Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / How to Provide Great Videos with Leticia Crippen

Transcript

How to Provide Great Videos with Leticia Crippen · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition,
• 0:07
  liftoff.
• 0:09
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:11
  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast.
• 0:14
  With the number one small business expert, Melinda Emerson.
• 0:18
  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:23
  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
• 0:26
  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady self, Melinda Emerson.
• 0:34
  Have you subscribed to the small Bishat podcast?
• 0:37
  Well, it's time every Wednesday we offer listeners by size actionable tips to start and
• 0:43
  grow a successful small business.
• 0:45
  And just 20 minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel your
• 0:52
  business forward.
• 0:53
  Be sure to subscribe to the small bitchhead podcast today.
• 0:58
  Now it's time for me to introduce my guest, Leticia Crippen.
• 1:02
  She's an award winning creative strategist and video producer as CEO of Touch Management LLC,
• 1:09
  She has more than 20 years of experience producing and directing programming for
• 1:13
  television, streaming platforms, and corporate conferences.
• 1:17
  Leticia also works with business owners to craft relevant content creation strategies for
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  sales and marketing efforts.
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  She's committed to developing the next generation of storytellers and media leader.
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  She leads a digital ministry volunteer.
• 1:31
  She also teaches a community access media, and she is a mentor to marketing and film student.
• 1:38
  For more information, you can go to touch mgmt.com.
• 1:44
  Alright.
• 1:44
  Well, Tisha, welcome to the Slobuschat podcast.
• 1:48
  Thank you so much for having me, Melinda.
• 1:50
  It's a pleasure to be here.
• 1:52
  Alright.
• 1:52
  So give me your backstory.
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  How did you get on this journey to becoming an amazing producer and director?
• 2:00
  Well, I always say it started when I was in kindergarten when I was doing the morning
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  announcements I've always had a passion for community communications, media, all throughout
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  my education, and really found my passion when I joined my local community access channel
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  shout out to Philly Kim here in Philadelphia.
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  And creating content for small businesses really allowed me to pour my gifts into other
• 2:32
  people and essentially have that sense of, accomplishment and being able to help people
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  grow their business.
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  Alright.
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  So let's get into it.
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  What makes a great video?
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  So a great video has multiple components, but the first and foremost thing that every small
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  business owner needs to understand and focus on is to make sure that they are generating a
• 3:02
  specific emotion or response from their viewer.
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  That response is going to that emotion that you're gonna create from the viewer triggers
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  them to take an action, whether it be buying your products, your services, or just continue
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  to like your videos.
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  So a lot of those things are lighting, making sure that we can see what you're doing, making
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  sure that you're engaging clear and concise, and that your message is on point and resonates
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  with what your viewers want to hear.
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  So high quality, sound timing, they're all really crucial, but you have to make sure you
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  look good as well.
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  A lot of times, we are in this season of scammers.
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  They're all over the place, and so making sure that you are looking incredible and that your
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  videos are well produced allows me your consumer feel comfortable with making that
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  purchase of your goods or services.
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  So great videos really require a lot of different elements, but making sure that you're
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  giving the people what they want you're talking to them, they hear you, and now you look good
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  while you're doing it, those are the key components.
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  Alright.
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  So there's all these people out here that are terrified of video, right, So how do you get
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  started with producing videos when you have, like, little to no experience?
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  If you have little to no experience, I always say it's to start by watching other people who
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  are in a similar industry as you.
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  If it's not broke, don't fix it.
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  There's formulas to a lot of these things, and so mimicking what other people are doing is a
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  great way to start.
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  So if you have a business where you're selling haircare products, look and see what the rest
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  of the market is doing as it relates to how they're selling and marketing their hair care
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  products online.
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  But then I always say it's okay to hire a director or producer.
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  Sometimes these social media gurus just try to make it seem a little too cookie cutter and
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  say, oh, you're just gonna throw your camera up, and you're gonna sell the product, and
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  people are gonna you're gonna go viral.
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  And it doesn't necessarily work that way.
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  I always say try to bring on someone like myself or producer director who is there with
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  you who can coach you through the process, tell you, hey.
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  This sounds great.
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  Rephrase what you're saying.
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  Let's fix your positioning.
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  And making sure that that video hits every single time.
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  So bring someone on to coach you, but then if you can't do that, watch what other people are
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  doing and just get started.
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  The only way to know how to do it the right way is to just do it.
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  Alright.
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  So I wanna clarify something.
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  So are you saying do not record videos with your phone?
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  Is that what you're saying?
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  So you can record your videos with your phone.
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  Okay?
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  But there's a certain way to do it.
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  For example, you want to make sure you're using your back camera.
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  When you're using your phone, the back of your camera, that's that lens It's far more high.
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  It's better quality that way than your front camera.
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  You can use your everyday simple things that are around your house, a lamp, a light, but you
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  have to use those things.
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  Don't sit in a dark corner and think that it's gonna look good.
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  Use the simple everyday things around your home to really bring forth some great quality.
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  But, yes, you can use yourself up.
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  It's okay.
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  Alright.
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  Well, I'm glad you clarified that because you made me feel like I needed a whole crew up in
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  here.
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  Alright.
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  Now talk to me about does every video need a plan?
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  Or or could you just mean, because I see all these people.
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  They're sitting in their car and their compute their phone is on their dashboard and they're
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  talking.
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  Right.
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  Or do you need to, like, have a mini script and kinda think about it and have your bullets?
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  Like, like, what is the best way to do you need a plan for a video project, or should the spur
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  of the moment top of the dome videos be what you're putting out here?
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  So the easiest way to answer that is it depends.
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  Every company has a different audience and a different brand standard that they're
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  upholding.
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  And so even when you see people in their car, and it looks like they just threw their phone
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  up on a dash and they're filming, that video was perfectly planned.
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  They planned where they were gonna sit their car.
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  They planned out which bullet points that they were gonna cover in that video.
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  They and then they edited, right, at the end of the day.
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  So every good video must be well thought out and planned.
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  And depending on what your audience needs to see determines your level of execution or
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  planning.
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  So I always say the first thing you wanna figure out is what am I what do I want the
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  people to do?
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  Is it that I want them after this video to feel compelled to buy something right away because
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  they're going fast?
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  Is it that I want them to share this video with someone else because this story really
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  resonated with them?
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  We have to first figure out what the intent of the video is to determine what the plan is
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  going to be.
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  Once we know what we want the end user to do with this video, once they finish watching, it
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  might be just to watch another video.
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  That's fine.
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  We're gonna plan out telling them what to do after they watch the video, and we're certainly
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  gonna plan out everything that we're gonna say because in this day and age, you only have a
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  few seconds to get your message across.
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  Some people go longer than others, but the sooner you can get your message across, the
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  better.
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  So let's talk about style and tone.
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  How do you figure out, the style and tone you should have for your videos?
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  And should that be consistent in all of your videos?
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  Yeah.
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  So your style and tone doesn't have to be the same in every video, but overall, when we talk
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  about branding, your brand has its own vibe as we like to say at the end of the day, And so
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  whatever you do needs to fit within that vibe.
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  So there are some brands that are more corporate, right, their business to business
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  selling.
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  And so dressing a certain way, speaking a certain way, your audience may or may not
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  resonate if you look like you just came from the night club.
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  Right?
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  So you might wanna have a nice blazer on some clean glasses, have a clean backdrop because
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  that is your target audience.
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  And your tone may be calm and cool and collected if you're a therapist versus if
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  you're someone who's trying to get people excited about, you know, trying out scuba
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  diving for the first time because you're a scuba instructor then your tone is gonna be
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  different.
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  So it really depends on your audience and the type of business that you're in.
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  And, again, I can't say it enough.
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  What type of emotion do you want to help generate in that end user so that they can
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  really understand what it is that you're trying to sell.
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  Alright.
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  So talk to me about how can you make your video stand out in a saturated market.
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  Cause nowadays, everybody shooting videos.
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  Everybody's putting podcasts and and stuff out here.
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  So what what how do you make your video stand out from the noise?
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  So the first thing that you wanna do is stick to the market.
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  If you are, for example, there are people out here that are seamstress, right, and they're
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  making clothes with African print.
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  Okay?
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  So if you're in that market, you don't wanna make videos for everyone that's seamstress.
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  There's a specific group of people who like that type of clothing, and you want to make
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  things for them.
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  So it's very, very important that your tone, your style all resonates with that particular
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  group.
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  And if you fit into your niche, I I heard a great business person wanna say you wanna take
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  a 100% of 1%.
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  Don't try to cater to everyone.
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  Focus on that very small niche group, and then you can count out all the noise, and it's not a
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  saturated market anymore.
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  Right?
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  It's smaller.
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  It's more focused and concerted and be engaged in that market.
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  A lot of business owners, they wanna make videos for this particular group to buy their
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  products and services, but they are then the business owner themselves aren't immersed in
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  those groups.
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  So join those different communities, join those different Facebook groups, get into the
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  conversation in the comments because the more that you're a part of that community, the more
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  they are going to engage with your brand as well online.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Alright.
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  And can you share the software, like, the tools that you use to do video?
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  Because people need lights, people need mics, people might even need a digital camera.
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  So what are your favorite brands of these things?
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  For people to use.
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  People might need a teleprompter too, so we can talk about that too.
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  Absolutely.
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  You can get really in the weeds with video production, but for small business owners that
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  are really just trying to get their feet wet, maybe don't have a large team, I always say you
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  can use your cell phone.
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  If you don't feel comfortable using your cell phone and you wanna use a camera Canon, it's a
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  fantastic brand that is really what we call prosumer where you can really pick it up, plug,
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  and go, and it has some great settings to gonna make you look good right away.
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  When it comes to editing, this is the piece that people get really afraid about.
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  It's editing this video.
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  How do I edit this video?
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  I look cat cut.
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  Cat cut is great because It's one thing to make a video, but in today's day and age, people are
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  consuming media in quiet spaces.
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  And so if you don't have captions, closed captions on the screen where people can read
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  what you're saying, it's almost a miss with your video.
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  So cap cut has a fantastic AI tool that is extremely smart, makes very good captivating
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  captions on the screen, and that is like my favorite tool.
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  It is very close to some professional video editing tools that I use, like Final Cut Pro,
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  After Effects.
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  So Cap Cut, I say every small business owner should have a professional Cap Cut account
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  putting captions on their videos at the very least.
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  Alright.
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  What what about the mics?
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  You do.
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  Mikes Road, r o d e is what I like to use.
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  Very crisp professional sounds.
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  And for some of my clients, like, as you mentioned, with teleprompter, Some people can't
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  just go on the fly and talk.
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  You have to read a script perhaps.
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  There are so many free teleprompter apps that you can download from the App Store for Apple
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  products and just get a simple iPad up and read your teleprompter that way.
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  There are so many free tools out here that you can use.
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  I've really encouraged people to take advantage of them.
• 14:48
  A simple ring light can do the trick as well.
• 14:52
  Again, you don't wanna over complicate things, but those those tools are my tried and true
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  road, cap cut, Canon camera, you can't lose, can't lose.
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  I love it.
• 15:04
  And when we would come right back, we're gonna talk more about how to look great on video.
• 15:08
  You're watching the small biz chat podcast, and we will be right back.
• 15:13
  Hi.
• 15:13
  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small Bizley.
• 15:15
  And I wanna welcome you to smallbizladyacademy.com, your go to resource
• 15:21
  for women entrepreneur.
• 15:23
  Whether you're just starting out or ready to grow, we've got everything you need to succeed.
• 15:29
  From expert interviews to live coaching sessions, our platform offers practical tools
• 15:35
  and strategy to help you build a profitable small business.
• 15:40
  Join our vibrant community of like minded entrepreneurs today, and take your business to
• 15:45
  new heights.
• 15:46
  Visit smallbizladyacademy.com and start your journey.
• 15:51
  Welcome back to the small biz chat podcast.
• 15:54
  I'm Melinda Emerson, your host, and I'm here with Leticia Crippin, from touch management,
• 15:58
  and we're talking about how to look great on video.
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  Alright, Leticia.
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  Everybody's using chat cheap PT for some of everything.
• 16:07
  So can you use chat cheap PT for your videos too?
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  Absolutely.
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  I love chat GPT, but I just want anyone who's listening to this to remember.
• 16:18
  Chat GPT is only as good as you make it.
• 16:21
  So when we talk about prompting your chat GPT, It is very important that you are very clear
• 16:27
  and concise and as descriptive as possible as what as what you want so that it can give you
• 16:33
  the proper response.
• 16:34
  So I love using chat and GPT to script out my videos or even plan out what a video edit could
• 16:42
  look like.
• 16:43
  So if you tell chat, GPT, hey.
• 16:46
  I want to do a video that is gonna make people wanna buy my, ebook on basket weaving and I
• 16:55
  want it to be exciting and engaging, then you tell it that.
• 17:00
  And then you ask it can tell you what videos or pictures or b roll to use.
• 17:05
  You can ask it to give you a script tell it your tone.
• 17:09
  I want it in the tone of a black woman's voice, right, it'll tweak it in different ways to
• 17:16
  resonate with your audience, and chat GBT just takes out a lot of guesswork, helps you get to
• 17:21
  your end result quicker.
• 17:24
  But the but its recommendations are really, really impressive.
• 17:30
  Now I know that short form content has become the soup du jour, right, everybody's doing
• 17:35
  these these 20, 30, 45 second top videos.
• 17:39
  But can you talk about the long form game versus the, the short form game when it comes
• 17:45
  to video production?
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  Absolutely.
• 17:45
  So short form is really your everyday consumption.
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  It is some
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  quick moments to just remind people that you're there.
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  Really, that's what short form does.
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  Long form is more for those who are looking
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  to inform people, educate folks.
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  So You see a lot of long form primarily on YouTube where people are using that as a form
• 18:12
  of television.
• 18:13
  They are sitting in front of the screen, and they expect to be there for 10 minutes or more.
• 18:20
  Short form on YouTube is a growing industry, but they're really just trying to compete with
• 18:26
  the TikToks and of the world.
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  And it's okay for that, but that's a lot of young users, children are really following
• 18:35
  YouTube shorts a lot, but long form is really when you're if you're in the space of educating
• 18:41
  and informing people, really consider doing long form and long form these days.
• 18:47
  This is from 3 minutes.
• 18:49
  To 11 minutes is a nice sweet spot for you 2.
• 18:53
  Both I think are effective tools depending on the audience that you're reaching and the type
• 18:58
  of business that you have, but I encourage every business owner to leverage both of them.
• 19:04
  Love it.
• 19:04
  Love it.
• 19:05
  Alright.
• 19:05
  So what role does story storytelling play in a good video?
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  Right?
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  Cause even if you're just talking for 30 minutes, people sell people things in 30
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  minutes all the time.
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  So how how important is your storytelling ability when it comes to making great video?
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  It's a great question.
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  And people throw around the term storytelling all the time.
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  And what I want people to realize and remember is that every great presentation starts with a
• 19:30
  good story ends with a great story.
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  And so storytelling, and why do we do that when we're doing when you watch people do PowerPoint
• 19:37
  presentations or the like, it's because people need to feel connected.
• 19:42
  And so you have to use storytelling as a way to connect with your audience where they're
• 19:47
  looking or listening to you and saying, hey.
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  That happened to me before, or I know someone that that happened to, or I feel the same way.
• 19:56
  It allows you to build a deep connection and community with your audience And so that way,
• 20:02
  it's not just transactional.
• 20:04
  Sometimes you get on these pages and like, hey.
• 20:06
  Buy my thing.
• 20:07
  Buy my thing.
• 20:07
  Buy my thing.
• 20:08
  But we don't know you.
• 20:10
  We don't know what was why did you create this product, but when you find out, oh, because
• 20:15
  this person is a single mother, and I'm also a single mother.
• 20:18
  Oh, my mother was a single mother, and I support single mothers.
• 20:22
  I'm gonna buy your product, and I might not even need the product.
• 20:25
  But it's because of who you are and the story that you share with me allowed me to create
• 20:30
  that deep connection with you.
• 20:32
  And a wise person always told me, when people are making a purchase, that, and and they're
• 20:37
  giving you their hard earned cash should buy something from you.
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  That's a personal thing.
• 20:43
  That's not a business thing.
• 20:46
  I love it.
• 20:46
  I love it.
• 20:47
  Alright.
• 20:47
  And then second last question, what advice would you give someone just starting out trying
• 20:52
  to build a video with with, you know, video content.
• 20:55
  What would you do?
• 20:57
  So the first thing I would say is just start.
• 21:01
  Don't overthink it.
• 21:02
  It's important to test the waters and see what your people want from you, so that you can
• 21:08
  start to tweak.
• 21:09
  If you look at any successful business page and you go to the beginning of their social social
• 21:15
  media, it does not look like the content that they're making now, but what they did was learn
• 21:20
  and they were able to pivot and change and grow and essentially give the people what they want.
• 21:26
  And social media has trained changed a lot in that aesthetics was the thing, right, pretty.
• 21:33
  Everything had to be pretty.
• 21:34
  Everything had to look white and cream and all these things, but now it's all about
• 21:39
  authenticity.
• 21:41
  People want to see the real you.
• 21:43
  People want to know the real you.
• 21:45
  And the more that you are authentic to who you are and your brand, the more success you're
• 21:51
  gonna have.
• 21:51
  And a lot of us as business owners, we're too busy doing the business.
• 21:56
  So if it if you're too busy to make a video about the business, show them Show them you
• 22:02
  working in the business.
• 22:04
  That allows them to see, oh, this person's a hustler.
• 22:06
  They're dedicated to great quality customer service.
• 22:09
  And so you don't have to overthinking it.
• 22:12
  Overthink it.
• 22:13
  Just show them you know, show them you working in the business.
• 22:18
  And a lot of times, that's some of the best content.
• 22:22
  I love it.
• 22:23
  Last question.
• 22:23
  What is the best business advice you've ever received?
• 22:27
  The best business advice that I've ever received, and I I think I've said a couple
• 22:31
  times on here is just just start.
• 22:34
  A lot of times, we do not succeed in business because we're overthinking things.
• 22:39
  We're trying to perfect everything, and we're not just getting it going.
• 22:43
  So whatever it is that I am thinking about doing, I start, and I perfect it along the way.
• 22:51
  And that is critical to learning how to pivot your business and shift when the economy
• 22:56
  requires you to is to be able to take those risks and just jump all the way in.
• 23:01
  You'll figure it
• 23:02
  out from there.
• 23:03
  Alright.
• 23:04
  Thank you so much.
• 23:05
  Leticia Crippen, CEO of Touch Management,
• 23:12
  Thanks for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with
• 23:15
  Melinda Emerson.
• 23:15
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday
• 23:15
  for more fantastic information and interviews.
• 23:24
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
• 23:29
  website succeed as your own boss.com.
• 23:32
  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.