E175. Building Trust Through Video: A Simple System for Busy Business Owners

Speaker A: Welcome to a brand new episode of Tech your business. And today we'll be talking about video. Video is something that's, um, been a lifetime for our guest today, and it's very new to me. This 2025, I think I first got on video in my entire life two years ago, and it was scary. It was. Had my heart. I could hear my heart while I was recording. That's how bad it was. It's not as bad as it was then as it is um, now, but I think I still get, um, issues coming on video once in a while. So we'll talk about business owners. Honestly, we can't avoid using video these days to market our business, to get our world out there. So we'll talk everything about video, about business, about marketing. So welcome to take your business, Dan Bennett of Hot Sauce Video.

Speaker B: I appreciate it. Yeah. Uh, hey, I've been doing it a long time, and I still have days that it's a little bit tough to get going. So we're all on that journey,

Speaker A: at least. That's good to know. So, uh, can you tell our audience a bit about, um, your journey up to this point?

Speaker B: Absolutely, yeah. Um, so used to do a little bit of film and television, a lot of corporate, um, video content creation, as well as government contracting, and, uh, you know, the checks always cleared and I got some cool stories and met some cool people. But I would return home, uh, to my, uh, original, you know, city of origin, Flint, Michigan. And people in my own backyard couldn't afford our ongoing services. And I would look around me and get kind of frustrated that I was helping these big businesses with big budgets make more money. But the people right in my own backyard couldn't afford me. So 2017, I was moving from behind the camera to in front of the camera myself to create content for my own business. And I realized very quickly that my filmmaking knowledge made that transition a lot easier than it probably would be otherwise. And it got me to thinking, okay, my, maybe I can take the tools and systems of filmmaking, get rid of the jargon and the theory, and I might be able to give these tools and systems to other entrepreneurs, other professionals, so they can film themselves at a really high quality, and maybe that'll level the playing field a bit. And it worked. Uh, so we started really pouring into people who film themselves and create their own content. Everything from podcasters like yourself to people just making social media videos for their business. And, um, 2020 pandemic hit shut down, and we were like, okay, we've been helping people build small Video studios in their homes and offices. Can we still do that remotely? Because we're not allowed to go anywhere now. And in, uh, August, September of 2020, we did our first remote studio builds, helping people look and sound great on camera. And it worked again. So we're like, okay, I think we've found our niche. And we. And for the first time in my career, I felt like I was ahead of the curve a little bit. Um, so I went from helping, you know, big businesses make more money that they probably don't need to being able to help people really leverage video to grow their own businesses and of course, then their revenue. Then I started sleeping a little bit easier. The work became very fulfilling. And that's what I've been doing ever since.

Speaker A: Mhm. I think when I started this, if I'd heard that there was a way to do remote studio builds, it would have really helped because I think getting everything together was really trial and error because like, like, um, I had to get on video because of this podcast. The first 10 episodes were all audio. And then when it was time for video, I'm like, okay, I'll get a camera. I got a camera. And then, oh, there's no backdrop. I think I did the first few in front of a cut scene. If you look back and then I'm like, okay, there should be a backdrop. I should move it to the office. And then, um, the sound is. Lighting, Lighting. Lighting. Lighting has been the issue. So many things, so many things I never thought about because that's not my field. So I can see where you really fit in for most businesses.

Speaker B: Yeah. First, um, of all, bravo, great job pulling it off because it is a journey and it is a skill set that most people don't even want to have, let alone already have in their repertoire. Um, and that's exactly, I think, why we found the traction we did and why we've been able to grow ever since is because, um, we're either helping people kind of overcome their buyer's remorse and use all the equipment that they bought and is sitting in a closet somewhere, or we're helping people who are like, yes, I would rather work with a pro than to try and figure this out myself because I only have so much time. Um, in between those are people like yourself. And I have conversations every week, whether it's being a guest, uh, on a podcast, doing a workshop, or just in networking in general, where I hear stories that I can definitely relate to just like yours, where people are like. It took me a while, but I figured it all out. And now they understand things like three point lighting and how to set your camera to look the best it can and building backgrounds behind you and stuff. So, yeah, bravo. Because it's not easy.

Speaker A: It's not at all. So now for lots of business owners like myself. Like myself, um, they avoid coming on video. For mine, I know it wasn't really anything logical. I just was an introvert. So I even don't take pictures normally. But, um, somehow I had to get some video. So, um, we know the being on video help our, uh, business. It will help people relate to us better and things like that, but we avoid doing it. So what, apart from the one I talked about, what are, uh, other reasons you've seen business owners not wanting to come on video for?

Speaker B: Yeah, generally, um, when I see something, I try and reverse engineer it as far back to the origin as I can. Or I'm sure you're familiar with this. We do the five whys. You ask why, but then you make sure to ask why again and then a couple more times till you get to the root cause. And to be very honest, two things always pop up when we do the five whys on any pain point of creating video for yourself. And one is a lack of strategy, lack, which is something that we help people with. And it really is important because when you have a strategy and a system in place, just like any other system in business, you can rely on it, you can make it better over time, and it helps you get the final job done. Uh, the big overarching umbrella that kind of covers almost everything is fear. And fear is a big component in life in general. It's a big blocking point to keep us from doing things. Uh, but fear is also respectable and it keeps us from hurting, harming ourselves. And you know, it kept cavemen from getting eaten by the saber toothed tiger because they knew it was over in that bush over there, you know, so fear is not a bad thing. It's a thing. And I think as we come to terms with it and we learn how to kind of tame different fears, that's when we start to find breakthroughs. So most of the things I hear, I don't like my own voice. Who's ever going to listen to me? I'm nobody. They don't even know me. Um, who am I to speak on this topic in this field as an expert? Yes, I have 20 years of experience, but nobody knows that. Um, one of the biggest fears is what if no one listens at all? What if I spend all this time Creating video. And no one watches, no one cares. Um, all the way down to. I'm also an introvert, so I know that journey from behind the camera to in front of it. And sometimes it's just like, this is uncomfortable. Why would I knowingly put myself in an uncomfortable position? And then oftentimes you have to have that conversation with yourself. What's the outcome? What's the benefit? How many people can I help? And is it worth me being uncomfortable today for the sake of someone finding this video, getting the help they need, and then growing their business as a result? In my case, yes, it is. Ah. So most of them come around fear. And I think fear is one of those things you need to invite to the table and have a conversation with it as you work your way through.

Speaker A: Okay, so now, um, I think going from that, let's talk about what are some benefits you've seen, especially with business owners you've worked on, um, getting on video and, um, getting themselves out there. What are some benefits you've seen? So that is, you can encourage some people to try it out too?

Speaker B: Yeah, um, I've definitely seen kind of the, um, opposite effect of what you might expect when you start, especially if you are a little fearful or hesitant, which is you end up liking it. You find a new audience, you're able to share your ideas and expertise a lot more quickly and a lot more in depth. And sometimes it surprises people how well video does for them, because it was always this thing they didn't want to really mess with too much. Um, another almost instantaneous benefit. And this is one where you're just gonna have to trust me because I've been doing it 16 years, and I promise you it's true. And it's that video done with any kind of quality, um, has a psychological and subconscious impact on people in a positive way. So a quick example. I've been on many calls that are not my own call. I'm just part of the audience. And then maybe I'm brought up in the zoom call to ask a question. People see me, they hear me, and then I start getting DMs, like, how do you look and sound like that? They don't even know I do video for a living. So they're positively impacted by the quality video and audio they're hearing, which is a way to help people trust you even quicker. And then going into that know, like, and trust thing that we're all familiar with, um, if someone can watch a string of videos, especially if they're tied together with a Strategy. And it makes sense as someone goes through the journey of watching your content over time and then they meet you in real life, whether that's on a sales call, a strategy call, maybe at a local coffee shop. If you live in the same area and you are the way you were on video, it locks in that trust that you built with video. So that's just some of the benefits that comes right off the bat. Um, and then as far as content and distribution, a couple quick ones. One, we shouldn't chase this, but virality can happen, so we can always be ready for it. And that's a benefit that you can't always plan, but if you're ready for it, you can take advantage of. And the second is we often have our clientele, even if they're not interested in being quote, unquote, YouTubers, build on YouTube if we're creating content anyway, because that's a platform that is very evergreen and there's not a week that goes by that we and my company don't receive a comment on a YouTube video that says something to the effect of, um, this is perfect timing. I had this problem, you helped me solve it. Thank you so much. High five. And that video is a year and a half old. And it's like one of the only platforms in existence where something that is a year and a half old can be brand new to someone. Because most social media, they'd have to scroll back 18 months to see what you were saying a year and a half ago. But on YouTube, they can see it today and it can solve their problem in an instant. So that's kind of, uh, a high level of some of the benefits and some of the things you can see, um, when you're brave enough to put your face on the camera.

Speaker A: Yeah. I think it takes a little brief reading. It does, yeah. So I think the next question I think anyone will ask after maybe being convinced about, um, the benefits of getting on video would be getting started. Because like I mentioned, I, I had to figure out, you know, this thing where they say you solve one problem and it creates another problem for you. Yes. So, yeah. So first of all, I started with my webcam. I didn't, I, I didn't even try that out. It was horrible. Started, um, I connect, I tried with my phone, but I didn't want to use two different things. Then I think I got another. I'm using a webcam currently. Then we got up to the mic. I started with a PSU mic. I thought I was saving money and it was horrible. Because I needed to edit so much on that. So I'm not using a dynamic mic. And that's been perfect. Then lighting. So I think lighting has been back and forth because, um, the lighting somewhat affects my eyes. So, um, I had the big lights. I got rid of that. I have a smaller, uh, light in front of me now. So now for someone else who wants to get started and they don't want to go through all that figuring out and buying unnecessary things that will end up in the drawer like mine.

Speaker B: Um, yeah.

Speaker A: To get started with video, what would you say this. What. What's the minimum they would need to get started coming on video?

Speaker B: Yeah, we can just clip everything you just mentioned and tell your audience, Please listen to everything you just mentioned. Um, you've obviously been through the journey, you know, a lot. And I don't get fancy with my stuff. Even though I'm a filmmaker, I've been doing it a long time. I try and keep it really, really basic. So, um, the first thing, if you got a small budget and you're tackling something and you can only get one piece of equipment. And this surprises people that hire us a lot because they're like, why are we starting here? And that's audio. You mentioned a dynamic microphone. Absolutely perfect. That's what I'm using right now. It's on a little arm. I can swing it out of the way when I'm not using it. It's just USB plugged into my computer, so I don't have an interface or knobs. I don't have to be a sound engineer to use it. And it captures my voice really well. And it gets rid of noises going on around me pretty well as well. Um, I believe this mic I use is around $150 new, and you can just plug and play with it. So audio is where I always start, whether I'm working with a big company with a big team, or an individual who's just getting started. Um, so pretty much the journey you just mentioned is exactly the way that I do it. Audio first and then the camera upgrade is, uh, part of the package. If we do a full studio build with someone remotely. And then light is last. Um, um. And one of the big components, which you've also done a very good job of. And I'm not just saying it like bravo. Going from zero to where you're at is your background. I can tell you're in kind of a creative office type environment. I see some artwork. It doesn't matter if I can tell what it is. I just know that you care about what is up on your wall. I see some vegetation, which is always a nice look. You know, I see maybe like a little sign with a call out on it, which is very creative and entrepreneurial. Um, um, so not that you have to have specific things in your background, but you've taken care to make sure that there are things there and that they represent you and your business, at least to some degree. And I think that's kind of the. The final touch. So when we do, uh, ha. Sauce Studio builds with people, those are all the exact things that we do. Uh, the benefit is that we tell you what to do as opposed to you had to go and learn all the things in trial and error and go through and. And do all the things, which, again, uh, bravo for getting to where you're at.

Speaker A: Thank you. At least it honestly took a lot of time, lots of energy, and I don't think I'll do that again ever.

Speaker B: Yeah, right.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And it's a very frustrating thing, too, and I acknowledge that. Um, I have some of the best equipment, and I've been doing it forever. I got all the knowledge and expertise, and I still have days where I'm frustrated. So it's okay to just want to throw it all out the window sometimes, because I always say the same thing. It's kind of cliche, but, like, uh, creating really great video content is simple asterisk. And when you go down to the bottom of the page, the asterisk says, I didn't say it was easy, I said it was simple. Especially if you have a plan in place. So actually creating video is not a complex process. Um, learning how to create great video is difficult, for sure. Okay.

Speaker A: So I think one other thing. Okay. We've gotten the benefits, we've gotten the equipment. One of the things people deal with is they get the equipment, they're ready, but, um, they're not really confident in front of the camera. Yeah. They can have a conversation with someone and you're confident and you're happy and you're okay, but you get in front of camera and you're fidgeting, you're overthinking, you're adjusting yourself, thinking about your background and things. So how do you, um, suggest entrepreneurs deal with that? Because I had to deal with that a lot, honestly.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and so do I, to some degree still. So I want to keep sharing that, that even as a professional, I still have my days that are difficult. Uh, we've built a lot of tools, all of them Are free. If anyone listening ever wants to get in contact with us, we'll share anything that we've ever built, uh, for free. And some of those tools just deal with the way that you, um, approach getting on camera. So, so we even have like a small little email course, a five email course called the Psychology of Camera Confidence. And it taps into some of the things that we've seen a lot of science and data behind, like how professional athletes envision when they're getting ready to run. They see the whole race, they can tell what they need to do, and they kind of prepare that way, um, to just grounding yourself, just touching the floor, touching your desk. I'm here, I'm going to share valuable information. It might help someone breath work. You know, just simple, simple breath work. Just trying to kind of calm your nervous system before you hit record. Uh, another thing I like to tell people is to give yourself permission to take time. So hit record, but don't start talking. It's okay that the camera's just recording. You can take some deep breaths, you can do your grounding, your breath work, your visualizations on camera. Who cares? No one needs to see it. And then when you're ready, go. Because there's something about getting ready and then hitting record and going right away that's kind of, you know, anxiety inducing. Uh, so I hit record in the first two to five minutes of anything you ever saw from me would just be me milling about, taking a drink, breathing, getting ready, and really trying to kind of, you know, calm down a bit and, and focus on the work that I'm getting ready to do. Uh, another thing is once you have created something, uh, giving yourself permission that you don't have to release it, the public does not have to see this video. And then also giving, uh, instruction and tools around how to watch back and how to get better over time. And one of those, the, uh, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. So if you can imagine, like the little emoji monkeys covering their eyes and ears and mouth, you know, um, the way that we use that is you film yourself. Super simplistic, Just a smartphone selfie, one minute video on any topic that you know a lot about, doesn't matter what it is. And then you turn the sound off and you watch it and that's see no evil. We just want to see how do we move, how are our gestures. Does it seem like we're having a conversation? Or does it seem stiff and robotic? And just make mental notes of that. We're not here to judge. We're just here to collect data. Now we turn the phone away from us, but turn the volume up. And we're just listening. We're not watching. How's your cadence? How's your breath work? Do you use a lot of filler words? Do you take time to pause or maybe talk a little bit more quiet if it's really important? And how does that kind of, uh, pacing work? Does it sound like something you'd want to stick around and listen to? And then you flip it back around, full volume and visuals. And now watch it as a whole. Could I have taken a beat there? Am I looking at the lens? You know? And again, all these things are not to judge yourself. It's to critique towards greatness over time. And we never arrive, so it's always critiquing over time. So see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil is a fun little exercise we do with people all the time. And all of the things I just mentioned, every single one of them kind of falls under this umbrella of getting reps in. And it's cliche, but it's true. The more videos you make, even if the public never sees them, the better you get over time. And then the last little bit I like to share with people is, um, the frequency illusion. So oftentimes you'll buy a car, and then you'll start seeing that car and that color car everywhere. And it's because your brain is now very familiar with the fact, and it's kind of keeping a lookout for your car. And so if you just start thinking about storytelling, just in general, storytelling is important. I want to tell better stories in my videos. I don't even know what that means, but I know that I tell stories in real life. So I think that's a great way to communicate. You're just thinking of story. Your brain starts to do the frequency illusion. Just like when you buy a red Dodge Caravan, you start seeing red minivans everywhere. You'll start to see story in places you didn't recognize it before, and you'll start to become a better storyteller. Now, this won't solve all your problems or make you a master storyteller, but you will get better over time. And when you tell great stories on, um, camera, it becomes way more conversational, just like what we're doing right now and how you said this is easy because we're just chatting with each other. You can become more conversational when it's just you and a camera. When you start to tell great stories,

Speaker A: I like Those, um, those points, um, calm down after hitting record. Because I think I get a lot of pressure from just trying to say to hit record and just start talking. And, um, sometimes I miss my lines. Then, um, I think one, um, other thing you mentioned is something I would, um, take note of, is because I actually don't do much of solo episodes because most times what you mentioned, turning off the sound and watching, then turning off the video and listening is something I never thought of. And it's something I'll do before the next, um, solo video I do. And talking about solo videos, um, in the last, um, two years, like I mentioned doing video, I found it easy doing interviews like this. Yeah, they're just conversations. We are talking about talking. And, uh, yeah, everybody talks. Even, um, where I'm being interviewed. You're asking me questions. It's things about my life for the past few years, so I can easily pull answers. But for some, um, videos, especially videos we have to do for our business, there are things where we need to communicate a certain set of things in a certain way so we don't miss anything. And because of that, we have to write scripts. So now I have a challenge memorizing anything. Yes, I can speak about these things off the cuff, but I might forget a lot of the important things. So now we're in between that. Okay, if I read from the script, I keep trying to read from the script, and I'm not natural. I'm looking away, I'm, um, pausing. And so many things. Or if I say it the normal way, I just say everything. And then when I finish, I'm like, oh, I forgot this bunch. I forgot this part and all that. So how do we deal with scripts? Yeah, that's the question. Scripts.

Speaker B: Yeah. And it's an excellent question. It is its own beast altogether. Um, so again, we try and provide as many tools as we can. Um, at our company, we don't even do sales calls. We do free strategy sessions with no sales. So it's like we help you get unstuck on the topic that you're hoping to get unstuck on. And that's it. No pressure, no gimmicks, no nothing. Just strategy. Because oftentimes people do well in some areas and not so well in others, and they just need a little bit of guidance. And, uh, scripting and script writing is one of those things. Now, I'm on one extreme of the um chart, and I don't think everyone should operate like I do by any means, but it's what's worked for me and most comfortable. And that's the main key here. I dictate my scripts. So talk to text. I don't type them. And that was the first big milestone for me. When I type something, I sound like one human. When I speak, I sound like another. So I just turn my mic on, I hit command twice on my Apple. It's a talk to text, and I just talk. Then I massage the script afterwards. And I actually use the teleprompter and I read my scripts back. I'm not saying everyone should do that, but it is something worth exploring using a teleprompter. So because my scripts were conversational in nature and I spoke them, when I read them back, I sound like I'm having a conversation, because I was. And that's one way to get around sounding robotic and getting kind of stuck on the other end of that spectrum is winging it. I've met some people who can just do that. It's incredible. I'm jealous of them. I've had some of those people look at how I read a teleprompter and they can't tell, and they're jealous of that. So those are kind of the bookends of. I just hit record and go. And we edit it. It's fine to. I actually write. I speak scripts, I polish them, I read a teleprompter. In the middle is where most people are, and you have to find your way. So maybe somewhere dead in the middle might be. I got bullet points. They're just on a sticky note right over here off screen on, uh, my monitor so I can reference them quickly. And they're just topics. It just keeps me on course to. To talk about that topic for a minute or two, go to the next topic, talk for a minute or two, go to the next topic. And either direction, you go either towards the top of the head or actually scripting something you'd read from a teleprompter is where you start to find where are you comfortable and what works best for you. Um, generally we see people that either use topics like that or bullet points to keep them on track, or maybe it's a bullet point with a little bit of information like, oh, don't forget to tell that one story about xyz. And you're like, oh, yeah. And you tell that story off the top of your head. But it was part of the script because, you know you wanted it in that part of the video. And the other part with scripting is it does put you in the world of Editing, even if it's a simple edit, if you're giving yourself grace and you're doing a script the right way, you're going to make mistakes and you just have to cut those mistakes out. So having faith in the editing process, knowing that I can do this three or four times till I like it, is a great way to start trying to script without having to memorize because that's the hardest thing in the world. And then I'll make sure you have a link. I actually have a video on my YouTube channel called how to Read a Script Without a Teleprompter. And it goes over all these tips on my best practices to try to get something very specific out on video without actually having to read a teleprompter like I do, since I think I

Speaker A: like that CPAP of dictating of speech to text and uh, probably something I'll try in the next video I do. And also I think what you mentioned about the bullet points too. I realized I prefer bullet points because I could just look at them and yes, I remember I have to talk about this and I go on about it, then go to the next one and go on about it and like that. So you mentioned one thing which comes from these, um, teleprompters, scripts or whatever, which is editing. So for, especially for business owners who are trying to do this whole, the whole thing on their own, what systems have you developed to make that part, the editing part of these videos they produce? Easy. Especially when they are non technical.

Speaker B: Yeah. So this is where I'm going to keep it really real. I've been a professional editor for 16 years. Um, my very first piece of advice, and this has an asterisk of if it's possible and if it's within your budget and your company structure, uh, don't do it yourself. Now if you do do it yourself, there's nothing wrong with that, right? And if you do it yourself, you'll start to learn the language of editing. So then when you do hire someone else to do it, you can at least speak in editing terms a little bit. So it's an awesome thing to know how to edit. But if you don't have to do it, absolutely don't do it. Because that becomes a bottleneck for so many people and they end up with all these videos in a folder that never get distributed because the editing, you look at it and you're like, oh, that's going to take me hours. And it' so, so painful. Um, we actually just built a lead magnet that is Free. I'll share it with your audience, no problem. Called the Small Businesses Guide to Hiring a Great Editor. Because I think that's the first thing you should get off your plate. And that could be from an individual freelancer that works five hours a week and just does one of your videos to an agency like ours, Hot Sauce Editing, where we have a subscription based model, we take the payment up front and we do a month's worth of editing and then we give it all back to you. There's a lot of space in between those two models and that's number one. Number two, if you absolutely cannot get away with having someone else do it, I would start with something very simplistic that's approachable. Um, right now, Capcut is a great example of a free editor that you can get on Apple, Android, PC and Mac. Uh, I will say that ByteDance, who owns TikTok, owns Cap Cut. So you got to be careful that it might disappear one day in the United States because that company's not allowed here anymore. That's a possibility. But, uh, there's a lot of tools like Capcut. Capcut's just really, um, popular. So there's a lot of tutorials and a lot of free help around that editor. And then if you got a little bit of money, a little bit of budget, um, any of the professional editors. We use all Adobe in our company, so Adobe Premiere Pro, uh, Apple, Final Cut, DaVinci Resolve has a free version you can download. Um, you might open them and they might feel overwhelming because they are professional editors, but you can use the basic five or six tools and do a basic edit and get along just fine. And again, those are all so popular that you can find free tutorials and free training on them and kind of, you know, get a hold of the reins relatively quickly. Um, I have plenty of clients who edit their own stuff and then eventually wanted to hand it off. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I just promise you headaches and if that's okay, go ahead. And if not, I would try to line up editing help before any other help in the content creation space. Yeah.

Speaker A: Ah, yeah, totally agree with you. Because editing was a nightmare. M. I think I tried doing it for like three, four, five episodes and it doesn't work with my attention span because first of all I'm there listening to myself inch by inch by inch and I'm like, I'm supposed to be doing something else. And I think that was. I ran away from it. I don't.

Speaker B: It's, it's Difficult. It's difficult. And we actually built an agency around editing because I hate it, and I'm very open about it. It's been part of my bread and butter. I've been professionally editing for 16 years. I've edited projects for some of the biggest companies on the planet. I hate it. The only time I enjoy it is when I'm doing my own YouTube videos because I'm the boss. And when I feel like I'm done, I'm done. Um, but we built an agency around it, and our team is super professional. Been doing it a long time. We're all people who know video inside and out, and we've done that so people can offload it if they desire to for just one low cost because it is such a nightmare. And the part that never goes away, even when you get good at it, is to is time. You can only get so fast. Even me doing it all this time, I have super fast Internet, I got a super fast computer, and I still only can go so fast. So you're always going to be spending that time. If you could just record, be your creative self and hand that off to someone and move on to the next thing you got to do for your business, it's a lot more fun than when you got to hit record and then stop and then go, oh, and I got five more hours of work to do. Yay.

Speaker A: Yeah. So I think one other thing, um, that I would like to cover is for a lot of business owners, even for me, I think video can be time consuming, especially when you have to do, um, videos, maybe solo videos on the topic, because you first have to do research, then you have to do scripting, then you edit the script, then you prepare, then you set up, and then you record. And, um, I think for me, that's one reason why I hardly do videos alone. Because I just think of the time commitment and I'm like, nah, not me. So. So, yeah. So how do you, um, advise us to fit that in to our schedule?

Speaker B: Yeah, Think about it. Just like you said, think about it in those terms. There's this interesting thing where a business owner, a professional, an entreprene, they can look at, like, bookkeeping and they can say, I'm not a numbers person. I don't want to spend 20 hours a month doing my numbers and bank. And they pay a company or individual to do their bookkeeping time to do taxes. I'm not a tax professional. I don't know. I pay a CPA once a year to do my taxes, and then they look at something like video, and they're like, I'll do it myself to save money. And it's just counterproductive as entrepreneurship and business goes. And I don't know what it is about human nature that thinks that they'll take video and this will be the thing I do in house. Everything else, I'll hire people for this I'm gonna do. And then they get into it, and it's like, wow, this is way harder than I ever thought it might be. Um, so the first thing I would advise is look at that time. Spend and do your best to just look at your business in an instant. You don't gotta get crazy with it. And roughly determine what your time's worth. Put a number on it, even if you never share that number with anyone. And then look at the two hours of research, the one hour of scripting, the one hour of recording, and the four hours of editing, and give that a price and say, is it worth that price? And if it is, because you're at a stage of your business where you are doing things yourself to save money, awesome. If it's not, find someone to take at least a chunk of that off your plate. And that would probably be where I would start with editing first. Um, the other thing is to like mentioning earlier that it is a system. Look at it as a system. Look at it as a vertical in your business. It doesn't have to be this creative endeavor. You don't have to become a filmmaker. You can become great on camera just by doing it a lot. So look at it as a system, just like your sales system, your marketing system, your bookkeeping, and your taxes, it's just another vertical in your business. And if you put systems in place to help you run that vertical over and over, get better with time, be malleable and change over time as you find new ways to do things, then it can just be a part of your business operation and not this creative endeavor where you do business and then you stop doing business and you do video. Video should just be a part of your scheduling throughout a normal week of business behavior. And in a perfect world, what that looks like is batch filming on a single day. You know, 1, 2, 3, 4. I do shorts. I batch film them. Um, 20 at a time. Like, be ready to do it all at a scheduled period. And then again, in a perfect world, you got editing ready, so you hand off those videos, and then next week you do your next batch. So it becomes a system that you implement in your business as opposed to this creative endeavor. That you feel like you have to tackle starting from scratch every time.

Speaker A: Yes. I think from that answer, I think one thing I, um, like to ask is how do you. Something like scripting? Because I really have issues with scripting. Most times if I have maybe, uh, my assistant son do the scripts or outline for me, I'm lost. Um, because it's not. Doesn't sound like me or anything. So how do you effectively outsource something like that?

Speaker B: Uh, that's a little bit tougher because it is your voice. If you're building the brand around your own voice and not a brand that anyone could kind of participate in, it is a little bit, um, more manual. But, uh, one of the things we've done is really leverage, um, AI, mostly chatgpt, uh, to learn my voice, my brand, my products inside and out over time. And we've spent two years doing this, so we've honed it and crafted it over time. And at this point in time, someone else could roughly give me a list of ideas. I could pick the idea I want to go with, and they could give me a rough script to start with. And then what I do is I take that to inform me, and then I put my expertise and experience in its place and I dictate my script kind of over top of what's there. But it gets rid of some of that, like, research and that time spent up front and the going back and forth. Should I do this, should I not? Um, so that's one way that I outsource a little bit. Another way is I have a bot. Happy to share with your audience as well if they Happen to use ChatGPT. I have a bot that a friend of mine built who's big in the YouTube space, and you take your script and you run it through the bot and it just gives you ways to make your script better, gives suggestions. You can have it implement those changes if you want, and you just kind of bolster your script a little bit just by running it through a bot that's only built to make scripts better. So there's little ways like that too, that you can put little touches on things that are, quote, unquote, kind of outsourced. Um, but if it really needs to be your voice, if no one else knows what you know, you do have to spend the time in script writing and then hopefully outsource some of the other components that are more streamlined as you go. Um, but that's a tough one and it's, it's different for everyone.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So you might try and Outsource scripting and be like, now, this is terrible. Um, another thing you could do is, like I said, like, dictate m A, uh, you know, talk to, text a rough version that's not segmented, it's not frameworked or anything. It's just there. And then hand that off and let someone polish and refine and all that kind of stuff. Uh, it's a way to get all your thoughts out of your head creatively without worry about, wow, was the intro good? Or then there's the. The call to action, and is that in the right place? You can just talk and then refine afterwards. I find the two sticking points that stop the most people in video is ideation and then on the other end, with editing. So if you can get help with ideation and editing, a lot of the middle becomes a whole lot easier and it goes faster.

Speaker A: Amazing. So now for listeners, business owners who have listened to this episode so far, they are interested. They've learned so much. Learns about equipment, about scripting, about, um, editing and things like that. And, um, they find themselves still putting off getting on video after all this. What advice? What's the final advice you give to them?

Speaker B: Uh, the first thing might, um, come as a surprise to some people, and it would be, don't do video. It's okay. I mean, you should really only create video if you have a conviction to do so. And that conviction could be as simple as my competitors are doing it and I'm not. I probably should be making videos so people can get to trust my brand and know me and know my products. That could be enough. But it could be that you're really, really scared of it, but, you know, you should be doing it so that conviction's there in that format. Um, but if you write well and you get a lot of attention on your writing, there is no rule that says, you better be doing video or else there's not. There's plenty of podcasts. I love when podcasts add video to their podcast. Those are some of my favorite clients. But also, some of the biggest shows have no video. It's audio only. And that is okay. So the first one would be, like, if you're still not making it, even when all the tools are presented to you, maybe you're not supposed to make video yet. So. So go ahead and give yourself permission to not make video if it is. No, I know I need to be doing this, and I'm just stuck. Help. Um, that's why people like me exist. We do free strategy calls. We help people get unstuck. We have an online community. If, uh, someone takes our free video content creation 101 course, they're in our community and then they get access to all of our tools and other people who are on the same journey. So surrounding yourself with other creatives, looking at how other people are doing things, being able to have a conversation with someone in your network about how hard video is, are they struggling with it too? And then access to professionals like me, where you can jump on a 10, 15 minute call anytime and get unstuck with a particular problem, you set yourself up for success. So if you look around you, especially in our little universe with Hot Sauce video, we have a tool for almost everything and are happy to share them for free. Uh, we also have a YouTube channel and a newsletter. So if you are kind of DIY and you don't mind learning and teaching yourself a little bit as you go, those are great resources as well. So it's kind of like if someone wants to get into fixing up old cars, I've said, you can use my garage. I've got all the tools, I've got all the things you need. And I'm here sometimes so you can ask me questions too. So after that's been presented to you, there's no more excuses. It's either get some free help and get started or maybe don't do it because maybe you'll, you know, thrive in some other medium like graphics or text or something like that, or audio, of course. Um, um. So, yeah, I try and keep it simple.

Speaker A: Um, um.

Speaker B: When we work with people directly, we find out individually what holds them back. But as a whole, it's generally getting started that's the hardest part. And I often tell people, when I do workshops and stuff, I have a big, uh, slide that has the work that I help people do in a pie chart. It's got four pieces, three pieces are 5% each, and the last big fourth piece is 85%. And they break down as 5% is technical. So it's the equipment, it's the software, it's a learning curve, but it's only 5% of the overall work. 5% is strategy, which we've talked about a little bit today. And we help people with that as well. It's a big part of it. But it should only be 5% of the work we're doing. The next 5% is distribution. Where's the video gonna go? Where's it gonna live? What platform are we playing by? The rules of that platform? And are we getting the most we can out of putting our videos there. And then the big last piece, I make it as big as I can on the slide. When I do a presentation, 85% of the work I do week in and week out is convincing entrepreneurs and professionals to give themselves permission to be great on camera. Because most of the time, what's stopping us is ourselves.

Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. I think most times the biggest battle we have to fight, and I've seen that over and over and over and over again. So you've mentioned so many things today. You've mentioned your YouTube channels, the different tools, the different lead magnets, different resources. You mentioned the button that can, um, improve your scripts, your community, and so many other things. And I'm sure anyone listening wants to know how to get a hold of all this. So what's the best way for them to do that?

Speaker B: Yeah, so I tried to make it easy. I bought a, uh, domain name years and years ago when I started being a guest on podcast. And my name is Dan. So the link is dan haslinks.com and it's just a stack of buttons where you can find me everywhere I'm at online. So I try and keep it real simple. And if someone's driving and they can't write it down, maybe I'll get lucky and they'll remember Dan haslinks.com and they'll be able to find me anywhere. And then, like I said, we don't do sales calls, we do strategy calls. So you can book a free strategy call, you can DM me on any platform we're on, ask for a strategy call, um, and then bring all your toughest questions. And usually that's enough to get someone kind of unstuck and rolling when they can just ask a professional without any pressure, hey, what about this, this and that? What about these are my goals for video? Can I reach those? You know, just whatever you have, bring it to one of those calls, and that's a great way to just kind of get the motor running, you know?

Speaker A: Okay, so I think that makes it very simple. Danhaslinks.com it's going to be in the show notes. It's going to be on the screen for those watching on video. And I've, uh, enjoyed this so much. I've learned so much, and I hope anyone listening or watching us done the same. So thank you so much, Dan, for sharing today, for coming on today.

Speaker B: Al, thank you for having me. This is fun.

Speaker A: Thank you. And for the listeners, I hope you learned as much as I did, or maybe even more. If you know anyone who is struggling with video or who this would help, share this with them. If not, till next week. Don't forget to keep taking your business. Bye for now.