Video Production with Laura Evans

I know when I started out and thought about using video as part of my marketing strategy, I went into a cold sweat. I was really nervous about getting in front of the camera. I really didn't know what I was doing and I didn't know what gear I needed. So I was really pleased to invite Laura Evans from let's Talk Video Production onto today's podcast episode. Now, Laura runs a video and podcasting company that both does production, editing and also training for companies. And I was really interested to to learn from her about where she felt video fits in the overall marketing mix. And she demystifies and removes some of those blockages that get in our way, some of those stories we tell ourselves that kind of give ourselves permission to not do some video. So she talks about the basic level of gear that you need, both in terms of a camera and microphone and whether you need lighting or not. And she also talks about the typical types of video that you can produce in the ideal length and so on. So really practical episode. And I'm really excited for you to hear what Laura's got to say. So let's get started with today's episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast. Accelerate your agency's profitable growth with tools, tips and value added interviews with your host agency owner and coach, Rob DaCosta. In today's podcast, we're discussing all things video and podcast related with Laura Evans from let's Talk Video Production. Now, let's Talk Video Production is a video and podcast production and training company that helps their clients communicate key messages effectively to their audience. And this includes from strategy planning and script writing to recording, directing, editing, and uploading content. So, Laura, welcome to the Agency Accelerator podcast. I'd love to know a little bit more about your background and what led you to start start. Let's Talk Video Production.

Hi, Rob. Thanks for having me.

You're welcome. Great to have you here.

So when I went to university, I did study video and film production and it was when I left afterwards I didn't actually want to go into being a runner. Didn't particularly kind of excite me. There was no kind of promise. They were often very underpaid as well and actually went more into the kind of the corporate side of things. When I moved to Brighton, I was a recruitment consultant for a bit and then I went back to university to study an MA in digital media and it kind of got me into the digital sector where I became a salesperson first and eventually became a marketing manager. When I was the marketing manager at one company, I got made Redundant. So our kind of whole marketing team got made redundant and it really made me step back and question if I was doing what really what I wanted to do. Did I really enjoy doing this? I think you kind of got a bit of leeway when you've been made redundant to take a bit of time out to have a think about things. And what I really wanted from my kind of future then was to have autonomy and to be able to make my kind of decisions over my future, not put that entire future into someone else's hands. So I'd kind of made a bit of a resolution with myself then that I wasn't going to work full time for someone else again. And that was when I became the business navigator for Coast Capital and working from Brighton Chamber and I was doing some video production kind of on the side. So I was building things up a bit there. After about a year of doing that, I decided to kind of go full time into the business, kind of working for myself, being self employed. And then since then it's kind of grown and grown. The podcast production side of things come about because I was previously a radio producer and presenter with Radio Reverb and it just seemed, yeah, it made a lot of sense to add that in as a service, to work with people doing that because of that knowledge that I had there.

Brilliant. So there's a couple of things I just wanted to unpack from what you just said, if that's okay. And it's interesting cause I got made redundant as well. You and I have very similar paths, albeit mine was probably 30 years before yours. But I was the marketing manager for a software company and my role was going nowhere and the company wasn't doing very well. So I got made redundant. And I think for a lot of us there's sometimes we need that catalyst or that push to have the courage to start our own business. I say sometimes we're too comfortable in the role that we're in and we're not very happy, but we're not unhappy enough to say, okay, let's make that jump. And I think, you know, that feeling of wanting to be in control is a really familiar one for most of us. I also think it's interesting about how you said, you know, you started off doing this as a side project. What was the balance? What was a tip in balance that said, okay, I'm going to be brave and bold enough to go from being a side project to being my main business.

As much as I really enjoyed being the business navigator and I, it was, it was Fun. It was something I enjoyed doing. I got to help a lot of businesses and it felt really good. It was helping people, meeting loads of people, and it was a really good way of kind of learning about a lot of the stuff that's available out there for businesses. And at the end of the year, they actually wanted me to go full time. So I was doing it part time and I thought, well, actually, you know, I don't want to do this full time. This is going back into that place I didn't want to go. And what I'm really enjoying is doing what was then. Maybe. I don't know if side hustle is the right way to describe it, but.

Yeah, I'm sure that's language people will recognise.

But the other half of what I was doing, it was fun, it was enjoyable, and I think there comes a point where you've got to kind of believe in what you're doing and that you're. You're good at it and that you can do it better. I think you've got to really throw yourself into it to. To get better at doing that thing that you're offering.

Absolutely. So I today I'd like to split the podcast discussion to two parts, really, if that's okay with you. One is to talk about video, because I think that's super important. And I'm also interested in the podcasting side because obviously I am still fairly new in the podcasting world, but interestingly enough, the thing. And I'll come back to this later, the thing that got me really well, the two things that got me into podcasting, One was the fact that I listen to a lot of podcasts myself, so it's a great way for me to digest information. And the second one was that I heard, I think it was Neil Patel say that there were X million business people in the world. There were 8 billion blogs, and there were only 700,000 podcasts at the moment. And that really kind of resonated with me. So I'm really interested to get your take on the whole blogging side, but if we can start with video. Why do you think agencies should be using video as part of their marketing strategy in their businesses?

It's definitely growing in popularity. It's like a trend that's been going on for years and years now. And I've heard a saying that if you're not moving forward, you're already falling behind. So I guess it's about trying to not just progress, but keep up with everyone else as well and stay competitive. You know, some of the things to consider would be, for example, YouTube is the second biggest search engine, and there's a lot of that you can take advantage of with video in terms of your search, bringing people into your website, making them aware of who you are, a way that a lot of people like to consume media at the moment. A lot of marketers, you know, they're using it. Something like 92% of marketers say it's an important part of their strategy. And another. Another stat is 88% say video provides positive ROI, which is up from 33% in 2015. So it is definitely a growing thing that people are using. In terms of. When I've spoken to clients, I've got and more people coming to me now that want series of videos and they are specifically using it to target SEO and they're using it to. To target certain terms. And I think if they're like you say, maybe there's less people. There's all these marketers, there's all these businesses. There's less of them actually using things like podcasts and video, although increasingly more. But if you're the one person in your industry that's doing that and creating that series, it's going to have some more impact there in terms of putting you ahead of other people.

Yeah, definitely. But why do you think so many people are so fearful of doing videos or getting in front of the camera?

I could totally relate to that because I generally stay behind the camera and I know I need to get in front for my own marketing. But luckily I've kind of got quite a large bank of video examples. So there's a lot of video that I can kind of share out there because it's intimidating. And I think a lot of people, you know, they're quite introverted, and it makes them kind of a bit more scared of getting in front of that. It makes you quite vulnerable to be in front of the camera and have this thing that's recorded forever. Your face as well. Like it's people. You must experience people getting quite nervous doing the podcast.

Definitely. Yeah.

Yeah. With the video, it's even more kind of vulnerability because you can see the person. You could identify them. Everyone. Everyone has a bit of imposter syndrome. Maybe you're worried you're going to get rumbled in the street and now they can actually recognize your face as well.

It's interesting, though, because I had a really good thing on a podcast, actually, where someone was saying that they had a client who kept saying, I really don't like watching myself on camera. I really feel uncomfortable. The person turned around and said, well, you kind of. You're being a bit egotistical because it's not about you, it's about your target audience. And if your target audience finds what you've got to say really appealing, then you should be doing it. I think the other really important reason for both videoing and podcasting is it's just a really, really good way of building a much more intimate connection with your audience as opposed to written content in a blog, which is very kind of one dimensional. Whereas you can actually start to build empathy and relationships with people through podcast casting in video, which you can't do in other mediums.

Yeah. You know, a picture tells a thousand words. And there's a lot of messages that we can convey when we're producing videos that are not necessarily what people say. It's what we show. It's the vibes and the mood of things and the way it's put together. And I think it's a really interesting point to say about building relationships because it's quite versatile. So, yeah, you might be doing promotion or a series where people get to know you or your products. For example, one of my clients, he uses his podcast and he goes out and speaks to experts in the industry. And it's actually a really good way to get in front of those people who might be potential clients and to build a relationship with them. Doing something that some people can feel is just like low level, a bit traumatic. See these interviews, they get quite nervous. You help them through it, and then you've kind of built a closeness in doing that thing that. That with them.

Absolutely. No, that's such a good. That's one of the reasons why I do it. And also because your guests can help build your audience because obviously, hopefully they're going to promote the podcast that they're on to their audience. And it is just a great way of building an audience as well.

Yeah. And it can be really fun. Like, I think there is definitely a different type of person that gets nervous, especially with the video. There's the kind of person that goes, oh, my God, I'm really nervous, or I hate doing this. Oh, God, my heart's racing. But they're smiling when they say it. They get super hyped up. Like, they leave, like, feeling really good. They're like, yes, when it's done. And they've actually enjoyed it, despite kind of what they were saying. What they were saying was because they just had some nerves. And it's like that thing of if you Go and doing a speaking session or a talk, you're nervous beforehand, you've got that high afterwards and you enjoyed the challenge. But there is a different kind of person who just really does not want to be in front of the camera and is hating it. And I would say don't force someone to do that. I'm working with people, sometimes they want their employees to be on camera. If you've got an employee who really, really doesn't want to do it, just don't force them to do it because you can tell that they're uncomfortable. It doesn't make the video look good. You end up with filming something that you probably won't be able to use. And as many tricks as I've got for helping people to feel better and to feel more relaxed in front of the camera. And a lot of people's feedback has been, oh, you've made that much easier than I thought it would be. And, oh, you were very friendly and.

And I guess like anything, practice makes perfect. I know. When I look back to the very first videos I ever shot, they were ironically, probably the most professional videos. The company that did it for me, set up a studio, had various camera angles, but when I look at it, it's like, oh my God, I look so wooden. And I had an auto cue and I was so obvious. I was reading and I remember thinking, oh, I've got a renewed respect for news readers because they make it look so natural, but it's so difficult. And if you fast forward five or six years, I'm still not great in front of the camera, but I don't mind getting in front of the camera. And B, I see the value in it and actually, like you say in a perverse way, I actually really enjoy it.

I think you've made a really good point there. You're not a professional presenter and people are really, really hard on themselves. And I'll say, look, you know, there's a reason that's like a paid job and there are professionals that do it because presenting can be difficult. Like I say, it does take a lot of practice. Reading an autocue is a skill in itself. For a lot of people it's really good and useful and for other people it doesn't work for them. So we have to find different ways that we do it, that we present the video.

That's a really, really good point. I tried originally autocue, then I tried just winging it, then I tried like post it notes under the camera and now I use an auto cue. And for Me personally, it speeds the process up massively, but I had to go through figuring out what worked for me. And I guess that's true for all of your clients as well.

Yeah, people sometimes know a bit about how they prefer to work and I think in terms of using an auto cue, yeah, for some people it works. So for some people it doesn't. But we can review the script. There are some things to consider, like going through scripts before you start presenting that just going to save time later. And how you write stuff isn't necessarily how you say stuff. And there's things like coaching that I would give people. And it's the same with podcast recording or training. Is there certain ways that you can kind of write your script, tips and tricks to kind of help you sound more natural?

Basically imagine someone, one of our audience, was going to put together a short two or three minute video. What would be the steps you would advise them to go through in terms of the content, the structure, the intro? What are the things they need to think about?

I mean, that's a lot. We could do like two days on this. I think it's really important to start with the key messages. So before you just go off writing a script, can you just break it down in some bullet points, some overarching ideas? And that might be not necessarily the stuff that you say. So it might be, oh, our tone, our kind of company brand tone is this and this, this is how we want to kind of come across. It will be just the kind of key takeaways that people would have at the end of the video. What would be the next step that you'd want them to take? What's your final call to action for them? What is it you want them to do? Is it that you want them to watch more of your video series? You want them to visit your website? You want them to go immediately and buy your product and just having a think about that, but kind of how you edge people into that next step. So it might be just the first stage of the journey is watching that video and you just want them to subscribe and stay in touch for you to kind of continue to build that relationship, breaking down those key messages and some key points and then developing the script from there. So you'll have a lot of structure with it and it's making sure that you don't miss pieces out, but also that you're quite succinct in what you're saying, so you're not kind of rambling too much.

So one really important takeaway from that is to consider where your video fits in your overall sales or your marketing process. Don't just think about the video in isolation. As Laura said, it could be at the beginning of the sales funnel or it could be in the middle or whatever.

Yeah. And you have a bit of a risk sometimes that. I mean, one of the questions I'll always ask or think about with a project is, is video the best way to do this? Is this the right approach because you don't want it to necessarily be an ego project or you're just doing it for the sake of it? Is it really the best form of marketing? Maybe there's an alternative way that would be a better way of presenting it.

So I know that if we want to put a well put together produced video, we should ideally outsource to an agency like yours. But what tips and advice do you have for someone who wants to produce some videos on their own?

What we said before was, stop being so hard on yourself. For a startup, you're not a professional presenter. It's going to take practice over time. So I think just getting started and having a go at some videos and, you know, six months down the line you'll hopefully look back on that and see a lot of improvement. But you've got to start somewhere, start releasing something and treat it a bit like an iterative process. It's a bit like a plaster. You've got to kind of rip it off and get started.

Yeah. I mean, people have got to stop being perfectionists and going, you know, I've got a client at the moment who shall name, who remain nameless. But if they listen to us, they'll know exactly who they are. Their business is very visual and they know they need to produce some videos, but they're in, they've got this sort of perfectionist thing until we've got the right gear, until we've got the right lighting, until we've got this, that and the other. And of course that means that they are actually getting on and doing it, whereas actually they don't need any of that stuff, they just need to put some content out there. I always say to people, look, as long as you can see you clearly and hear you clearly and you're in the center of the picture, then just get on and do it.

If you, if you get started and maybe there's something that's not quite right with it, you'll see that gap and you can fill them bit by bit. And that might lead you to buy certain pieces of equipment rather than buy a load of gear then not really know where the gaps are and. But I think there's a lot that you could do to make things that little bit better on fairly low cost when you're kind of starting out rather than necessarily buying that whole studio.

So could you give us a bit of. If I'm just starting out and I want to produce a video, what are the sort of must have things that I would need.

There's a blog that I can link to in the copy that will refer you to some pieces of equipment. Obviously the first thing you need is your camera. It's amazing what you can do with a phone as well, like a fairly decent quality phone. Some of the phones are amazing. Or an iPad maybe. The first little bits of equipment you want to look into buying is a microphone because people like you say people do need to hear you. They will actually forgive a bit more visually. But if they can't hear it or there's some real problems with the sound or it's just kind of unbearable background noise, people, they're going to go, you know, they're not going to watch necessarily watch that whole video. So a decent lapel mic and they can be fairly low cost. But I wouldn't necessarily go for the lowest cost thing that you can get. So I had a client who'd bought like 10 pound lapel mic and it would cut out, it would stop recording. She'd have gone through a bunch of stuff and then have found that it didn't record or it cut out part way through and the quality wasn't so good. So maybe you invest a little bit more and get the still, still a low cost, but the kind of higher, slightly higher end version of it and it's going to be more reliable, it's going to save you money later. You do still need to think about how you're lighting things. Even if you don't use a light, there's certain places you can sit, like not sitting with a window behind you and trying to get, you know, a nice kind of dispersed, even natural light on your face. I think everyone would benefit from having a little ring light if they get one. You can get little ones that you. And I'll again I'll give you the links to this kind of gear. You get a little one that you can clip onto your device and it'll make such a difference. These ring lights are very flattering and they give a little ping in people's eyes as well. So they're really great kind of first light or one light if you're Going to get one light, good light to get. Additionally, just getting a decent tripod, you don't need a really big one if you're filming with a small device. But just getting things at the right height and also making it a bit easier, giving yourself a bit of distance maybe between you and the camera because it's a bit more flattering and just having those things at the right height. And again, if you've plugged a mic in, you can have a bit more of that distance without completely kind of wrecking the quality of the sound.

Yeah, I mean, I have a fairly amateur setup, but it really follows what Laura just suggested. So I use my iPhone 11 for my camera and I have a rode lapel mic with a longer lead on it and I've got some lighting that I bought off Amazon for about 60 quid and I've also got a ring light as well. Plus I use an auto cue. And so I reckon in total that I've probably spent 2, 2 or 300 quid on the stuff that I've got at the moment. And besides wanting to upgrade to a decent camera, it's all pretty good. And I can produce videos fairly quickly that are okay there could always be much better. And like I say, it would definitely benefit from having someone like you kind of guiding the process. Actually, for me it started because I was producing online content for my courses and so I had to get in front of the camera, but I actually really enjoy doing it now. I put out videos all the time, so I'm a big fan of what you do and the importance of video.

Yeah, and maybe the camera should be the last thing that you update. Get, get the sound right, get the light better and then consider if you, you know, if you're enjoying it like you say, but you could buy these things bit by bit and still be producing some video. And yeah, it might not be exactly how you want it to look, but you're not at the end of the process yet. You're kind of working through that process of improvement. I think there's ways, I mean, if you're finding it hard to get started, then how can you make it easier just to kind of rip off that plaster and do a video? Well, you just use what you've got, except it might not be ideal. And why not simplify the process? So instead of making really, really long videos, could you just make some short 30 second to 1 minute clips? Instead of having this kind of cutaway footage and a complex edit, can you just make something that's very simple? Speaking to camera and when you get comfortable doing the basic stuff, you can start to make it a bit more complicated.

Yeah. So let's just talk about length for a minute. So I'm sure there isn't an ideal length, but I'm interested to talk about length videos and se because I think a lot of people don't think about SEO when they are uploading their videos to YouTube or to Vimeo or their websites or whatever. So have you got any thoughts on length and also what we need to think about from an SEO perspective?

That's a really common question. It might be one of the most common questions after equipment that I get asked is how long should our video be? In your opinion, how long should it be? And although there might be some guidelines and it depends exactly what they're trying to do with the video and where they're going to show it and what platform that they're using it on, I think it has to come down to like what's best for the user, what's best for the audience and what will they expect and what fulfills what they're actually looking for. So if it's a promotional video, I wouldn't be expecting to make like a five minute long promotional video. I think that should be more like maybe one or two minutes. There's certain things that people might want to consider if they want it to show on certain platforms. So for example, if you're going to use IGTV on Instagram, which I think is, I like using that, I find that really useful. I think it's quite good way to reach some different people is it would need to be over a minute to get on there. So if you have something under a minute, it's going to sit in the Instagram general feed. If it's over a minute, it would. You've probably seen it when you play a video and it goes, do you want to continue watching? It's going to pop you out to IGTV to watch the rest of it. Yeah, sometimes when we're doing series of videos, if one of those particular scripts looks really long, I would say, well, do you want to maybe consider splitting this up potentially? Instead of having one really long video, you could have three or four that kind of delve into a bit more detail. But you could kind of split those up into a series.

Do you know much about how Google analyzes video from an SEO perspective? I'm asking from a completely ignorant position, so that might even be a stupid question.

No, it's not. It's not because who does know the algorithm? Like, we're all sitting there as, like, I go to Brighton SEO a lot and we're all kind of. It's all about trying to work it out. And the term black cat used to be people who'd worked out and then cheated the system. And then Google would try and get a step ahead of them by penalizing people for cheating. And it's this constant kind of back and forth of trying to work out what the algorithm favors. And Google and YouTube being basically immensely closely connected because Google owns YouTube. The things that you want to consider is, I think you really need to bear in mind the user and what they want and what they need. So leading with that kind of stuff and accessibility and some of the stuff that you can do for accessibility is going to help your search as well. So putting subtitles and correct subtitles into YouTube. Again, from a user perspective, if you're looking at the search listings and something is titled correctly and you click through and it actually matches the title, they're going to be happy and they're going to watch more of that video, which again is going to benefit you with descriptions as well. But those little things are cues also to the search engine of what your video is actually about.

I think one point that you've made several times, which is really important is remember that the video you're producing is for an audience and you need to understand that audience and what they want. And that should dictate the content and the length and all the rest of it. It's not about you. I saw one of my clients recently has just delved into video production and they produced this really great, almost filmatic sort of introduction to their agency. And they asked me what I thought about it. I thought it was really good, but it was about six or seven minutes long. And I thought, if you're using this as your first entrance point to your company, is your target audience likely to sit through six or seven minutes? Wouldn't you be better cutting this down to two or three minutes?

Yeah. And then maybe you suck them in and the next step is that they start to. Or they want to find out a bit more and then you start to point them towards longer videos. So there's definitely a time and a place and I think it's a bit of an experiment to some extent as well. Like all marketing to some extent, you need to experiment with it, see what works, kind of feed it back into the process. So there is a place for trying that longer form stuff, seeing how it works and how people Enjoy it. Do you know, do they watch more of it? I think just keeping an eye on those statistics for how much of the video they're actually watching.

Sure. I think the other point that I wanted to pick up on was the use of subtitles, because I know when I started putting subtitles on my weekly videos, the amount of views on mobile really picked up because I realized that when people start watching a video on a mobile device, the sound is always by default off and you can't turn it on. So that means if there's subtitles, they're going to watch the video or turn the sound up, but if there aren't any subtitles, they just see a silent movie and they probably scroll on.

Yeah. So often. I mean, one of the first things I'll talk about with a client is where are we actually going to be showing it? What are the platforms that work for you and how can we design either specifically for your most popular platform? So that would affect maybe little things, but it would make a bit of a difference to exactly how we're producing things or, you know, how many versions do we need at the end? So how many different ratios and, you know, do one of those versions. Does it have subtitles burned in to the edit itself?

Yeah, absolutely. Good advice. Let's move on to talk a little bit about podcasting now, because I know that's another area that you're agency focuses on, helps clients with. So I kind of want to ask you the same question. I'm not suggesting that every agency should start their own podcast, but why would someone think about being involved in the podcasting world?

I think like we've discussed, it's something a bit different to make you stand out. It's an opportunity to talk to clients, like literally on your podcast. It's very flattering to be asked to be on someone's podcast. So thanks, Rob.

Great to have you here. Sorry, a quick aside on this. So I started my podcast in December, and at first I was reaching out to people, like I reached out to you to come on the podcast. And then all of a sudden I started getting inundated with people requesting to come on the podcast. And the I've only had accepted one of those people because most people just haven't even listened to an episode of the podcast or read what it's about. So the people were just so inappropriate. So it's just an interesting world, but it's good to have people like you on who are experts in areas that I know my audience are really interested in.

Yeah, I Mean, because when I did the radio show, it was a really interesting bonding experience with people, and, you know, that was just for fun, but it actually led to people being interested in what I was doing professionally. And again, this client, I mean, can I pick him up? Can I pick up my client?

Yeah, check out.

I would recommend checking out the Hospitality Mavericks podcast. And I know it's been a great opportunity for him to talk to. I mean, just talking to these really interesting people. And I trained him basically to produce his podcast, and then I've been retained as an editor, so I get to listen to them, and they're really interesting. And although, you know, I'm not a hospitality professional, these people are business people. They're really interesting business mavericks and the kind of people that maybe you wouldn't meet at a networking event or you wouldn't necessarily hear from doing such interesting things and really having to move fast with tech and, you know, actually having to deal with things like Brexit and things like that. Really interesting things, actually, and interesting bits of business advice that I think are relevant to just any. Any kind of business person, regardless of sector.

It's. I mean, I started my podcast because I love listening to podcasts, and I digest that information when I'm driving or whether I'm walking the dogs on the beach or whether I'm at the gym. I'm always listening to a podcast. And, you know, I have my favorite podcast, and I've listened to some that I. They didn't like it all because they were just sort of bragging or, you know, saying how wonderful they were. And if you bought their solution, you could be wonderful, too. And so when I started this, I was like, no, I want to be really authentic. I want to be warts and all. I want to have people on that are not going to be bragging and. But actually providing really good insights to. To my audience. So it's definitely a growing world at the moment, isn't it?

Yeah, And I think it's easy. It's easier technically than video. There are less things to consider. It's a cheaper barrier to entry because you could literally start a podcast again with a phone, with a phone mic. You could record straight into that, or you can get a cheap USB mic and just plug it into your computer. You can get free editing programs, and it's less pressure. You're not sitting in front of that camera feeling like it's looking at you, feeling kind of nervous. I know people don't really like to hear their voice either, but I found that I became quite disassociated from my own voice. It's almost like listening to someone else that I didn't know after a while.

Yeah, me too, because you do have to spend quite a lot of time in the editing phase, so you just have to get on with it. And I just keep thinking, is this. Is this really gonna. Is this interesting? Is someone gonna get some value out of it? That's because that's what it's all about.

Yeah, that might be one of the positives of having an editor is that they can kind of come in and cut out. They might be more likely to notice bits that become repetitive or cut out. Things aren't quite working. I do think the edit is probably what people consider to be the bit more of the boring side, so. And like you say, time consuming. So I do. I would tend to find that people are going to retain me for that bit. Because the recording and the ideas bit is the fun bit.

No, definitely. When I can afford to hire you, I want you to do that. Because the thing I think about podcasting more than anything is it's there forever. And so if I'm putting this thing out there forever, I want it to be good. And if someone finds my podcast, episode 200, and then they go back and listen to episode one, well, I don't want them to think episodes one, two and three were really, really crap. I just feel like it's there forever. And I can see as my audience has grown, how that has impacted the early podcast. Because once someone finds a podcast series that they like, they tend to go back and listen to previous episodes. So you finding the podcast area is really growing for you. Are you finding more and more people are discovering this. This and saying that it should be part of their sales and marketing strategy?

Yeah, for sure. That lots more people are doing it. And I think for quite a while there, it used to be much more popular in America and across Europe. And it seemed like people weren't quite catching on in the uk. And then suddenly in the last like six months or to a year even, suddenly, more and more people are doing it and it's just realizing that it's quite easy and it's quite fun. It's quite fun to do it.

Yeah, I really enjoy. I really enjoy this. This part of the process.

The difference maybe with the podcasting is that there are some people that I would go in and produce for them. Like, you know, it's easy. They're bigger companies, they've got the money. And there are some people that I would often it would be that I would go and train them and it's just about having that confidence to get started, but also to take some steps ahead. So that in terms of that quality, about pushing people ahead there with that and having someone to kind of review what they're doing and help them improve. And then again, you know, like they're the people that may be able to stay as an editor with. But I think that's different to the video stuff. Whereas it's a lot more likely that I'd go in with the video and do the whole thing.

I guess sometimes you need that objective viewpoint as well because we all get too close to our own businesses and we sometimes can't see the wood for the trees. So if you've got someone else coming in and asking you those questions, then I'm sure that's going to end up with a much better product at the end.

Yeah, and maybe that's the problem with like you're ending up with a six minute video because, oh, you don't really want to cut it. You really like that bit. But having an objective editor, I can be quite harsh in cutting it right down. Really interesting point that I think you've kind of touched on a bit there is that you have someone coming in who's not necessarily involved with the internal politics. And sometimes when I've worked with, you know, some of these kind of finance, big finance companies with really high end execs, I wonder if they don't want to or they find it harder to be in that vulnerable position with someone that they work with and that they know. And it's kind of easier to be a bit vulnerable with like a friendly external face that comes in. It has your best interests at heart. I want people to look good and I want them to be happy. And it like means a lot to me when someone messages me and goes, oh my God, I love it.

Yeah. And I noticed you've got lots of really good testimonials on your website. So clearly you've got a lot of happy couple customers. Let's just move on to my last question, if I can, because I'm conscious of time and it's the question I ask all my guests. But if you could go back in time and give your younger business self that's just starting out in business a piece of advice, what would it be?

I think because it's one piece of advice, it'd be that, okay, look, you're going to make mistakes, so get out there, start making some mistakes and use that process to learn and the opportunity with my own marketing is to make some of those technical mistakes. That's where I get a bit more experimental or stuff that, you know, I produce for myself that isn't necessarily released. It's just an experiment. Just be prepared to make mistakes. Don't beat yourself up about it. Use it as a point of learning to kind of move on from. And it's made my processes better. So when something has not been quite as streamlined as I would have wanted it to be, it's been an opportunity for me to go, okay, I can change that. I can do it differently. And I've changed my processes and I think it's helped me to create a bunch of processes that work really, really well with projects and, you know, make things work really smoothly.

So really good advice. Don't be scared of making mistakes and get good systems and processes in place in if you go back a couple of weeks in episode 18, I spoke to someone who's called the Fail Coach, and he is all about helping people not be scared of making mistakes. I think that is is really, really good advice. Now, your website has some really practical tips and guides, so I will make sure I link to that in the show notes and also the blog that you mentioned. But how else can people get hold of you, Laura, if they want to.

Reach out to you, the website's probably the best way just to get in touch through there. Or email me@lauraetstalkvideoproduction.com referring people back to the blog. There'll be a few articles there about equipment.

Yeah, so we'll link to all of those blogs. And guys, reach out to Laura and have a chat with her because she clearly has a lot of really good advice for all of us who are just starting out in both video and podcasting. Thanks for your time today.

Brilliant. Thanks, Rob.

So there you have it. Some really useful tips and ideas on how to get started or improve your use of video as part of your marketing strategy. You don't need loads of fancy gear. You just need a phone, camera, a mic, and some good ideas. So I hope you found this episode useful and as ever, please feel free to share the podcast and I would love you to leave a review because that helps me be found more easily in the search engine. Until our next episode next week. I hope you have a fantastic week.

Sat.