Video Content Strategy

I have a question, Chris.Yes so related tovideo, I realizethat doing social contentis different than doingcommercial work.Yes and commercial work,you have all the timeto perfect a piece.But for social mediaposts and stuff like that,I think you have to doas quickly as possible.I think done isbetter than perfect.So my question is,would you invest time,let's say, on a channeltrailer and thenyour daily videos orbuy daily or whateveryou would startsomewhere and thenyou would slowly improveto get to that taste levelthat you have in your head.That's an excellent question.OK let me address this ina couple of different ways.Number one, I wouldstrongly discourage youfrom doing daily content.It'll become yourfull time job and thenyou will be you'll be broken.Or, like Chris, itdidn't work out for me.And I'll tell you, yeah,because I kind of warned youabout that.I would say a good goal isto post a video biweekly.That's enough time for youto manage your life, notto overshoot oroverthink anything and beable to still get stuff done.And once you startdoing videos bi weekly,you start to geta rhythm for it.I would not worry too muchabout doing a channel trailerright up frontbecause you're stilltrying to find your voice.China trailers are greatonce you figure outwho the heck you are.If you look at the MarcusBrownlee NBCU or somethinglike that, DMK on his site,he does the tech reviews.If you see him when he was like15 years old, he was horrible.If you watch Logan Paulin the very beginning,he was horrible.They all do somethingfunny, stupid or whatever,and it doesn't reallysound good or look good,and they don't knowwhat they're saying.But eventually theyget good and thenthat's the time you want tocut a channel trailer, perhaps.Until then, I wouldn't stressout of it for that too much.OK I do want to giveyou guys a little tip.We've been talkingabout this a lotbecause I'm encouraging theteam to produce video contentand they're notused to doing this.They have been trained to do it.I happen to teach it.So my standard forit is quite high.But it's having a really goodconversation with Matthew.We are in the processof making some kindof super real documentary filmabout how to design stuff,using strategy and brandingall the kinds of thingsthat we've taught youwith a real client.So they've been filmingthe heck out of this.We have hours and hours offootage over multiple weeks.But when I looked at theteaser trailer cut for it.I had some kind of harshfeedback for the team.And they werebruised a little bit,but we talked aboutit last night.The thing I said tothem was this traileris uninteresting to me.This is our company.I'm not even interestedin watching it.Why is that?Because there's no conflict.There's a little bit ofsomething tension in therebetween Matthew and Ben, alittle bit tension between usand the client.But for the most part, everybodyloves everything all the time.So who's going totune in to that?You guys have tofind the conflict.And if you learn anythingabout story structure,the story begins whenthe conflict begins.If we have a fantasticclient experiencewhere everybody'slike, well, boring,why don't want totune in to that?If the beginning of the story isthey lived happily ever after?Nobody wants towatch that either.We have to go throughtrials and tribulationsto learned something new.And that's classicstory formula,so you have to findthe conflict first.And as I was telling Matthewthis because he figured it out,he's like, I think I knowhow to do this right.It's the conflict ofa traditional designcompany with two people whohave very different experiences.Matthew, with his advertisingmotion design experienceand then with his running asmall business experience,how the two of themfit into the new worldwhere we're tryingto do brand strategy.And so what they can do,even with the footagethat we've shot.They could sit there andthink about the storyand tell that story tocamera while cuttingto b-roll as things areunfolding in real time.I think that wouldbe the way to beable to restructure thestory so that there'ssomething interesting.The other thing I saidto them is this teasertold me nothing about theindividual characters,and we only care about storieswith interesting characters.OK, so the story formulagoes something like this.A character has a want, andthen there's an obstacle.And those are thethree components.You have to have forevery story unless youwant to do some experimental artfilm, which nobody will watch.OK a character?Has a want and therehas to be an obstacle.So before you start yourvlog or your video seriesor your podcast, think about it.Who's the characterin the story?And it has to be aninteresting charactercharacter with a certainamount of detail to themthat make them interesting.He's a genius.But he has OCD.Or he's a genius.And he's a paraplegic.OK, so now it's likean interesting personall of a sudden.And what do they wantrecognition love?They want to make their fatherproud because the father passedaway, whatever itis, you're lookingfor what it is that they want.What's the obstacle that'sgetting in their way,and you have to definethese very clearly?Every time I go watcha movie with my kids,as soon as the movie isover, what's the story about?And they have to tell me andthe long form of the character.One obstacle story formula isif somebody wants somethingand can't get it.They go through a seriesof trials and tribulations,and instead of getting what theywant to get, what they need.The watch is usuallyan external thing.It's usually superficial.The need is usuallyan internal thingis a deeper psychologicalmotivation, somethingthat's driving them.So even dumb popcornfilms like Green Lanternhave story structure.Where they messed up is theylost sight of that story,and they got caught up inVisual effects and and gimmickson screen.So if you guys see that horriblemovie, green lantern, horrible,horrible film, evenmy kids, after havingbeen trained and testeda couple of times,we're able to walk away,say, so, who wants what?So Hal Jordan, whatis how Jordan want?He wants to prove he'sthe strongest out there.So he goes and hehas a hot temperand he's running around tryingto kill everything, stopeverything.Is that?Because when he was akid, his father diedand he couldn't save them.So he's trying to writesome kind of wrong,and I don't reallyremember the story,so I could be totallybutchering this,but my kids wereable to tell me this.So what he neededto learn, kids needto learn to accept thatit wasn't his faultand to let go of his anger.And that's the beautyof the story structure.You can look at a crap filmand find something beautifulabout it becauseyou understand it.OK, so as I was tellingMatthew about story structure,I told them I cameto the realizationthat this 17 0 2 video.I messed up.If I could do it again, I would.And I'll tell youhow I messed up.Even though it's gettinga decent amount of viewsand mostly positive feedback.Said it messed upbecause I was tryingto make a response videoto Casey Neistat three,six eight video.I study Casey Neistatjust like Matthew,and I'm trying tofigure out how he'sbeen able to break through.Why does he have 10million subscribers?How what can we learn from that?So he puts out this three,six eight video and he talksabout space and what it means tohim and why it's so important.It got all the internetall hot and bothered,and they want to bea part of this thing.And then I see the progress orlack of progress in that space.I was thinking,gosh, Casey reallyis just a filmmaker vlogger.He's not really abusiness person.He hasn't really built things.And I think we have andwe can talk about that.How case is stilla work in progressin a dream and our dreamis like in our mirrorbecause we've already built it.I've been in charge of buildingout three different spaces.Three yeah, at leastthree different spaces.I know how this is done.You hire an architect, acrew of 30 people come inand they build the spaceand then you move forward.You don't have two guysworking on somethingthat doesn't make sense to me.So we produce aresponse video and westudied the formula,the structureof how he told his story.And we even put in hooksin there to reference that.So that people would knowwe're referencing that video.We're not tryingto hide anything.So I thought, hey, that'sa successful thing.We're going to tellhim how we're doing it.And so that people knowwe've been doing this.Here's where I messed up.Where's my conflict?And there isn't one.I want to do this thing, andhere it is, guys, check it out.No conflict.So this is where I doyou tell them people,they don't knowwhat they're doing?You didn't do it right?So here's how Iwould do it againif I had that kind of clarity.What I should have donewas to go on cameraand say, hey, guys,this is somethingI've always wanted to buildand then describe it to people.But every time I try todo it, I've been stopped.And to get into thestory about the struggle,the struggle was what makespeople tune in to tell them,like I tried to convince AIGto produce video content.I volunteered to help them.Here's a video ofthat, and they didn'twant to release it because theydidn't know what to do with it.Not that they were against it,but they're so disorganizedand they're stuck inpatterns of the past.And as a advisory board member.I was concernedthey were slippinginto becoming irrelevant thatthe value proposition that theywere providing to thecommunity wasn't there anymore.I tried.They eventually just gave up.And then I was in thisboardroom meeting,and we're talkingabout how there'sthis money to build videobased learning for Art Center.And I got really excited.So during a staffmeeting amongst peoplewho are my teachersamongst my peers,a room of 30 really smart,super creative teachers.I had to say, hey, guys, Iwant to bring up an issue.I see that the risingcosts of educationand the quality ofcontent that we'retrying to give out to peoplemay not be in alignment.And it's tragic for me to seethat some of the teachers Ilearn so much from.They're getting pretty old now.Some of them, asyou have said, havepassed away are starting toslip into early stage dementia.And we're going to losetheir knowledge forever.It lives on in thestudents, and that's it.We should make a greatereffort to capture thisthrough video andI've been doing this,would you guys like to do this?And we explored itfor 3 and 1/2 monthsand made exactly zero progress.So now I'm happy to tellyou, this is 17 oh, two.This is what we're doing here.So that's a storythere's conflictand you're sittingthere thinking,so what happensnext, what happensnext and then what did you do?But if I just get on cameralike, whew, 1:43, everything'sperfect, guys, won'tyou get out that fun?Hang out with us, whichis exactly what I did.Didn't follow up my own advice.So when you guysare sitting therethinking about your firstvideo, think about this.Who's the character?That's you.What is it that you want?And what's getting in your way?The obstacle until that?OK, so Rachel is goingto come on screen,she's like, you know what?Hey, guys, don't you wantto introduce yourself?I'm Rachel.I'm married.Xy z, whatever.And this is mystory, and I'm justtrying to do this in the world.I don't really knowwhat I don't know.I know there are alot of challengesand I struggle with x, y and z.Stay tuned for the nextepisode, and you're done.And then you keep documenting,you keep going through that.OK so helpful, really good.Chris, Thanks.Thank you.Now, how messed up I am ashamed.I can't even do it right myself.The teachers, likethe shoemaker's kids,have no shoes kind of thing.Like, do I say, don't doas I do, what do you do?Chris, I wanted to add twothings to what you were saying.First of all, theshoemaker problem.I think it's relevantto all of us.We can do it for ourneighbors, but wecan't do it for ourselves.And that's a big challengeI find with creative people.And the second thing is,I find a lot of VTubersare good at YouTube, butnot the business side.And that's where they'refailing because they don'thave the businessskills or the ideas,so they end upselling merchandise.Yeah and I thinkthat that's wherewe have the leverage on thembecause we have real skilland at least an expertisein certain areas.And I think if we canturn the spotlight on thatand find the balance betweensharing our own taste,our own skill withthe world, thisis where we canstart making productsrelevant to ouraudience, for example.Would you agree with that or.Yeah, I've alreadymade a video on this,and in the beginningof the video,I say somethinglike the world needsto hear your voice, yourstory because you'rean accomplished person.You have experience.You have a point of view.You've done something with yourlife other than be on YouTube.And YouTube isoverrun with peoplewho are charismatic, who knowhow to make funny jokes, ha ha,whatever and get views.But they haven't done anything.So there's one isthat they don't reallyhave a whole lotof accomplishment,except for the fact thatthey're on YouTube all the time.And two.And you're right.And you see, they have no ideaabout how to run a business,so they can't converta lot of them.You're sittingthere thinking theymust be wealthy beyond belief.But because of thebrand they've created,it's not somethingthat a sponsorcan get behind or not many.Look, we're doingdeals with Chase bank.We're doing thingswith Mondays, and we'redoing other deals with biggercompanies like FreshBooksreally soon.It's because we are sendingout a message hopefully mostlypositive about how togrow your business.So more business focusedtypes of companies.And applicationsof support serviceswant to get in touch with this?We're doing it on aprofessional level.And we know how tobuild a business model.And if you're curiousabout the business model,I posted something inside thepassive income business groupabout how we makemoney literallysays how we make money.And if you guys wantto see that I detailedevery single thingwhat we charge and nowI will go back in and I'lledit or add more and moreinformation as I'm able to.But that is draft number one.How many of you guyshave seen that anybody?The Anthony has acouple of people have.And so if you guyshave more questions,just write comments on thatpost and then I'll add to itand then go from there.It's inside a passiveincome business group.I think that is beingrun by somebody whois not in the group anymore.OK so, yeah, you guys goahead and get out thereand make media.It's important totell your story,and it's important foryou to shine a lighton what you do togrow influence,to be positioned as an expert.And eventually, if youdo this right, eventuallysomewhere down the line, aclient is going to call you up.