know, all these other things. And the number one thing by far was they have testimonials of other real life people. And so I love that you’re, you’re talking about this, ES (39:39): But I think they can do so much more with testimonials than they even realize. Think about it. It’s testimonial is a story. It’s not just saying, I love working with you. You know, you’re great at what you do. That’s, that’s kind of level one of testimonials. But you can take it a step further. When I do testimonial videos for my clients, I interview their clients, my clients’ clients, and I ask them, What problem were you having? Why did you end up choosing Rory to work with? What was it like to work with Rory and what results have you seen working with Rory? And those four questions tell a story, you know, I had a problem, I looked for a solution, getting the solution was great, and the results from it have been great. So I take each testimonial and make a little mini case study video out of it, 90 seconds to two minutes. ES (40:40): Then my recommendation to my clients is not to put that, you can put that on your website, but I think it’s better to use that later in the funnel. I think when you’ve got somebody who’s interested in your service but is on the fence, what I like to do is suggest my clients have a library of these videos, you know, have 10 or 12 of all different kinds of clients you worked with, then you’ve got somebody who’s interested but not sure. You say, Let me send you a a little case study of somebody who works in the same industry of you and you could see how, what they felt like working with me. And then you’re not selling, you’re, you’ve got clients sharing a story. They’re not selling either. They’re sharing a story and it’s, it’s incredibly powerful, but there’s more RV (41:30): , but there’s more. ES (41:31): But wait, there’s more. When you’ve got a group of these testimonials, each is different, but also they’re all the same. They all had a problem. They all discovered you, they all worked with you, they all saw results. And when you can combine the best moments from each of those interviews and have three or four people talk about the problem, they had three or four people talk about why they used you, and you weave those answers together, you end up with actually what is the brand Builders group homepage video. You’ve got clients telling their stories, you’ve got strategists talking what it’s like working with the clients and you end up with something incredibly persuasive that doesn’t feel like a sales video. RV (42:21): Yeah, I mean, and, and it is awesome. I mean, it’s literally on our homepage, brand builders group.com. It’s also the, I think the number one asset that we drive people to online is free brand call.com/podcast. And we use it on all those pages too. Like, because it was just, it’s, it’s amazing. We’re not even in the video. Like me and AJ aren’t even in the video, which is beautiful. It’s like, it’s all the clients and our team members doing exactly what you said. But it’s basically a highlight video of the highlight videos, a bunch of customer testimonials, it really, really com compelling and awesome, and not salesy, just awesome, but it sell, it sells like you wouldn’t believe ES (43:01): . That’s great. That’s great to hear. Right? It’s, it’s not about you, it’s not about aj, it’s about the people you serve and the people who serve the people you serve. RV (43:10): Amen. So ES (43:11): It it’s the story, Roy, before, I’m not sure if we’re we’re done, but before we’re done, there’s one other thing I’d like to say. And it’s something that, you know, as a brand builder client, I, I heard very early on that we are best positioned to serve the people we once were. And that was something that never resonated with me early on. I, I just, I didn’t get it. And I think, you know, the reason is kind of obvious. I I hadn’t yet become the person I needed to become in order to help the person I was. And for anybody out there who feels like they have a calling and a message to, to, to give people, but they’re not sure that they’re ready to do it, don’t lose faith. Don’t lose hope. It, it, you, you can get there. I did it with brand builders. You know, brand builders is not the only people who can help you. But but stay with what you believe in and, and you, if you have a message to deliver, you know, there are people that need to hear it. RV (44:23): Yeah. Yeah. I love it. And we’re not the only people that can help you. We’re just the best. And we have customer testimonial videos to prove it and personal brand videos and, and awesome videos. No, I’m, I’m, I’m just kidding. Kind of, sort of I do actually believe that, but Eric, thank you so much. Like, this is just so helpful, just great tips, helpful for any of us trying to understand this world of video, which, like, for me, I’m just never been a creative per se. And so it’s like I’m passionate about what I teach, but like, when it comes to the visual aesthetic and like all this stuff, it’s just not a skill. I have to like open a video editor and like whip this together. And so having somebody like you sure helps me a lot because I’ll, I’ll say for a lot of my career, I was embarrassed about the videos that I was putting out that would tell people about who, who we were and what we did. RV (45:17): And it’s really awesome to, to, to be proud of saying, Hey, you know, when we’re talking to someone, hey, just watch this video and then tell me what you, you know, like knowing they’re gonna be blown away because of the emotion and not because it’s a sales pitch, but because they’re actually gonna feel our real heart. And because the video is going to convey the actual feeling and the emotion of what we’re about. And when that happens, they may not buy, but, but it, they will, I they’re gonna know for sure. They’re either gonna go, You are our, you are my people, or you are not my people, because they feel the energy and, and it makes the decision quick. ES (45:59): Attract or repel. RV (46:00): Yep. ES (46:01): And and I, you know, I wanna just say thank you. You know, I, I’m I I’ve love, I love working with you and a j and I’m very honored that you guys trust me to help you create your, your demo videos and your brand builders videos. It’s it’s a lot of fun. You’ve got great people to work with and, and I’m really honored to that that you feel comfortable working with me. RV (46:26): Yeah, well, we do, we, we love working with you and that’s why we wanted to introduce you to everybody. So again, if you need this, shoot us an email, info brand builders group.com, subject line Eric’s videos. We’ll connect you to Eric. If not, hopefully you’ll take some of Eric’s advice and tips, share them with your video editors or if it’s you just as you’re putting together and, and thinking through this. So Eric, we wish you all the best my friend. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and we’ll talk soon. ES (46:54): Thanks Rory. Talk to you soon.