What’s the best video you can make now?

by Steven Washer on November 24, 2015

In this new series, I’m laying out a radical way to think about video. What happens when we take the “professional” out of it?

If you know that, you can move with confidence and speed. If you don’t, you’ll struggle and fret and possibly give up.

Take it from me. Giving up is not an option when you have something you want to say.

But it’s very possible you have a slight misunderstanding of what video marketing is. There’s so much information out there, it’s impossible for you NOT to have already received a lot of contradictory advice.

You know, like make every video a home run, make hundreds of videos…

Hey, put the two together and that’s a recipe for overwhelm.

There’s a better way; a more sensible way. And you can take the 1st step (or the 500 millionth step) right now.

Unless of course, you agree with Stevie 😉

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

Mel Hardman November 24, 2015 at 12:15 pm

Very inspiring, Steve. You’ve made me see the missing ingredient in my videos; what I can add to give them much more appeal and impact. I’m going to build a new one….directed to our wounded warriors as my target audience. Using the techniques you’ve outlined, I know it can be much more effective.

Thanks again…for all the inspiration you give us.

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Steve Washer November 24, 2015 at 3:37 pm

Glad you found it helpful, Mel!

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Sven November 24, 2015 at 3:43 pm

Awful. Scary. Horrible. That’s what I think about my first video ever.
But..you asked for it. Now take it 🙂

Note: I’m not a native English speaker and…it’s my first published video (Practice will make it better.)

https://youtu.be/HwtGivcSjxA

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Steve Washer November 24, 2015 at 4:06 pm

This was a great deal of fun, Sven! Some people find their inspiration in their message. Some find it in just “doing it”. Both approaches have much to recommend them.

With a message-based video you don’t worry at all about the technology or your role in it. And that calms and inspires you to do your best.

With the entrepreneurial approach (which you have chosen), you move forward fast as well because you’ve set everything up in your environment to support you. So in your case, your background, composition, video image, audio; basically every technical element you could imagine, was clean and pure.

And while you took nearly a minute and a half to explain about translating from German to Spanish to English (a problem that most of us will never have to face), you needn’t have. Dialects are inherently fascinating to most people. And in the environment you set up for yourself you were relaxed enough to reveal some of the inner workings of your character. And it came off beautifully. And you were really fun to listen to. Smiling into the fear was also a great choice!

Thank you for showing that even without much content, a video can find and reach an audience when you’re not afraid to be yourself on camera.

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Paul November 25, 2015 at 2:59 am

Sven, I agree with Steve (and Stevie). Congratulations on taking that giant ‘leap of faith’ and publishing your video. It was excellent.

Like Steve I’ve been around and working with video for about 30 years. And your video was awesome. On top of that, you have a fantastic on camera ‘presence’ and you come across as authentic and believable and as someone I can trust.

So keep making those videos. You’ll have women swooning and men (me included) envious of your good looks, charm and great message.

Wishing you every success and I look forward to seeing you on the world stage sharing your message.

Auf Wiedersehen and Adiós

Paul G
Australia

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Sven November 25, 2015 at 6:07 am

Wow! Thank you both for your fantastic feedback 🙂 Best motivation to produce video content regularly, and I already have some ideas on the list. I always wanted to produce videos for landing/sales pages, but…[…] Now it’s time to take action.

Thanks guys,
Sven

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Joshua Popenoe November 24, 2015 at 4:43 pm

Steve,

That was truly beautiful, in so many ways. You’re a great human being.

Josh

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Steve Washer November 24, 2015 at 4:46 pm

Thank you, Josh. And Stevie thanks you, too. 🙂

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James Black November 24, 2015 at 11:55 pm

I am going to give it a try. But there is always a But, do not know how to post the video for you to see?

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Steve Washer November 25, 2015 at 8:45 am

Good question! You can just post it to your YouTube channel and make it unlisted if you don’t want the rest of the world to see it, or make it public (which is kind of the whole point).

If you don’t know how to create a YouTube channel, then stay tuned. That will be coming along shortly…

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Steven Washer November 25, 2015 at 4:46 pm

This is a little old, but the concepts are the same in terms of workflow. This is how to get a video up on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/4DYsTeYch0U

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shamek January 2, 2016 at 3:23 am

Thanks Steven. You message really spoke to me.When you said we must be the change we want to see in the world. You got my attention. I like reading books and would like to make videos explaining my favorite books.

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