Video is King

My last Promo Video made for Entertainment Show in 2015

 

When I began my career nearly 20 years ago, it was rare for anyone to have a promo video.

I recall throwing down $1,500 for my first video and that initial cost almost took my business under.  And yet it landed me more events than anything else.

Since the ROI was so great I went really big and spent upwards of $7,500 and then $11,000 on promotional videos all before 2005.

VHS tapes lined my garage, mailings and packages streaming from my office to the point the Post Office staff were shocked if they didn’t see me multiple times per week.

And just as fast as web sites, social media, and streaming content became essential to our every day lives, so went the physical VHS-later-DVD hard copies, and suddenly we were waiting on a spinning wheel and buffering video to pitch ourselves.

At some point in the past few years making videos went from important to life-sustaining, as the internet caught up, YouTube became the world’s most important educational search engine, Facebook went Live, and Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, etc etc have come and gone and been upgraded and literally changed the way we live, communicate, and promote ourselves.

We are now living our lives out in front of the world – online!

I used to have my brother do all video work, we made a great team as we filmed, edited, re-shot, edited, talked it over, edited, and eventually went from handheld camcorder to high-end thousand dollar cameras and mics.

Through the years I have hired multiple video production teams, and stood in awe of their editing capabilities.  I even once hired an illustration company to create this:

 

 

And then on a dime it went from over-produced sizzle-reels of testimonials, highlights, racing music, and fireworks, to the current more content rich, sound bite worthy, still impressive quality, yet focused more on high quantity weekly, if not daily, authentic and real life video world.

I watched all of this happening and stood back, because nothing is more intimidating to me than video.  I could hide behind typed blog posts all day and be much more comfortable!

As it began passing me by I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.  I was used to over-produced, high-quality, perfect and beautiful video, and only wanted that out there of myself.

And then I tried a few selfie stick candid videos of me talking through a few ideas.

Not to say they went viral, but where I couldn’t buy 1,000 views of the over-produced videos which cost me 5-figures, compared to the easily racked up thousands of views from a selfie video talking in a field about keeping a promise.

So I ask you – are you keeping up with this trend?

There are so many I follow that do amazing video work, you should check them out as well:

Vinh Giang

Josh Drean

Mel Robbins

Ty Bennett

Dave Crenshaw

….not to mention the thousands of YouTubers killing it daily.

Some I’ve mentioned have hired teams that work with them.  Others do it all by themselves.

Most of what I’m making these days I shoot with a selfie stick and have my 11 year old son edit.

If I want a great promotional video I will still hire that out, because I receive footage from my clients and know the right mix means the world to the success of landing the gig.

But when it comes to every day video, the kind of thing that becomes a sort of clickbait on your feed, nothing, and I mean nothing, will up your profile, credibility, expertise in the eyes of potential buyers, and opportunity to get booked immediately, than a quantity loaded firehose of videos coming their way.

Hope you’ll join me as we navigate these waters together.  And in the meantime, if you want to come over sometime, we build forts for my kids out of old VHS tapes and DVD’s.

~ jh

My latest Promotional Video for Keynote Speaking made by a production team

 

My selfie renditions: