Latest / The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson / The Power of Video Storytelling in Business with Scott Markowitz
Transcript
- 0:36Jennifer Ann Johnson: Today, we welcome into the studio Scott Markowitz.
- 0:39Jennifer Ann Johnson: Scott is the owner of what is the name of your company.
- 0:43Scott Markowitz: Reinvention Studio.
- 0:45Jennifer Ann Johnson: Awesome.
- 0:45Jennifer Ann Johnson: Okay, so I've known you for a while, you've done some video for me and it's turned out amazing, and that's what we're going to talk about today.
- 0:52Jennifer Ann Johnson: But how did you get started in this whole realm of media and doing video and all of that?
- 1:01Jennifer Ann Johnson: I'm just curious.
- 1:02Jennifer Ann Johnson: I know the story, but I really want our listeners to understand where you come from, because you come from many different aspects that all kind of converge into the business that you're in, which is awesome.
- 1:15Scott Markowitz: Yeah, it's a very interesting story and the journey that I've taken has meandered through a very unusual pathway.
- 1:21Scott Markowitz: I started out, actually in high school, taking photography as an elective and I fell in love with the way that you can use light to capture images from your surroundings, and then it became just an obsession of mine to be able to tell stories with those images that I created, and I thought that was just the coolest thing to be able to pull in the light from the world and tell something that reflected part of myself and part of my soul with other people around me and that turned into me going into broadcasting.
- 2:02Scott Markowitz: I studied broadcasting in college and from there I got my first job at CNN in Atlanta, which is so cool.
- 2:17Scott Markowitz: They were very much involved with serious journalism and that was the main driving force behind the company and I really enjoyed being part of something that I felt was bigger than myself.
- 2:37Scott Markowitz: You're taught that, no matter what the information coming in, there's a formula to follow in order to tell a story effectively and correctly, and so I took that with me as I branched out into some more commercial areas of the business.
- 2:56Scott Markowitz: And after Ted Turner sold CNN, I left and I went to seek out my fortune in California and I learned more of the entertainment side of the business and I got involved with doing commercials and I got involved with uh, with learning from some of the great crafts people in Hollywood and uh, it was just a journey that that allowed me to explore my own personal desire to express myself, because I always felt as a child, I felt like it was difficult to express myself because I didn't always feel welcomed in the world and so I felt like an outsider a lot of times and the best way to express myself was like in this, in this medium of video and film and animation, I also learned oh, wow, animation and things like that.
- 3:47Scott Markowitz: So, um, you know, long story short, I I got involved with bigger and bigger commercial projects and, uh, at one point I was working for a company up in Philadelphia where I was doing political ads.
- 4:03Scott Markowitz: Oh gosh, I got so good at editing and post-production that I became what's called a session editor Okay, consulting firms, in this case to do the things that need to be done on an editorial level at a very high technical skill level.
- 4:27Scott Markowitz: So, for example, like political advertising, a lot of times is reactionary and something will happen in the political arena that requires the PR firm to respond immediately.
- 4:40Scott Markowitz: So what happened?
- 4:42Scott Markowitz: They would give us what's called shoebox commercials to do.
- 4:47Scott Markowitz: What that meant was they would literally hand you a shoebox that had like a couple of photographs in it, maybe a photograph or two that related to their script and their script, and then your job was to make a 30-second TV ad From that yeah, from a couple of photographs and their script, and then your job was to make a 30-second TV ad out of that, from that yeah, from a couple of photographs and a script and maybe a shoestring.
- 5:07Jennifer Ann Johnson: Maybe there was a piece of floss in the box MacGyver the MacGyver of video editing.
- 5:14Scott Markowitz: Yeah, so in that job I learned very quickly how to get creative with your storytelling and how to use the visual mediums and animation and sound and the juxtaposition of sound effects and music and things like that and you are a great storyteller you personally because I've heard your stories.
- 5:37Jennifer Ann Johnson: They're great and I see how they can relate to to the video.
- 5:41Jennifer Ann Johnson: But I have a question you said something about in political ads it's usually reactionary, yes, would you ever suggest?
- 5:50Jennifer Ann Johnson: I'm guessing I know the answer to this.
- 5:52Jennifer Ann Johnson: But for a business to do something reactionary, or is it just out of necessity for video?
- 5:58Scott Markowitz: Oh yeah, I mean sometimes, for for a business, doing something reactionary is necessary, because a lot of times in a business there's something that happens outside of your control and in that case some kind of reactionary response can be beneficial.
- 6:13Scott Markowitz: Now, in general, I think the vast majority of time for a business, you want to be strategic, right, and you want to make sure that you're doing things in a way that you can control and in a way that you can define what the story is about your business.
- 6:28Scott Markowitz: However, there are times that you know like what if somebody writes something on your Yelp that's not positive, that's an opportunity for you to take control and react to that in a way that to flip the story things but people don't necessarily always it's not always top of mind.
- 6:44Jennifer Ann Johnson: They think, oh, I need pictures, right, how important is it, like, what are the benefits of using video for your business to promote it?
- 7:10Jennifer Ann Johnson: And you know like behind the scenes stuff, like how important is video?
- 7:17Scott Markowitz: As a video producer, of course, I'm going to tell you.
- 7:21Jennifer Ann Johnson: I know.
- 7:21Scott Markowitz: That video is supremely important, but the reality is that when you're dealing with promoting your business, you need to cut through a lot of noise, and there's nothing better at doing that than video, because people will flip through their feeds and there's ads and there's all kinds of things that they've seen before.
- 7:41Scott Markowitz: But if there's a human being engaged in speaking to them, and of course I would always encourage you to use captioning for your social feeds Okay, so that they can see Right.
- 7:56Jennifer Ann Johnson: Most of us scroll with no audio.
- 7:58Scott Markowitz: Yeah, so that's a powerful combination.
- 8:00Scott Markowitz: Most of us scroll with no audio.
- 8:02Scott Markowitz: Yeah, so that's a powerful combination If they see a person speaking to them through video and then they see words that you know.
- 8:08Scott Markowitz: If there's one or two words in there that hit on something that they're interested in, then they're hooked, because, as human beings, we're psychologically conditioned to react to human faces, and video does that better.
- 8:21Scott Markowitz: There's nothing.
- 8:21Scott Markowitz: So it's basically the second best thing to tapping somebody on the shoulder and saying, hey, let me tell you about my business.
- 8:30Jennifer Ann Johnson: Right, you know I laugh because I'm one of those that scroll.
- 8:33Jennifer Ann Johnson: I'll wake up at four in the morning and I'll lay there and I can't have the sound on.
- 8:38Jennifer Ann Johnson: And these stupid cooking videos, oh my God, they get me every time.
- 8:44Jennifer Ann Johnson: And then I'm like, oh, I need that.
- 8:46Jennifer Ann Johnson: You know, I need to go buy all the ingredients because I need to make that.
- 8:49Jennifer Ann Johnson: But you're right, I'm not.
- 8:51Jennifer Ann Johnson: If there was not captions on it, I probably wouldn't stop, I would watch for a second and I'd move on.
- 8:56Jennifer Ann Johnson: The captions are really a key element.
- 9:01Scott Markowitz: Is that easy to do?
- 9:02Scott Markowitz: Nowadays it's very easy to do.
- 9:03Scott Markowitz: There's all kinds of artificial intelligence-driven software that will automatically do it for you.
- 9:08Scott Markowitz: Three years ago, you'd have to manually figure out what's being spoken and type it out yourself and line it up.
- 9:14Scott Markowitz: Now it's a press of a button.
- 9:16Scott Markowitz: That is crazy, and it's interesting that you say that you know the recipe.
- 9:20Scott Markowitz: Videos stop you, because that's another psychological thing that we're conditioned to respond to, like people need food and people need human interaction.
- 9:30Scott Markowitz: So those are.
- 9:31Scott Markowitz: Those are two things that are very powerful.
- 9:33Scott Markowitz: Yeah, very powerful.
- 9:34Jennifer Ann Johnson: But you know you have to.
- 9:35Jennifer Ann Johnson: That has to be your.
- 9:36Jennifer Ann Johnson: Like I own a clothing store and a consulting business.
- 9:41Jennifer Ann Johnson: Like I can't do a cookie, but still human to human.
- 9:45Jennifer Ann Johnson: It definitely stops you.
- 9:47Jennifer Ann Johnson: I can see that Absolutely.
- 9:51Jennifer Ann Johnson: Is your closet overflowing?
- 9:52Jennifer Ann Johnson: Or maybe your kids' closets are as well?
- 9:54Jennifer Ann Johnson: Or maybe you just want to redecorate your house.
- 9:56Jennifer Ann Johnson: If you're wondering what to do with all that stuff that you've accumulated, bring it all to True Fashionistas, or even ship it to them for free.
- 10:02Jennifer Ann Johnson: They'll sell your unwanted items for you.
- 10:04Jennifer Ann Johnson: Take away all the hassle by doing all the work, and all you have to do is sit back and collect your money.
- 10:09Jennifer Ann Johnson: You can check them out online at truefashionistascom.
- 10:12Jennifer Ann Johnson: Come into the store or check them out on Facebook or Instagram and that's truefashionistascom.
- 10:17Jennifer Ann Johnson: Welcome back, friends.
- 10:20Jennifer Ann Johnson: We are in studio with Scott Markowitz and we are talking about using video in your business.
- 10:26Jennifer Ann Johnson: So what types of videos can we use?
- 10:31Jennifer Ann Johnson: How do you know what is the best type for your business?
- 10:34Jennifer Ann Johnson: And then, once we know how we're doing it and what we're doing, where the heck do we put it?
- 10:39Jennifer Ann Johnson: How do we use it?
- 10:42Scott Markowitz: Those are some great questions, I know loaded.
- 10:43Jennifer Ann Johnson: That's a long question.
- 10:45Scott Markowitz: Well, let's break it down and think about it, like if you are familiar with your business's funnel, you know, like, how do you get customers?
- 10:54Scott Markowitz: Like, for a lot of businesses, there's a process by which you first get people's attention and then you teach them about your business and then maybe you nurture that relationship in some way and then there's some way to propose your services or your products to them.
- 11:14Scott Markowitz: Then there's a purchasing exchange and then there's nurturing after the sale, right, and maybe there's even some outreach after that.
- 11:24Scott Markowitz: And that entire process.
- 11:27Scott Markowitz: There's probably two, three, four different types of videos that would correspond to each step of the client getting process for each individual business, and that's going to be different for every business.
- 11:38Scott Markowitz: But, for example, you know, you know, in the marketing arena, to help people become more aware of your business, yeah, social media videos and short, like just FAQ videos could be very effective.
- 11:54Scott Markowitz: You know.
- 11:55Scott Markowitz: So, like, if there's questions that you frequently find yourself being asked by potential clients, that would make a fantastic video.
- 12:03Scott Markowitz: Just answering, just picking one of those questions that you're frequently asked and answering the question in a short video, that would be a fantastic way to gain awareness.
- 12:12Scott Markowitz: Maybe there's a video that you could do to talk about your pricing structure.
- 12:19Scott Markowitz: Maybe that's something that A you also are asked frequently, but B maybe there's something in your pricing structure that sets you apart from other people in your marketplace, that makes you more valuable than them.
- 12:36Scott Markowitz: This is a great video.
- 12:37Scott Markowitz: It's a fantastic way to express why your prices are maybe a little bit higher and why you're so much more worth.
- 12:44Jennifer Ann Johnson: Right, Because you can't always do that in the written word.
- 12:47Scott Markowitz: No but you can very often display that and show people and demonstrate why oh this company really goes out of their way or they bend over backwards for their customers, and that's a possible way to demonstrate that.
- 13:02Jennifer Ann Johnson: You know I don't want to get you off track, but do you think that doing video accelerates?
- 13:07Jennifer Ann Johnson: That know, like trust factor.
- 13:09Scott Markowitz: Oh, there's no question that it does, especially in today's marketplace where there's a hundred choices.
- 13:15Scott Markowitz: Whenever you say I need a mover or I need X Y Z service and you go to Google it, there's going to be a hundred things popping up, right.
- 13:24Scott Markowitz: So video is a fantastic way for them to A be like oh, this company actually has the resources to make a video and they care enough about me to answer my question.
- 13:35Scott Markowitz: So A that's already getting them into that psychological cycle of having a problem that you have solved for them and relying on you for the solution.
- 13:50Scott Markowitz: So already they're beginning to trust you, Right?
- 13:52Scott Markowitz: And then, of course, as long as you're a positive, upbeat person in your videos, which I always suggest you do- Wot, wot.
- 14:02Jennifer Ann Johnson: Right, you have to be yeah.
- 14:04Scott Markowitz: Yeah, as long as you're presenting like a positive outlook, then people are going to like you and so that like and trust just starts to build for every video that you produce.
- 14:13Scott Markowitz: Absolutely.
- 14:16Jennifer Ann Johnson: So we make them, we use them.
- 14:18Jennifer Ann Johnson: How do we make them?
- 14:21Jennifer Ann Johnson: Do we hire?
- 14:22Jennifer Ann Johnson: Do we always need to hire somebody to do it?
- 14:24Jennifer Ann Johnson: Is doing something on a?
- 14:26Jennifer Ann Johnson: I know I get this question a lot.
- 14:27Jennifer Ann Johnson: Can I just do it on my phone?
- 14:29Jennifer Ann Johnson: Or is that?
- 14:30Jennifer Ann Johnson: I mean, obviously there's lots of tools out there, but if you're not looking to do something really big and fabulous and you just need a quick video, yeah.
- 14:40Scott Markowitz: So the best way to start is yes, pick up your phone, start shooting yourself.
- 14:46Scott Markowitz: Even before that, you can just practice in the mirror, even you know.
- 14:49Scott Markowitz: If you're, if you feel uncomfortable picking up the phone and recording yourself, just practice in the mirror a few times.
- 14:54Scott Markowitz: The the act of recording yourself on camera is unnatural.
- 15:01Scott Markowitz: We're used to talking to people.
- 15:03Scott Markowitz: We're used to talking to people.
- 15:04Scott Markowitz: We're used to interacting with other human beings and I don't know any business owner who's uncomfortable talking to a potential customer, right, Right, and so, yes, if you pick up your phone and you practice and you start talking to the camera like it's a customer and you start training your mind to think of the camera lens as a person, as another person that you're talking to, you will start getting fantastic at it.
- 15:27Scott Markowitz: That's a good tip, yeah, and then the more you get good at it, the more practice you get.
- 15:33Scott Markowitz: Then you're going to be promoting yourself to the point where you can hire a professional production company to come in and do some bigger productions for you, right?
- 15:43Jennifer Ann Johnson: Right.
- 15:43Scott Markowitz: You know, it's like asking.
- 15:46Scott Markowitz: It's like asking a child who's never performed in their school play to go to the Met and talk in front of a theater of people, exactly.
- 15:58Scott Markowitz: So yeah.
- 16:00Jennifer Ann Johnson: Terrifying.
- 16:00Jennifer Ann Johnson: It's terrifying.
- 16:01Jennifer Ann Johnson: We don't like to see ourselves, we don't like to listen to ourselves.
- 16:04Jennifer Ann Johnson: We're our worst critic.
- 16:06Scott Markowitz: Yeah, and a lot of times you know, businesses put like too much pressure on themselves, like, oh, I need a marketing video, oh, I need to have a video that is an anthem for my company.
- 16:16Scott Markowitz: Well, maybe slow down a little bit.
- 16:18Scott Markowitz: Maybe you just need to kind of get yourself and your employees used to performing in front of a camera first, and then you're going to be ready to do that.
- 16:26Jennifer Ann Johnson: Get out there kind of thing yeah, start somewhere, start somewhere, start somewhere, absolutely, absolutely.
- 16:29Scott Markowitz: Start somewhere, start somewhere, start somewhere Absolutely.
- 16:37Jennifer Ann Johnson: So, as you're going, you know people are delving into this, whether they're seasoned at doing video or they're not.
- 16:39Jennifer Ann Johnson: What common mistakes do you see small businesses making when we're talking about video, besides not doing it at all?
- 16:46Scott Markowitz: Yeah.
- 16:46Jennifer Ann Johnson: Right, like that's a big mistake.
- 16:48Jennifer Ann Johnson: Not doing video at all is a big mistake.
- 16:51Scott Markowitz: Yeah, and the second biggest mistake is jumping into video, knowing that you need to do it but not having a plan.
- 16:55Scott Markowitz: That's the second biggest mistake I see all the time is people will will turn their camera on.
- 17:02Scott Markowitz: Maybe they've worked up the courage to turn the camera on, but now they don't know what to say.
- 17:08Jennifer Ann Johnson: And and that's just as bad, just I have such a hard time because I'm like I don't know that I never not know what to say didn't meet a camera.
- 17:16Jennifer Ann Johnson: I didn't like you know.
- 17:17Scott Markowitz: But I agree, you're right yeah, and sometimes it's it's, it's something that has to go back to like the actual business plan.
- 17:26Scott Markowitz: And why are you in business?
- 17:28Scott Markowitz: Just the basics your marketing plan?
- 17:30Jennifer Ann Johnson: yeah, your marketing plan.
- 17:31Scott Markowitz: just you know.
- 17:31Scott Markowitz: Going back to the basics like why are you offering what you're offering?
- 17:35Scott Markowitz: What is it that gets you excited about servicing your clients in the way that you do?
- 17:40Scott Markowitz: What is it that makes you unique?
- 17:42Scott Markowitz: Understand those things very clearly so that you can tell anybody at any time and then practice it before you turn the camera on Right and have, before you create any single video, you want to make sure that there's an end game for that video.
- 17:56Scott Markowitz: What's the purpose of that particular video?
- 17:59Scott Markowitz: Do you want to send people at the end of the video to your website?
- 18:02Jennifer Ann Johnson: Call to action.
- 18:03Scott Markowitz: Yes, a call to action.
- 18:04Scott Markowitz: Exactly Do you want them to pick up the phone and call you to make an appointment?
- 18:08Scott Markowitz: You want to know that before you actually start the video and backward engineer everything up to that point to the call to action Makes sense.
- 18:20Jennifer Ann Johnson: What trends do you see happening this year in video?
- 18:25Jennifer Ann Johnson: Anything new, anything that's worth trying or anything that is not there yet.
- 18:32Scott Markowitz: Yeah, that's a great question.
- 18:33Scott Markowitz: I think the big news in the video industry are the trends that are dying off actually.
- 18:40Scott Markowitz: Oh, really.
- 18:40Scott Markowitz: So 360 video is something that so what is 360 video?
- 18:45Jennifer Ann Johnson: So?
- 18:45Scott Markowitz: 360 video is VR.
- 18:50Jennifer Ann Johnson: Okay, it's.
- 18:50Scott Markowitz: VR.
- 18:50Scott Markowitz: If you think about it as VR, it's video that can be captured with a camera that sees all the way around you.
- 18:59Jennifer Ann Johnson: So you do that when you do that with your iPhone.
- 19:04Scott Markowitz: Well, there's specific cameras that would do 360 views.
- 19:07Scott Markowitz: So certain action cameras have 180 degree views and if you put two of them together, it used to be that you'd be able to stitch together a 360.
- 19:15Scott Markowitz: But there's also.
- 19:17Scott Markowitz: For many years, there was a big trend with 360 degree cameras, like the.
- 19:22Scott Markowitz: Insta360 was a popular camera it still is, but a lot of companies would try to use 360 to to show their entire say, like their entire um showroom, and people would be able to look at the video and, uh, within within YouTube or whatever Facebook, they could actually, as the viewer, select which point of view they see.
- 19:46Jennifer Ann Johnson: Oh, is that like how they do it on real estate?
- 19:48Jennifer Ann Johnson: Yeah, and you can click and you go to a different room.
- 19:51Scott Markowitz: It's similar to that.
- 19:52Scott Markowitz: It's very similar to that, but uh, the the viewer would actually be able to choose the point of view that they actually are experiencing the video through oh, and that was a.
- 20:00Scott Markowitz: That was a big hot trend for a while, but um, I would, I would suggest not doing that what is not a trend 360 video.
- 20:11Scott Markowitz: Yeah, I think that anytime you're asking your audience to put in the work, you're asking too much.
- 20:19Scott Markowitz: You're right, and it's better to be in control of the message than to just randomly allow people to see things.
- 20:26Scott Markowitz: So I think the trend that we are seeing is more vertical videos.
- 20:34Scott Markowitz: Okay, explain so.
- 20:37Scott Markowitz: As human beings, we have two eyes that are side by side and so like.
- 20:41Scott Markowitz: For a long time, video was like a wider aspect ratio format Used to be like television was four by three.
- 20:47Scott Markowitz: It was four wide, three tall.
- 20:49Jennifer Ann Johnson: Oh, my gosh Things you don't think about, right.
- 20:51Scott Markowitz: And then HDTV.
- 20:52Scott Markowitz: That's 16 wide by nine tall, nine units tall, and those were wide format videos.
- 20:58Scott Markowitz: But then, as people started using their cell phones more and more to consume video, the trend has been, and it will continue to be, more vertical aspect ratio.
- 21:08Scott Markowitz: So instead of 16 by nine, it's nine by 16.
- 21:13Scott Markowitz: And so that's a trend.
- 21:14Scott Markowitz: I think, um, my industry has resisted, like as professional videographers uh, we've resisted that trend, but it's.
- 21:22Scott Markowitz: There's no denying that.
- 21:24Scott Markowitz: That's how people seem to prefer to consume their video nowadays, and I think that trend is going to continue.
- 21:29Scott Markowitz: So, if you are thinking about creating video for your business, consider doing more vertical videos than you are doing horizontal videos.
- 21:37Scott Markowitz: Some other trends are really just delving deeper into who the creator is.
- 21:46Scott Markowitz: Okay, people really are interested in the behind the scenes.
- 21:49Scott Markowitz: So anytime that you can show and reveal behind the curtain of what your business is about, those are things that are very worthy of your time to create, Because people love to see the behind the scenes and it also builds trust.
- 22:06Scott Markowitz: The more open and vulnerable you are to your customers, the more they're going to trust you.
- 22:13Jennifer Ann Johnson: Makes complete sense.
- 22:14Jennifer Ann Johnson: I just was on a Zoom call the other day and I had to take my computer with me to go do something and they're all like what is all that behind you?
- 22:25Jennifer Ann Johnson: I'm like, well, this is behind the scenes and they were all eating it up.
- 22:29Jennifer Ann Johnson: They're like wait, wait, wait, go back, go back.
- 22:31Jennifer Ann Johnson: I'm like this is not why we're on this call, but okay, you're right, people are very interested in that.
- 22:37Scott Markowitz: Yeah, and that's a trend I think is going to continue for sure.
- 22:48Jennifer Ann Johnson: Yeah, that's very, very cool.
- 22:49Jennifer Ann Johnson: Well, it's been a pleasure chatting with you today about video and how we can use it in our business.
- 22:53Scott Markowitz: If our listeners would like to get a hold of you, how can they do that?
- 22:56Scott Markowitz: I would encourage everybody to write me an email.
- 22:58Scott Markowitz: Okay, yeah, I read all my emails.
- 23:01Scott Markowitz: I respond to them.
- 23:02Scott Markowitz: Scott at reinventionstudiocom is the best way to get in touch with me.
- 23:04Scott Markowitz: I'm also on X at teachvidscott.
- 23:06Scott Markowitz: I love to help people learn more about video production, and those are two great ways to get in touch.
- 23:12Jennifer Ann Johnson: Fabulous.
- 23:12Jennifer Ann Johnson: It's so funny to hear X.
- 23:13Jennifer Ann Johnson: I'm not used to that yet.
- 23:15Jennifer Ann Johnson: Well, it has been a pleasure having you on.
- 23:19Jennifer Ann Johnson: Thank you so much.
- 23:21Scott Markowitz: Jennifer, thank you so much, it's been a pleasure.