Why You Should Be Using Video, Even If You’re An Introvert

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

It is so much easier for your audience to connect with you through video. They begin to trust, know and like you.
When it comes to recording your videos, you can use your phone to get started. They work well when there are lots of natural lighting and as they’re designed for audio, the sound is great. It’s important to remember, though, that the quality of the content is more important that the quality of the pixels.
Launching video within your business takes time as it is a new skill that you need to learn. The best thing to do is be critical of yourself and know where it is you need to improve.
If you are thinking of starting video within your business, the best approach to take is to look at the common questions that people are asking in your industry. If there are things you are asked over and over again, creating a video that explains it gives you something to send to people instead. It also helps when it comes to SEO and Google search.
Remember, if you are recording a video and you don’t like it, you can delete it.
You don’t have to be young to start a YouTube channel.
If you don’t want to start a YouTube channel, Instagram stories is a great way to post videos that people will connect with. If it doesn’t go right, you can keep recording. IGTV is also an option.
There are lots of mobile apps where you can edit your videos. Adobe Rush lets you repurpose a video for multiple different platforms, depending on the optimal sizing.
Don’t feel like you have to fill time constraints when it comes to video, the important thing is the you’re getting started.
If you are worried you don’t have time to do YouTube, you don’t have to fully commit. Whether you’re creating a teaser for your main ‘focus’ or creating one video a week, if you want to incorporate it into your strategy you can. If you know what content people want, the whole process is so much easier. Another approach is to batch content over the course of a few hours.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

One of the best ways for people to see whether they’re going to connect with you is for them to physically see you. Even if you don’t feel as though you’re confident enough, it’s important people see you for you.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

Introducing Meredith – 08:35
Why Video? – 13:12
Why You Should Be Using Video And 19:20
Who Can Do Video?- 25:00
Top Tips For Getting Started – 27:00
Using Video That Is NOT YouTube – 34:30
The Basics Of Video On Social – 46:30

Transcript below

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. How are you? So, do I sound any different? Because this is the first time ever I am recording my podcast stood up. I know that sounds really odd but as you might have seen say from my Instagram, my setup at home is my microphone is on my desk and normally I’m sat down at my desk when I record these interviews. However, I’ve just bought myself and treated myself because it wasn’t cheap to a very fancy stand up desk from Ikea. There are about.. I think in the UK they’re about just short of 500 pounds for the one that I bought. But it’s electronic and it goes up and down because as you will know in the episode I did a few weeks ago which I can’t remember what number is now but I’ll link up to in the show notes when I talked about my morning routine, I told you that I am.. hate to say it but kind of really lazy when it comes to exercise. I’m not very good at it. And I spend pretty much most of my day sat down on my backside because I’m sat in front of the computer so I don’t move a whole lot and I’m one of those people that when I start working I’m like a machine and I can go for hours and hours and even forget to get up for a drink or go to the bathroom.

So I knew how bad this was when I was interviewing Jen Lenher from.. Oh in fact this was a couple of weeks ago as well so again I’ll hook up to it in the show notes. We were talking about hiring a V.A. when I got on screen we were chatting about the fact that she was stood up and she told me she had the stand-up desk from IKEA even though she’s over in the States obviously you guys have IKEA too. Sorry just don’t know why I needed to add that and she was saying that she actually has a treadmill underneath hers and even though it wasn’t on at the time of recording because obviously I’d hear it she said normally what she does is.. She just has the bottom bit the treadmill she has a really slow walk and she has like a little button thing that sits on her desk as she can control it and she walks while she works which is like.. It kind of blew my mind but it did make me think, ‘You know what? It’s really not healthy sitting down for all those hours.’ And she also said that apparently what did she say.. Something like sitting is the new smoking like it’s that bad for you. So I’m making an effort to stand more to move a little bit more maybe but just to not try and be sat on my backside for the entire day. So I have this new fancy stand desk and this is the first time I’m recording a podcast episode stood up so I’m interested. Do I sound different? Am I more energetic? Is it you know, is it any different? Or am I just being a bit crazy and it’s no different whatsoever.

So anyway this week quite a bit has been going on in a couple of things on update you on. And this won’t be new news to you. A few weeks ago quite a few weeks ago now I talk to you about the fact that I might be changing the name of the podcast and that kind of has come to fruition even more in terms of we’ve really looked at it and I have decided to change it and I’ve come up with a new name and I think next week’s episode I’m going to change it. I need to think of the planning of when that will be and sort of what time of year it will be as in I know it’s gonna be in the next few weeks but when I have some recording this a little bit earlier than it’ll go out. So yeah I just need to work out a few more things. I’ve had the brand done. Branding is very important to me. I don’t do that myself. I have a designer that works in the team and to be honest just really quickly if you ever get anything done like a brand, I would highly recommend that that’s where you invest a little bit of your money because you know what my brand and all my marketing and the stuff I put out means a whole lot to me. And therefore, it has to be right and I have to be happy with it. So we’ve worked out a new brand yesterday I’m just finalizing it and tweaking it and just making sure how it all looks. But yeah I think we’re going to have a new name. Now if you’re subscribed to the podcast, no problem. You are going to continue getting it. All you’ll notice is that whatever platform you use to listen to on an iTunes or I’m now on Spotify or Stitcher. It will just change as in the cover photo, the little image that is of me with the title on that will now change to the new title and the name of the podcast will change. But you will still be subscribed. You won’t lose me. I’m terrified that I’m going to lose listeners and I don’t want to lose listeners so I am trying to get everybody. If you’re not subscribed please please please go and subscribe now because obviously I don’t want you to miss out on seeing the podcast again or hearing it again. In fact next week, I might just tell you what the name is and then I might introduce it the week after because I’ll give you another opportunity to make sure you subscribe or at least know what the name is before I change it so you can then find it. But if you go and subscribe wherever you are then obviously you will continue to get my podcast and as I’ve said before in previous episodes, it’s not changing my podcast is staying exactly the same. I will talk about the same things. I will do the same things. It’s just because Social Media Marketing Made Simple is.. It’s really what’s the word? It’s like really specific and I talk more not general but I talk about lots of things that are all to do with social media and running your business and digital marketing. So I just didn’t want people to look at it and think, ‘Oh I don’t want to know about just Facebook or just Instagram or whatever it is’.

So anyway that’s what’s happening this week. And like I said, I will give you some more details on the next episode but I just wanted to let you know. Now see, make sure you’re subscribed.

This week I have an interview for you and you know what it’s going to be a really good one I think for most of you listening if I understand my audience well which I hope I do. So this week I’m interviewing the lovely Meredith Marsh who is a blogger but total introvert. She has over four million views on YouTube and she publishes video editing tutorials and camera know how’s and all that sort of good stuff on YouTube. As well as on Insta Stories and on her other social media platforms.

But what we talk about in today’s episode is obviously it’s so important to have video. We talk about it all the time but I know it’s one of the most difficult things for people to start to do because putting yourself on camera is tricky. And for me I feel like well you know I think you probably know that obviously I have my office slash studio. So I have the lights set up I have my mic. I have a background that I know is suitable and all that sort of good stuff and I felt I needed that if I was going to do any video of any sort. Not that I am on YouTube although, it is a long term, not dream that sounds a bit extreme, a long-term area that I want to focus on but just not right now.

So anyway yet video can be really really difficult to do. And I wanted to get someone on the A was doing it kind of all herself and she doesn’t cast herself as a YouTuber. Because we were talking on the interview the fact that when I think of YouTube as I think of like Zoella and Alphie whoever that is and people that my stepchildren talk about. Who were young and basically vlog their entire life. She doesn’t do that. She is a bit older she is. I think she’s probably a little bit younger than I am. She’s got kids. She’s running her business but she’s really kind of helping people use video more in their businesses and get themselves out there. And the fact that she’s an introvert is huge. You know she’s trying to lead the way and say listen if I can do it, anyone can do it.

So it’s a really really good interview it’s really nice to talk about some great things some real practical tips about how to get started and some of the things that you should think about doing. Also in preparation for the interview and funnily enough just before I recorded at this intro I was looking at her YouTube and it really is really good.

There’s some great videos on there about getting started and what to use and how to edit. So definitely go check that out. Obviously as always I put the links to all of her stuff in the show notes so go to teresaheathwareing.com/65. Okay, I will take up no more of your time.. Here’s Meredith.

Teresa: Hey Meredith welcome to the podcast.

Meredith: Hey Teresa. Thanks for having me.

Teresa: No problem. So good to have you on. And I’m really excited about today’s topic because I’ve got to be talking all about video and as my audience know because I talked about it just a few weeks ago.. Video is still very very very much in the forefront of things that you should be doing on social media and in your marketing. So I’m really excited to talk to you about that. But if my audience have never seen you before, if they don’t know who you are.. can you just give me a very brief overview as to how you got to do what you’re doing?

Meredith: Well a brief overview. OK. So my name is Meredith Marsh. I have a podcast called The Video Pursuit Podcast where I help bloggers and content creators reach a wider audience using YouTube and social video. So they can impact more people and be more profitable in their content creation businesses. And I got started about I think five years ago. Well initially I got started, I was a freelance web designer out of college and I was doing that for about five years and I kind of got burned out going from business to business learning enough about their business to create a Website and then walking away and then going to learn about another business to create a Website. So I had an opportunity to take an in-house web designer job for a local company that made storage sheds. And it was great..

It was a great place to work. I loved the people that I worked with and believe it or not, like sheds are actually kind of interesting thing to market. And so but it really I think about six months into that I was like, ‘Oh so how about that whole entrepreneurial thing? Can we get back to that?’.

I started a side hustle. I started a blog and a YouTube channel because I thought this will be a great story. I’m going to take this full-time job and I’m going to start a side hustle then I’m going to quit my job and just take my side hustle full time. It’s like the classic story that everybody hears and dreams about for themselves. But about three years after I took the full-time job, they moved my position to another city. So I didn’t move. I wasn’t gonna move. So we parted ways and I just took the blog full time basically. So but really from the moment I made the decision to start a side hustle, to like you know I looked at all the skills I had and the ability to learn new skills and I have every every skill I need to be one of these online entrepreneurial type people. So what the heck? Why not me? And so once I made that decision to take action on that I thought. I needed to help other people do this too because I think there’s so many people sitting at a desk somewhere using their creative energy to grow their employer’s businesses when they could absolutely be growing their own businesses. And so that’s why I do what I do now. I want to help content creators. I think that’s maybe the perhaps one of the easiest ways to start an online business to start a blog or a YouTube channel something where you’re creating content and I want to help those people reach more people so they can get out of their jobs faster or get out of few jobs before their job kicks them out.

Teresa: That’s really funny because it’s almost like it was I guess a way kind of a good that you have that in your head already. Because then at least it wasn’t too much of a shock when you then had to find an alternative. But also I think you’re right in the world of online and some of and we’re in a group together where it’s a lot of online businesses. You just kind of look at it and think why not? Why can’t I have part of that? Why can’t I have a space in that world? Because it’s a growing world because we use it. I use it. You know we we’re in an online group so we’re making the most of it in our businesses so why not in other people’s places and why not us? That’s really cool. So tell me what it was particularly about video though. Because you did Website so I could understand if you did more down that side of route but what was it about video?

Meredith: Well so I really kind of took my time thinking as we all do we take a lot of time to think before we take action. I was a big fan of Pat Flynn and Smart Passive Income Podcast and he had an episode fairly early on about how to figure out what you should start a blog about like how do you pick a topic. And so I spent like a I would say over a year even before I took that full-time job, I was already thinking if I was going to start a blog to turn it into a business. What would the topic be? And for a very long time I had no idea. I mean I had lots of ideas but I was like you know, ‘I’m not going to blog about that.’ And I could have done something along the lines of you know helping people become a freelance web designer or something like that. But I was like, I don’t really want to be fully immersed in it for the rest of my life. And. So one day. I was driving home from work. I had like a 15-minute commute so I. Had. It was like a. Perfect. Length commute to just decompress and think about life for a few minutes. And I was thinking my kids were little there. I think like I don’t know 6 and 2 or something and I have two little girls and they all just seemed like they were growing so fast and I was like, ‘What am I doing to make sure that their childhood is fun and interesting? And we’re doing fun things together as a family? And I thought I should start like just documenting what we’re doing. Like you know. Basically make family videos so that 10 years from now or 50 years from now, we have something to look back on. Right? And I think in the world of social media these days. People just they take their photos and their videos of their kids and their family and their event, adventures and stuff and they just dump them on Facebook and that’s it. And I thought I should be more intentional about capturing this stuff. Having nothing to do with starting a blog or anything, it was just like my own personal I don’t know, thought. And so a few months later I bought a GoPro camera, which is an adventure camera and action camera and I thought this would a good family camera because it’s waterproof and it’s small. And I think I bought it probably on like a Cyber Monday. So I got sort of suckered into it and I’m like this is perfect. So I’ve got this camera. And. The first. Little snow storm that we had, I live in upstate New York. So we get snow quite a bit.

We had snow just this week. No it wasn’t a big snow storm but the flurries were flying. So anyways I went outside with this GoPro. Take the kids outside. They went sledding and then I captured that and I captured them decorating Christmas cookies with my mom and I put this video together and they watched it on the iPad and they were like, ‘Wow this is really cool!’. And I’m like, ‘Yeah it is really cool. This is a really cool thing to do.’ And they wanted to watch it again and again like over and over again it was like a five-minute video. And I thought, ‘I think I need to help other people figure out how to do this.’ And in my mind I was thinking other moms. I need to help moms figure out the tech of creating these family videos so that when your kids are off to college, you’re not like wondering what have we done with our lives.

Teresa: All those years gone.

Meredith: And so I immediately thought I need to help other people do this which led to ‘Oh this maybe this could be the thing that I blog about’ which led to ‘If I’m going to be creating content around to use a camera or how to edit videos then I probably going to need to create a video tutorial here and there’. So it just made sense and I was had started kind of going to YouTube for you know, how to use an iMovie or like little things like that and I realized YouTube is full of all different kinds of content but there’s a lot of people who basically just stand there and talk to the camera and teach you something. And that’s their video. And I thought, ‘I could do that.’ You know that’s like something I could do. Even though I was not an on-camera person at all. That was scary to me but I thought, ‘It was going to help me reach more people and get my content out there and grow my blog.’ I just wanted to grow my blog. I wasn’t trying to be a YouTube star or anything. And I thought, ‘Oh I could do that’ and so that’s kind of what I started doing and before long I would say like a couple weeks couple months. Yeah I noticed that people were subscribing to my channel and commenting and wanting more videos on this topic and that topic and I realized, ‘Oh this whole YouTube thing is like a real thing. This is a real platform.’ And so really from the beginning YouTube has been. The biggest audience for me. Yeah. And if you combined my email list and Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest, YouTube still bigger than all of that combined.

Teresa: That’s amazing.

Meredith: So yeah it’s fun.

Teresa: No that’s really cool. So obviously you kind of transition from doing the stuff just at home to then doing it for businesses and helping businesses start creating their own videos and it’ll be really good as I said at the beginning. I was at Social Media Marketing World. They are still very much talking about video and saying it’s so important but yet it is something and you must see this all the time. There’s so many businesses don’t want to do or that terrified or so kind of let’s start at the beginning. Like let’s look at.. why should you be doing it? And then if we can finally convince you to do it, how you can get started?

Meredith: Yeah I think. It’s just so much easier to connect. Well it’s so much easier for your audience to connect with you if you’re on video. They can read a blog post and maybe if you write it well and write it the way that you talk maybe they’ll pick up on your personality or your sense of humor or who you are as a person. But if you’re not a skilled writer then it might actually get very dry it might be nothing like your personality. And so I think you know it depends on the type of content. But certainly if you have something to teach other people or if any of your business kind of starts there with somebody coming to you for help. Then how-to videos are still an amazing way to reach people because the search engines are your best friend that way. People are searching for solutions and help all day every day. Billions of people. And so when you can show up as a search result like literally your face your other search results and you’re delivering that solution. It’s you know. Again the snap of your fingers it’s there’s an instant connection there and they trust you, they know you, they like you. And I think it just takes a lot longer with written content or an Instagram feed or you know the random Facebook post here and there. So that’s for me that I think is where the power is in video is just that like instant connection.

Teresa: And also, I think if I can jump in like authenticity of it. So, I’m very much a true believer that one there’s enough room for everybody so you know in our spaces in particular there are a gazillion different competitors. If you want to look at them that way. But I feel it is totally space for all of us because we’re all very different. And that’s going to be someone that resonates with me. And there’s going to be someone that doesn’t resonate with me. And one of the best and easiest ways that they can see whether I’m for them or I’m going to you know connect with them on whatever level is to see me.

And there is no you know there are people who can come on camera and be really slick and maybe that’s not who they are in real life. Personally, that’s not me. I would just be the same. And when you meet me I’m exactly the same as the podcast as when I’m onstage. Everything. So, I really although I don’t do as much video as I as little as I would like. I particularly really like the video thing. Now I’m not saying I like doing video but I like the fact that it’s good to put someone on camera and see. if they were getting started then what. Because like you just said as well you know people at GoPro. I made a stupid mistake. I bore this really nice YouTube camera and then realized I couldn’t connect a mic to it. So, it was a stupid thing to do completely pointless. So so crossing myself. So this really expensive very nice camera which if I want to do what you know b-roll, not that my husband’s binder. It is just basically whatever. Yeah. I was so cross myself. So you know we we’re to get cameras and mics and lights and all that sort of good stuff. If we starting and where do we start?

Meredith: Well first of all, I would say if you have a really fancy camera that you can’t plug a mic into you can still record your audio on a separate recording device. So you can still use your fancy camera.

Teresa: How hard is it to link it?

Meredith: It’s not hard if you know how to edit videos. Okay. It’s really not hard. It sounds complicated but once you figure it out it’s really easy. And it’s a very common thing to do. A lot of YouTube creators and video creators will do that. So don’t feel bad for making that mistake. But you can use your phone and I think you know there’s varying degrees of how professional you think that you need to look on camera. Phones actually do a fantastic job. If you provide lots of great lighting even if it’s just natural light in front of a window. Any camera does its best work when there’s lots of lighting and phones have great audio because they’re designed for audio because they are phones.

Teresa: I like to think about that. It makes perfect sense.

Meredith: So as long as you’re within a decent distance they they’d work really well. Which means you don’t have to go out and actually buy anything to create a video. And you know some people get hung up on like ‘Well I don’t know if that’s gonna be the best quality’ But if you’re just learning how it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter that the content the quality of the content is more important than the quality of the pixels of the video. So you know you start with that. I would say if you don’t want to go and spend heaps of money on camera but also your computer probably has a webcam. And if it doesn’t, webcams are actually pretty affordable. One hundred dollars or less. And again, good lighting is a key for webcams as well. But yeah, the content and what you’re gonna say in your video and what purpose your video actually serves is more important than how it’s actually going to look.

Teresa: Okay. So just one quick thing. Because for me I think that there are certain people that are good podcasters, good writers. So do you feel like anybody could use video in some way? Or do you think.. and I guess you’ve got to do it and you’ll get better and get more comfortable. But do you think there’s just some people who just aren’t good on camera like that’s just not their job?

Meredith: You know there’s such a good question because I feel like my default answer is going to have to be everybody can do video. There isn’t anybody that just shouldn’t be doing it but you know I think like it is learning a skill you know. And I think with anything you have to be a little bit self-aware and be able to look at your video and not look at it and say, ‘Well this is crap I’m not doing video’ but look at it and say, ‘OK here’s something that I could improve and just improve one little thing at a time’. But you have to. It’s an interesting balance because you have to be critical enough to see what could be improved but not so critical that you’re like, ‘Well I suck at this so I’m not going to do it’. Yeah you know everything I think can be improved. As long as you, you know, address the things that you can see and you can always ask for feedback from people that you know are going to be honest with you. That would be a key there. People that you know.

Teresa: yeah yeah. And you know, not just mean for the sake of being mean.

Meredith: Yeah.. Or that could tell you, ‘Oh yeah. This is great.’ Don’t ask your mom for feedback because she’s going to be either like, ‘What are you doing? This is crazy.’ Or ‘It looks great. I’m so proud of you and she’s going to share it with all of our friend’.

Teresa: And it can be the worst thing in the world. You’re literally dying on it and she’s like, ‘Oh my God this is wonderful.’

Yeah that’s awesome. So what can they talk about? What can these videos be about? Well if you started out that’s a bit of a needle in a haystack type question because literally you know people’s business. There are a million different things that people do. But what would your kind of starting point be?

Meredith: Yeah. That is a good question. I think no matter what business you’re in and what product you or service you provide there’s always common questions around that thing like specific common questions. And it’s very likely that there’s questions that are so common that you’re like you just kind of roll your eyes when you get it because you’re like oh gosh do I really have to answer this question. Again. Those are the things that you should start with not because you won’t have to answer that question anymore. You still have to answer it. But yeah send them to a video for a further explanation. But if people are asking you know that people are taking that into Google or into YouTube or wherever. Right. If it’s a common question people are struggling with it all over the world. So that is a good good place to start. And if you are somebody who has already created some written content like on your blog then you can go into your blogs analytics and see what are people coming to your site for to begin with and start with those topics because especially if you know that it’s organic traffic from Google. You know that people are finding you because they searched for that thing and so. You’d already have a little bit of Google juice there. So it would be good to create a video on that and go from there.

Teresa: Cool. Okay so let’s say I’ve got a bit of equipment. I’m happy that I know what I’m gonna say because like you said that’s kind of in one way the most important but the easiest bit because if you know your stuff then you should be able to be able to answer a question and type thing about your business. So how do I get to.. and people won’t believe me when I say this because I speak on stage. People assume that I am uber confident on camera. One, I swear a lot but I make mistakes. Despite though.. at the beginning of this podcast because I made a mistake which won’t air so that’s fine. But I do and every time I mess up, I swear. Two, you stick a camera in front of me. If it’s live and if it’s like I’ve done webinars and I speak, that’s fine because I’m just being me. A bit like on the podcast. Camera in front of me that you’re then going to edit and I suddenly turn into this very odd human being and I find it really uncomfortable which like most people would be like, ‘No Teresa. That’s not the case. You’re fine.’ So why do we get that.. How do we get over physically getting on? And then how do we get comfortable and confident on camera?

Meredith: Yeah. Wow. So the same thing happens to me. I have people tell me like, ‘You are so natural on camera I could never be like that.’ And I am like, ‘Oh man if you saw some of my first video..’ I mean you could go to my YouTube channel and actually find my first videos. You would be like, ‘What? Why did you decide do video?’

Teresa: I think it’s reassuring. I want you all to go. I’ll put the link in the show notes. Meredith’s YouTube channel and you can all go and have a look and see how bad her first ones were.

Meredith: Yeah yeah. The lighting is so dark in the audio volume is really low and it’s just bad. But I think this may sound kind of silly but I think at first you kind of have to pretend that you’re comfortable. And if you’re doing a recorded video you can always delete it. Like no one.. Even you don’t have to watch it. If you recorded it and your like, ‘That sucks. I’m not posting that anywhere.’ Just delete it. You don’t even have to watch it yourself. But again like I went to you and I was like I see these people just talk into the camera and this is kind of how they’re talking and how they’re you know they’re like intonation is and not like every time I watch the news and I listen to it like the anchor person, ‘I’m like why do they talk like that? It’s so weird and unnatural and stiff, you know. And Youtubers aren’t like that.’ So don’t emulate what you see on the news. Emulate what you see on YouTube or on other social platforms. Yeah and just pretend like.. I literally remember standing there recording some of my first videos and thinking if I was a YouTuber how would I say this? Like how would I say, Hey be sure to subscribe to my channel! Those are not normal words you would say in everyday life. So you have to kind of practice and emulate how other people do it.

Teresa: It’s so funny because my daughter as most children. How old are your children now?

Meredith: I have a twelve and an eight-year-old.

Teresa: Okay so my daughter is nine. So kind of in the middle and she watches a lot of YouTube. Well not a lot because I’m quite strict but she does love watching YouTube. And she talks, she’s just started her own YouTube channel bless her heart. Every intro of her video, she’s got three or four, she’s like hi there. And she puts things like American accent on. It’s like, ‘You’re not American darling, why do you speak like that?’ And she’ll be like, ‘Don’t forget to do this.’ She’s doing an American accent because that’s what she’s heard.

Meredith: That’s really funny.

Teresa: Isn’t it funny? It’s hilarious. She knows how to say those things whereas like you said I would find that really difficult. I’m saying don’t forget to hit subscribe and like video and all this kind of stuff but I guess you do have to just think about saying that sort of thing. But yeah. The other thing that’s interesting as well because when you talk about YouTubers. Again, I’ve got a step son who’s 15 and a stepdaughter who’s 21 obviously way too young to have stepchildren. That’s what I keep telling myself. They obviously watch YouTube whereas my daughter. watches an unboxing and kind of dares and whatever it is. Then they follow a YouTube like they like we would follow a TV program. And it’s kind of really good to hear you talk about it because with the most respect in the world. You know all the YouTube as I’ve ever seen are young, really young like you know 18 19 20 21. They are not parents. They are doing you know they’re living a certain life they’re behaving a certain way and it’s kind of reassuring to hear that you know, you’re going on and you’re doing it. You’re a mom. You obviously you know a bit older your and you find a way to make it work for you. That’s really cool.

Meredith: Yeah yeah. You don’t have to be one of those crazy crazy crazy Youtuber type people in order to take advantage of YouTube for sure and that’s why I have transitioned from referring to myself as a YouTuber and I see that I’m a YouTube creator because there’s a little bit of a difference.

Teresa: They’re going to like.. she’s got to come in on a skateboard. It’s so crazy. Yeah there is there is this kind of when you think about YouTube is I think about Zola and Alfie and all these kind of like I don’t really know these people this is just what I’ve picked up from listening to people. But yeah, you know you think about them. So it’s cool but so let’s say I’m just starting out. I don’t necessarily want to star on a YouTube channel but I want to start doing video. What would I be doing? Is that somewhere that you would suggest I did it, if I didn’t want to do it on YouTube? Or the type of video or does it make a difference?

Meredith: I think for sure Instagram Stories is probably the easiest place.

Teresa: I love Instagram Stories.

Meredith: Yeah. And even Facebook Stories which I don’t know if people and I know what’s happening there but they seem to keep pushing Facebook Stories in my feed. So same thing. If you’re not into Instagram, you can do this on Facebook. I think that’s the easiest thing. You know just like if you’re recording into a camera if it doesn’t come out right. Just don’t post it. Just redo it. You know I’m used to talking to a camera now and I still sometimes record an Instagram story like 10 times before I post it because you know you only have 15 seconds and usually something I need to say is like 17 seconds long.

Teresa: I’m a terrible critic of myself. So I will I will literally rerecord rerecord. But the best ones I find are literally the ones where I just start and go and then post. You know rather than if I try and be too considered. That’s when I mess it up I think. Whereas when I’m just being myself, it sings better. But how do I get over the fact then of even on Insta Story because at the moment that’s the most video I do is on its stories but I pretty much go on every day. How do we get over the fact of if I don’t look perfect, if my hair isn’t done, if the lighting is not right, I’m not going on. Like should I just go on or should I.. Because some people..

Meredith: You’re asking the wrong person.

Teresa: What do you do then?

Meredith: So yeah I will. It is kind of interesting because I would say just in the last few months or so I have thought to myself, ‘Oh I need to put on makeup today so I can do an Instagram story.’ And then I’m like, ‘Meredith what the heck. That’s the weirdest. Like who are you?’ But you know with filters you can go on without any makeup and still have beautiful smooth skin. Yeah. And I mean and I mean subtle they have subtle filters that just kind of smooth your skin and brighten you up a little or without having some crazy you know Dog Ears filters.

Teresa: I love the Kylie Jenner one. That’s the one I use. All the time. But without lipstick. No lipstick because that’s too much for me. But I have I wear very naturally dark eye makeup anyway and they just pit lashes on you and smooth your skin a bit. And it’s like hallelujah. That’s amazing. Like it was so funny cause I put up a story the other day. People always come up on my makeup which is really lovely but I got a story day in then Jen Burson who is also in our group commented. I said I was in a grumpy mood and asked what music people listened to cheer themselves up. And she put that your make up some point though as like thanks very much. Where is this someone.. Do you know a lady called Chelsea Peitz?

Meredith: No.

Teresa: OK so definitely check her out on Instagram and she’s been on the podcast a few quite a few weeks ago now. By the time this airs and she does Insta Stories all the time which is great she’s on camera all the time and she will happily go on just woken up, hair sticking up wildly. It still looks amazing by the way but it’s obvious that she’s literally just got out of bed looks like. But does that bravery come from? Because it’s is not something that I’m comfortable doing. No one needs to see that in the morning you know. Right. That’s not going to be great for anybody especially not my brand.

Meredith: But it’s super authentic. You know.

Teresa: Very authentic authentic. OK so getting started then so where should I be posting other than Instar Stories because Instar Stories is a great but how much can I really get going on the Instar Stories?

Meredith: Well I think it did it depends on your Instagram account and what you know what all you have going on there. You know I have heard people say that Instagram Stories is fantastic and they get lots of engagement in that and they’re using stories to grow their Instagram accounts. Or I don’t understand how that works. But I’ve heard other people say that they get very little engagement in their Instagram Stories. But I think. You know IGTV is also an option and Facebook. Not Facebook Instagram fairly recently made it so that your IGTV videos can be pushed into your feeds. Yeah. Which is really interesting and I find I’m definitely watching more IGTV videos now for sure and I noticed that because you can put if you upload an IGTV video you can put a custom thumbnail image or poster image on. I’m not sure exactly what they call it but. So, in your feed you can have a beautifully curated on brand poster image. Even if your IGTV video isn’t that like perfect no Instagram aesthetic. So in your feed it still is still fits aesthetically you know. But because that was one of the things that people mentioned early on when they just started putting in their feed. But this makes me my feet very ugly. Right. Like how and how dare it look real?

Teresa: Exactly you know I spent a long time making my feed look beautiful like I don’t know what editing to come on like that. It is hilarious. That would put me off posting it to feed because yeah it would just ruin the aesthetic of how I plan my posts.

Meredith: Right. So yeah. With the custom thumbnail image, it kind of solves that problem. Yeah. And it gets more eyeballs on that IGTV video and for that you know you can you can record it on your phone vertical. You can also edit it on your phone. You can use if you have an iPhone you can use an app called Luma Fusion. There’s a lot. Luma Fusion is a really robust editor for your phone. There’s a lot of easier you know more beginner friendly ones like. Inshot is one. I’m trying to think..

Teresa: There’s an Adobe one that I’ve got.

Meredith: That’s what I was trying to think. It’s called Adobe Rush and I use it all the time and I couldn’t think of the name. Adobe Rush which makes it actually really easy to edit a video and then repurpose it for different platforms. And so you could create a horizontal video that you were going to maybe put on Facebook or YouTube. And then so you’re editing at one time and then you go on purpose it just literally with like the click of a button. You can make it vertical and then kind of reconfigure the sizing or how you want it to be arranged in the frame and then have a vertical version of it. So that’s one of the things that is really exciting to me about Rush is it makes it so sort of natural and no longer can we say well I can’t create video on multiple platforms because it’s too hard to edit you want to edit it twice. You don’t have to edit it twice anymore you can just edit it once and then repurpose it and you’re on your way.

Teresa: And you definitely… Jasmine star was saying I can’t remember whether it was in the podcast or speaking.. when she was saying that you definitely don’t want a landscape video in stories or IGTV because people just don’t want to turn their phone which just sounds ridiculous but you don’t you don’t get used to looking at it that way and therefore we don’t want to turn off and to watch a video. So she found that actually like you said putting the even if it was a landscape video into the portrait. So the video was smaller. She if I worked better the not well than having it landscape. So that was really interesting.. So there’s nothing wrong that you see in recording a video and repurposing it in different places.

Meredith: No and actually no I don’t see anything wrong with that at all especially if when you’re recording it you’re keeping in mind that it’s going to be repurposed so that you know if you do say you know, Hey welcome to Teresa’s YouTube channel. Make sure you hit subscribe. You may want to cut that out in the IGTV version you know. I mean you have to. You can leave it in it would be understandable to leave it in but you could also cut that little chunk out and you know one of the things I think previously to I would say like prior to 2019 I feel like if you created a piece of content in one place and you stuck with one platform which is what most people recommend. You know stick with one platform grow one platform instead of trying to be everywhere. And I think it used to be pretty common to create that piece of content and then use your other platforms to drive people to that one place. Yeah. And now engagement is so important on all of the different platforms that buy by having it one place and then trying to drive people somewhere else. You’re losing out on engagement on the platforms that you’re. Trying to get people to move from none of the platforms want people to leave the platform yet to go. You know from Instagram, go watch a YouTube video. They hate that. And people I mean people don’t want to do that if they’re on Instagram, they’re watching on Instagram that’s where they want to be because that’s where they chose to watch you. And so, I think I feel like the name of the game for 2019 is to create that video content and really use it, repurposed not just promoting your YouTube channel your blog or whatever. So that you get that engagement. And one of the things you mentioned before we started recording was you said I think you did a podcast on being comfortable on camera or was it a livestream or was it in IG stories and I said it was everywhere because I did a podcast. So, I had that content written out and then I did an Instagram story. I didn’t repurpose the podcast. I just got an Instagram Stories and knew what I needed to say because I had just recorded the podcast. Yeah. And then I also did a livestream of it because I had already prepared the content so I created three pieces of content from the same planned out you know thing that I had written out for what I needed to say and then you can figure out where you heard it from and I was like everywhere.

Teresa: Yes. Which is cool because the one place I find that which for me is Instagram because that’s the one of the first places I look. Then like you said if I if you didn’t put it on Instagram then I wouldn’t have seen it. So. Exactly.

In one way although I guess we’ve always been really nervous in the past to repeat content because you don’t wanna fool people. Right. I guess the truth is you do need to put it in lots of different places and have it that way so that actually they are seeing it on the platform that they’re choosing to see it on. It is funny you know I’ve got some friends that I follow and they put the same photos same caption everything I think they probably just share their Instagram to their Facebook. And then I’ll see a picture and I like it and then I’ll see it again and think I’ve already like this but why haven’t I liked it? And it’s obvious that seeing on a different platform. But yeah. But you know other than a couple of friends I literature and see repeats in content anywhere else really. So like just when you’re on that platform, that’s what you want to learn. And the other thing you said is the platforms want you to upload the video natively to that platform, don’t they? Yeah. They don’t want you to link a YouTube link. They don’t want you to try and send somewhere else. They want you to physically get the video and upload it to each individual platform. Yeah. Which makes sense. So give me a couple of basics. So is there an optimum length of time you know. Is there.. What should I be looking at? And if I’m doing it on my phone. Is there an optimum kind of time for doing a video?

Meredith: Well I think it does depend on the platform there. Yeah, I think for YouTube. If someone just starting out I usually recommend like shoot for five minutes or so. Now there’s a lot of different. Schools of thought on how long a YouTube video should be but if you’re just starting out just. Your goal is just get out there. Yeah. You know if you have a topic that you could talk for 10 minutes on then make a 10-minute video but don’t feel like you have to fill some imaginary time constraint space there and then IGTV I think is limited.. Isn’t limited to 10 minutes? Yeah. So yeah. And so but again you can add it you can create you know huge record for 15 minutes. You edit certain things out and upload that to IGTV. And so I think what out however the amount of time that your content takes to fill in being really mindful of the fact that people who are watching your videos are there for the content. Yeah. And they’re not. They’re not necessarily there for all this other. I don’t know fluffy stuff for like five-minute intro or anything. Yeah, they’re there for the content. And so just focus on that and just be natural whatever the length happens to be just don’t stress about it.

So I’ve got two questions I asked one of them is one thing I’ve noticed a lot is there’s a couple of people I watch that do regular YouTube videos, two cameras. They’re in a very nice location. It’s obviously edited it’s obviously professionally done and at the end of their videos they have an intro and an outro to you know really nice to. And at the end of their videos they always show out takes later. But not even necessarily funny outtakes like you know I’ve done this before now Where like I was recording something just at home on my phone and I.. like some of my outtakes are like Well most of them I couldn’t publish if I’m honest because of my language but there are a couple where I start laughing or whatever. So, I posted them separately to the video. But I was just a bit like so first off is there a reason they’re posting these out takes? Is that a more human thing? But then I thought. Why wouldn’t they just post funny ones or why they just posting them anyway like… I just don’t get it.

Meredith: That’s a good question. I want to say I feel like it’s to maybe show their more human side. And if it’s at the end of a video they are in a way sort of rewarding the viewer. It seems silly to say you’re rewarding the viewer with your outtakes. But if it’s entertaining to the viewer you know whether it’s funny or not, it still may be entertaining. And so, if it’s at the very end you’re sort of rewarding people who stayed the whole time a little bit. I used to put outtakes at the end of my videos because I had so many.

Teresa: If they’re funny or quirky or but it’s literally like this one doesn’t it does it literally at the end. ‘No. That was that, wasn’t it?’ And that’s it.

And it’s like. Yeah. I feel like being you know if it was if it was proper outtakes because when you imagine outtakes you your imagining like props messes up or people falling over or like that. Exactly. So, you know that’s good fun. But yeah, I was just really interested as to whether that was a thing.

Meredith: Yeah I used to do that actually and I had a few people that would comment about my outtakes and I’d be like, ‘Oh good. You watched the whole video.’ That’s good. Now I try to actually when I’m editing my videos if I if I mess up some words but I keep going in like a fairly normal way. I try to keep that in or even edit around that little blooper to make it even more funnier. Like make the timing of it funnier which is just like an editing thing. And I only do it if it seems natural and makes sense and I go take me like an hour extra to edit blooper for you know. Yeah yeah yeah. But I think. It’s I have lots of bloopers. I don’t usually. Mine aren’t usually R rated but I can easily lead them in. But I’ve well above my words all the time so I bloopers are kind of fun.

Teresa: Yeah. And the funny thing is like if people only knew like because obviously I didn’t swear when I’m onstage or in anybody would see me in the podcast or anything like that. So it would just be like, ‘I think they’d be a bit shocked’ Because I’ve messed up.

Meredith: You think that would be funny if you beeped it out.

Teresa: It would be kind of hilarious I think. And the other thing I do because I joke that I have the worst poker face. So I am not like you know straight face. If I don’t like something or something is annoyed me or something. You can see all of my face when I do mess up my expressions are normally ridiculous because I’m so angry with myself or whatever. Yeah.

Meredith: So I’m the same exact way. Same thing.

Teresa: So one last quick question before you go. One slight selfish question if I’m honest because I’m just asking for myself but hopefully my audience like it. So obviously at the moment I don’t do anything other than Insta Stories which I adore. And if I look okay I put myself on camera which is so vain and I happily admit that because I’ve turned to 40 now and I need those filters and the makeup. God help me if they ever got rid of them and my only complaint. I mean Instagram story is not as good as Snapchat filters not that I use Snapchat but their filters all better. So, things up their filter game but I really wants to do video so you’re looking at me now as I’m recording this and I changed my office so that I’m in a different room in the house because I work from home. It’s a bit messy behind me at the moment but it’s it’s purposely done in a way that can look good on camera. My lights are in front of me. I’m front of a window. I got a Logitech webcam so the quality of the picture is better or with the idea that I was going to start a YouTube channel. Because I liked the idea of putting myself on camera even though it makes me nervous. I knew that my audience. I think my audience would like it too. And then I was talking to Andrew and Pete who did this really good talk at Social Media Marketing World which I’d seen previously. I know these guys I’d seen it and heard the concept before about the 90-10 rule which is basically you should spend 90 percent of your time do something really well. So of course, when I spoke to them and said they said, ‘Oh this is nice’ because we have a call every week where I help the guys out with some stuff and then like ‘That’s lovely Teresa. You changed your name. I said yeah for when I start my YouTube channel and they were like, ‘Did you listen to that talk?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I listened to that talk.’ They’re like, ‘What is wrong with you? Have you got a podcast Teresa?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah obviously. You’ve been on it.’ They were like, ‘Do you like an Insta story.’ ‘Yeah I love an Insta Story.’ They were like, ‘What are you doing? You haven’t got time to do a YouTube Channel’

But I really wanted to do video and I really wanted to like somehow find a place. So they did say can you not record a little video about each episode of the podcast which is not.. That’s not a bad idea but in all honesty, I do find it I find it hard to talk about that without just giving away what’s on the podcast. And I don’t necessarily just want a straight up repeat it but like what’s your thoughts? Do you think I should like stay focused in my lane? Or do you think I should find a way.? And what kind of way could that be to do video? I’m asking for your personal opinion.

I’m sitting here right now and we are on video to how we feel. Listeners won’t be able to see this but I think you’re fantastic on video and absolutely we do. I think though like if you’re the thing about having a synopsis or a teaser something for your podcast is on YouTube in particular is if people aren’t searching for whatever it is that you’re talking about then no one’s going to see it. So you know there’s that but you can also I mean if you have you know are all of your podcast episodes guests or you have solo shows?

Teresa: I do solo shows. In fact I try and do every other.

Meredith: Yeah yeah yeah. So you already have so much content prepared you know. I think that one of the things that. People don’t. Maybe realize about YouTube people who have been creating content somewhere whether it’s a blog or Instagram or a podcast whatever the thing is. You already have the content prepared and that’s more than half the battle people think the camera is the battle. It’s not. That’s the easiest part. The hardest part is actually creating the content and figuring out what are people searching for? How can I help them? How can I deliver this content? What do I want to say? What’s my purpose here? Once you figure that out the rest is easy. And then you just make sure that on YouTube that you’re doing a little bit of keyword research to make sure that what you call your video. The title. What you put in the description is aligned with what people are searching for. You know it’s just it’s basic SEO and yeah, you’re good to go. I wouldn’t. I am not opposed to you starting a YouTube channel.

Teresa: Okay cool. I’m going to go back and say, ‘Well Meredith says I can’ Anybody who listens, there’s Andrew and Pete and I got to tell them that Teresa’s been talking about them. I will alert them before I before this goes like I do because I’m really, I like to be consistent. So, with the podcast obviously I have consistently put a podcast out every single Monday. I’ve just started doing a regular Wednesday e-mail or not just started to be quite a few weeks by this point. And again, I want to take that consistency box. You know I need people to know that I’m going to show up so my thing with the YouTube channel was if I’m going to start it, I’m going to be consistent and I’m going to consistently turn up and do that thing. But actually, you can sit down and record 10 videos in a day if they’re sure. Couldn’t you? Easily.

Meredith: Yeah you could.

Teresa: As long as you plan your content and actually for me, try to make sure my hair is nice and my makeup is nice and then have a few changes of clothes and that sort of thing. But also when you’re creating content or you’re creating anything if you are like your first few videos might be a bit hard but then you’ll just start getting in the flow of it and hopefully that will make it generally easier for you to that record those videos. So yeah for sure.

Meredith: Yeah. And one thing too with YouTube if you. It’s pretty common. I think probably every YouTube guru out there will say consistency is key. You just show up at least once a week and that is true if you are creating a YouTube channel as your main platform and this is where you’re choosing to show up every week. But for somebody like you who wants to use a platform to reach a wider audience. I think you could create five videos or create a series. Answer those common questions and you could choose to never will even walk back into YouTube benevolent another video and still if people are finding that video and finding you, it’s still valuable since it’s sort of. A fail proof. I feel like YouTube is fail proof if you do it right because. There’s. The SEO component there whereas if you start an Instagram account for some random thing that you wanted to start and then you were like I’m going to do this and you do it for like 10 know 10 days of Instagram Stories and then you abandoned it. Nobody is going to find that ever. That’s dead press with a blog post or a YouTube video, the search engines and algorithm are indexing that. And so, people could find it 5 – 10 years from now and be attracting people to you that way.

Teresa: Yeah. That’s so cool. And I do and I love it because that’s how when I’m looking for something I was just mentioning to you before we go on. I was doing some work on Kajabi. And I was on YouTube. I was watching people’s YouTube videos of how to create things. Even Kajabi got the most amazing sort of their own content anyway. You know you search for something and then obviously these YouTube videos come up. So. You know Google owns YouTube. It’s going to always bring the search results high.

Meredith: Right. Yeah.

Teresa: Awesome. Oh, Meredith thank you so so much. I really appreciate you being on. Great talking about this and thinking more about doing those videos for business success so so important.

Meredith: Thanks for having me.

Teresa: No worries I’m going to link up to everything in the show notes. I got to put everything in there. I know you’ve got a few things coming up. A few. It’s a workshop that you going to be doing soon as well?

Meredith: Yeah I have a social video workshop where you’ll be learning how to repurpose your content like how to actually plan it and edit it like we talked about with Premier Rush and that is coming up.. I don’t know when this is going to air but that is on May 19, it’s live and I have a free social video blueprint which is a printable save-able PDF of tips and layout ideas for repurposing your video content so you can reach way more people without spending way more time editing your videos. So there’s some inspiration and layout ideas for how to take that landscape video from YouTube and turn it into a Pinterest pin because only this is now or how to make it look really nice on TV like we talked about and or Instagram Stories or even how to repurpose your vertical Instagram Stories or do IGTV videos and put them on YouTube and have them look nice. That’s the social video blueprint. You could have it at socialvideoblueprint.com

Teresa: Perfect. And we will put that link as well in the show note. So Meredith, thank you so so much. It’s been great having you.

Meredith: Yeah, thank you.

Teresa: I love that episode it was really really good. Meredith was lovely. I had a good laugh and there was some great practical simple really.. what’s the word usable advice that I think you can take from that. And honestly, I would urge you that if you are just thinking about it, if you are on the edge and think that you know what I think I should do this then please take some practical advice and go ahead and get started. I know that I have said loads of times I want to do and I really do. I’m just at the moment I need to focus on something that I’m doing in the business. And then once those things are sorted then once I can fully commit and put it out weekly I could do the podcast then I will do that to as always, I will put all the links and things in the show notes so anything you might need. Go check that out there and like I said do go check out her YouTube. It’s great to see especially when you do scroll back and look at some of the beginning ones. I’m not saying that awful by any stretch of the imagination but it’s interesting to see the progress that she’s taken over time. Hey the editing has changed, how her styles changed So definitely go check that one out, I think it’s a great example of something we can all achieve. So that’s all from me. If you get a chance don’t forget to hit subscribe. And also, I sound like a YouTuber then when I said hit subscribe should have put an American accent and also do come and find me on social media. I’m always on Instagram please come and say hi. Until next week. Have a great week!

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Why You Should Be Using Video, Even If You’re An Introvert

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

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