277: Should You Hire Someone to Make Your Reels?

Last week on the podcast, we talked about a really easy, repeatable video strategy for E Commerce store owners. And this week we're talking about how to just get started. It's so tempting to hire someone to do your work, but we're going to talk about it. And we've got a story from a member and actually a coach in the inner circle who's going to help you decide. I'll see you on the inside. Welcome to the E Commerce Roadmap, the podcast for store owners who are growing their sales without spending a fortune on ads. Each week, you'll learn actionable strategies and tips that will fast track the growth and profitability of your E Commerce business. So buckle up and join your host, Susan Bradley, as we dive into the work that will grow your sales this year. Hey, everyone. Welcome back. I am here with Melissa Davies. We, all of us on the team Melissa, call you Melissa Bike Pretty. And you, you're a member of the inner circle. You're a longtime member. You are now a coach in the inner circle, and you have a very successful business@bikeprety.com and part of the work that you do for us is you mentor our members in the group because a lot of the things that they're asking about are challenges that you've overcome successfully and you've used the training to do that. And so this is a really great conversation because last week we talked about videos and. And this is something that happened to you because it's really tempting when something seems big and overwhelming to hire someone out. So do you want to talk about that post you saw and how you came into our Slack channel and said, oh, we have to do an episode about this?

Hi, Susan. Absolutely. I would love to talk about that. I was really struck by this question because it's so simple. This is from our member Joanna, and she said, has anyone successfully hired someone to create reels? And that's it. That's all the information she had. But this resonated with me because I think about how as E Commerce store owners, we're really told a lot that we have to create video content, specifically reels, at a very high volume. And it can feel really overwhelming while we're running our business. So I thought you would have some great things to talk about it. I know. I had some opinions as well on this subject.

Yeah, I do, I do. And it's funny that I think, even for me, like, I think for every one of us, when something is. Seems overwhelming and it's something that we are, not only are we Pretty clear that we're not good at it. We feel even a little bit paralyzed about how to start and what to do. It feels like learning. It feels like an interruption into our already busy life. And it's really tempting to think that we can buy a solution, that I'm just going to hire someone to make these reels or do this thing or run my Facebook ads or whatever it is. It doesn't actually really matter. I'm just going to hire someone and that's problem solved. I bought a solution. And so that question was really interesting from Joanna, because she's just, okay, somehow I know I've got to make reels. And, hey, who's hired someone successfully to do it? Because I just want to pay somebody. And the problem with that, and we all do this, is that we don't even know what success looks like. And so when we are hiring someone to take over an important role in our business, or actually any role in our business, and we can't say to them, here's the outcome I want. Maybe we can't tell them how to do it, and maybe we don't want to tell them how to do it because we want an expert, but we have to know what the outcome is that we want. So when you're thinking, okay, I have to create a lot of reels, why? What is I have to create a lot of reels so that XYZ and so you and I know. And if you listen to the podcast last week, you want to create reels so that you can. You want to create videos so that you can grow a big audience and drive organic traffic to your site, or even drive paid traffic to your site based on that audience building in those videos at a much lower rate than you might otherwise have to pay. And so if you don't know that you have no chance of being successful hiring that out to someone. And what I always think that you need to do whenever you're hiring someone is you need to understand what the outcome is that you want. You need to know at least enough about it to have a spidey sense of whether it's going the way you want. And you have to set that person up to understand the outcome that you're looking for, perhaps find a way for them to report back to you, like a tracking and measuring solution so that you can actually see the progress. But also you've got to get them to buy into the fact that it's possible to get that result. And while it's tempting to hire someone, I think it's you're setting yourself up for disappointment if you don't learn it. So think about it this way. If it's important enough for you to spend your hard earned money on, it's important enough for you to learn what it is you want to accomplish by doing that. And so that's my thought and it's really not just for reels, it's for everything. But what I love is what you said about influencers and because we all. You could easily hire an influencer to make you some reels. But talk about your experience with that because that's a good story.

I started my journey with my store as a content creator first. So I was a blogger before I ever had an e commerce store. And this was about 12 years ago and I think it's only exploded since then. But I understood that I needed to create my own content in order to reach my own audience. Back then it was blogging. I think now it's short form. Video is a natural progression. That's what we're seeing on our phones all the time. But I don't think I, I don't think I could afford to hire an influencer. So looking at the prices now for influencer content, it's actually really expensive. Even for the micro influencers who only have 10,000 or fewer followers on Instagram, it's a pretty high cost. I've seen some somewhere in the range of a thousand dollars. I think I was talking to some other business owners and that's what they were getting quotes for. And a thousand dollars is a lot to spend on a video that you don't even know how well it's going to perform. And also think of all the coaching or instruction that you would have to give that influencer in order to educate them about your product. So backwards way of thinking, it would be like you might as well create a video for that influencer explaining your own product so that they understand enough to make their own video. So just make their own. Make the video yourself. And I think that's to sum it up.

Just make the video yourself.

Just make the video yourself. But Susan, it was your advice years ago to me that it was to be your own influencer because no one is going to sell the product like you are. And I think that's true. Nobody understands our products as much as, as us, the makers, the people who go out and we source these products because we know exactly what they're selling, who they're going to help.

And you know what else, Melissa? Nobody else is as invested in the result as you are too. So even if you pay someone to make you a bunch of reels, they're not going to go back and really look at what happened with those reels. First of all, if you haven't told them what success looks like, they're going to make up their own version of what success looks like. But if you get somebody to make those videos, they're not going to go and say, hey, it really works when I'm face to camera and then I flip. Or it really works when like you get to see different things. Like, we know for you, you've got that crazy viral helmet with. Right. You know that work. And so you pull that trick out of your bag when you want to get a really big lift, like those tricks. And so that even if you hire someone who creates the exact video you want, you cannot, you cannot abdicate responsibility for the outcome of that and expect to be successful.

Absolutely.

So once we've got past that, I really feel like, I really feel like you're, you could spend your money other ways than paying for an influencer. And you have done like, how much video are you doing in your business?

So I post 10 short form videos per week and then I do a live with another group member. We do that every other week. So I have a kind of a lot of video going now. Most of that video is repeated except for the live. I'm repeating past performers.

Yeah. So it's not like you're creating video content four days a week.

No, absolutely not.

So let's talk about somebody who's just getting started. Like last week we talked about the sales funnel and what video fits in each level of the funnel. And of course, I think the most important one is the audience building video. And so let's talk about how someone who hasn't, someone who's, you know, just really a little bit paralyzed, wondering if they can hire that thing out or they really have to do it. How can they get started?

Yeah, I think the best way to get started is we call it a brand video. But what it is, high level, at least for me, is something that shows off your brand ethos or your brand values and then also is speaking directly to your target customer. And I think probably the best way to start off with this is to really think about who your target customer is, who the video is for. Answering those questions first makes it so much easier to create content for anybody who's listening. And they're like, I don't. My target customer is anyone or anybody could use my products. For a skincare company or something like that, I think that could be true. But if you've ever talked to your customers, like you've set up a booth at a farmer's market or you handle all the customer service so you've gone back and forth, I want you to think about those individual people that you've gotten to know maybe a little bit more about them than just like, they want to buy from you. So if you've learned their name, hopefully to learn their name, we've learned their interests, maybe where they live, do they go on road trips in the car or are they flying overseas? Like, just little questions and assign them a name so that when you sit down to make your video, you're like, Clara, she comes to my booth at the farmer's market every single week. I'm going to make a video that really addresses what she's interested in. And that's it. Like, that's it. You're just making a presentation for Clara. You're trying to have a conversation with her one on one. But that's the type of kind of specific content that I think will help you get in front of that target customer.

Okay, so that's good. So that's the content piece of it. But can you talk a little bit about. I even think for me, I love the no hair and makeup days.

Yes.

Or I don't have any calls. And so a lot of people just are really uncomfortable with being on camera. And so for someone who is. Let's talk about someone who's uncomfortable being on camera because they're actually. Their goal is the same as the person who's fine with being on camera, but they have to think about ways to do it. So what are the things that you think about? I know you are often face to camera, but what are the things that you think about or that work or that you see working for when you're coaching other members? Because you coach a lot of our members on social media content. So what sort of things would you recommend for that person?

My first video, I wasn't on camera.

Ah.

So I think. I don't think anybody should start necessarily face to camera because it's very intimidating. And maybe you need to see a little bit of success with video before you really feel comfortable putting yourself on camera. So don't start that unless you're like, hey, I love. I shine when the camera's on me. If you do, more power to you, I'm happy for you. But if you're like, that's not me, don't even make that a goal, I would love to just see a simple slideshow video. So canva have really wonderful templates for that. I know we have some inner circle templates that we created specifically for this and that really guide step by step through it, and those are amazing. So for someone who's never done a video before, you probably have product photos. If you are selling online, I hope you have product video or product photos. And that's all you need to really start off with it. Just a simple slideshow with a little bit of music, some tasteful music and text. And that's it.

Like text overlay on your slides.

Overlay. Not even a voiceover.

Yeah. And then when I think about it, you could also, if you do have little video clips of some of your products, those can go on slides too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a. That's definitely a trick where if you have a video with some motion in the first three seconds of your brand video, that's really good for stopping the scroll, but it's not necessary to start to start.

And so can you tell me a little bit about what you've seen or even your own personal experience? Because even though that seems like, well, I just have to make a slideshow. Okay, I can do that in Canva. Like, what kind of results do you see that people are getting from some of those videos?

I think people are getting great results. Right. Because they're building up that top of funnel audience. And by top of funnel audience, I just mean people who have never heard of your product or your brand before actually encountering it for the first time. And the reason why a video is so powerful is because all the places where we can post organically, unpaid posting. TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, all of these platforms, they really want people to post video content because A, it's highly engaging and B, it keeps them on the app for as long as possible. So in this case, your goal, which is to have someone watch your video as long as possible, is really aligned with the goal of the platform. So you're swimming with the tide by posting a brand video to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and LinkedIn and Pinterest if you want. But if you want, you don't have to. You don't have to do any of this, but you don't have. I would say Facebook and Instagram are the main places. And if your video keeps your target customer watching, then the platforms get a signal through their algorithms that other people who are similar to your target customer are also Going to enjoy this video and they're going to stay on the platform and watch it. And this is good for them because it means they can serve more ads. Right. The more people are on the app, the more ads they can show. So might as well put your brand video content out there organically or in an ad form or both, and then just swim with this tide.

Yeah. Actually, now that you mentioned that, there are two people this week in the inner circle that I saw posted that they actually, actually received a notification from Meta saying congratulations on posting more engaging content. And because of that, we are showing your organic content to more people.

Right.

So that's free.

It's free. It's totally free.

Yeah, yeah. Now, so we talked about brand video, and the question originally was reels. And so that to me indicates that member that Joanna was thinking, I need a lot of these and I need. And I like, I just can't have one and be done. And I think that we talk. We've. You and I have talked about repetition is a good thing, a really good thing. But you could make multiple brand videos, right? You could do.

You should make multiple brand videos. Actually, I think sometimes I see in the group a misconception. People will. They'll post their beautiful brand video to the group and be like, hey, I would love feedback. I finally gotten it. And I have to. I feel bad about this, but I'm like, it is great, but I'm gonna need two more versions and I'm gonna need you and I'm gonna need you to change, especially the first three to five seconds about that, because that's where we see the biggest difference in performance. And that's because we not only encourage people to create brand videos, but we have a method for testing brand videos, like either as a paid ad or as organic content. And that's really helpful, actually. I think having that very clear method for testing is your content, Is it a good ad? Is it getting the result you want? And we tell you exactly what benchmarks.

Yeah. To look for. So if it's this, if it's costing you this, you can do better. If it's. Yeah, it's. That's really helpful because of course, none of us know it's all new for us. I think that's good. Multiple videos. Do stick with the slideshow if everything else seems overwhelming and just do. Do 10 of them and cycle through. Or do 15 of them and cycle through them. Now we have a podcast episode. If people are still like, that's going to be hard. We have an episode it's episode 162 and it is about how to make a brand video. So you might want to go have a look at that and we'll put that in the show notes. But let's talk about somebody who's a little bit further. I'm thinking about when I was at our Mastermind recently, our retreat, and one of our members said, I don't really want to be my face on camera, but I'd show my hands. And so let's talk about some of those. Okay, let's take one step further. And I'm thinking specifically of. Yes, showing your hands. If you've got a product like showing your hands, unboxing, or what are other ways that people can just set up and show themselves working?

Honestly, you said it. Unboxing. And I'm going to say this is probably the biggest thing that I see is missing that will have the biggest impact because an unboxing video, it's actually really good content for social media, but it's also exceptional content. If you have an Etsy listing, they'll feature you more. If you have a video in it. And also on your own product page, put a dang unboxing video. Like, really simple. Just do it. Because what does your customer need to know when they visit their product page?

Exactly.

Just how does it arrive? This is how you mitigate or you manage expectations of your customer. If it's going to show up in a little envelope and it's battered and this, it's very different from what's in the product photo. But people will need to see that. And you're. If they see that and they still want to buy, then congratulations, you found a great customer. Yeah.

So get yourself a little tripod, put your phone on it and get some good lighting and do an unboxing video.

So my first setup was like, even worse than that. So I just set up in front of a window. I put down a white sheet, I think, and then I strung like picture wire across the window and then I taped my phone to that picture wire so that it was flat like overhead. And I just did an unboxing video. And I didn't do any cuts or anything, any zoom or anything like that. I think I just used very simple software to speed up.

Yeah.

To run it at like double speed or something. That's totally fine. And I recommend people do that. So anything, any sort of unboxing, don't show it in real time. Maybe speed it up a little bit. But it was. It actually really changed things for me.

Wow.

I think conversion rate on my product page went up. Customer service questions went way down, returns went way down and people really understood what the product was visually. Without me, I didn't have any text, I didn't have a voiceover. It was just my hands doing the unboxing.

Oh, wow. And the other things way I think you could do this is also when I notice lots of times actually I just made this giant boo boo with Amazon the where I was ordering these little succulent containers with like just to put succulents in, like little ones. And I ordered them and they came and they are literally Barbie size and they have plastic plants in them. So bad on me for not really reading the description. But people don't read, including me.

And even if they do read, like having a measurement that's 5 cm by 7 cm by 8 cm doesn't mean anything.

It doesn't mean anything. And so again that's where video or even just as still, but video would be even better to show the product being unboxed and what it is or to show the product in one hand and something that we all know the size of in the other hand or something like that. That is also a really good video.

Jewelry sellers. So I know we have a lot of people that make very beautiful jewelry and they love to post their behind the scenes. But me as someone who would potentially buy jewelry, I want to see how does this arrive especially we have all sorts of price points for jewelry. I'm going to want to know does it come in like a little cute little box? Does it come in an envelope or like a little bag or something?

It.

I'm not saying one is better than the other. I just want to know how is it going to arrive and then what does it actually look like in the video?

Yeah, and even like thinking about more about a jewelry seller, if it's say a pendant or a necklace, you want to see how it looks on like how long it is too. And you can definitely do that in, in the measurements and in the description. But an image of somebody wearing it is super helpful too. I think that's something that all of us could do easily and still not have to show our face. But let's talk about makers for a minute because we have so many makers, of course who are members of the inner circle. And I think making videos are also. They answer a great question. Tell me your take on making videos.

So I like making videos or I like the maker videos, the behind the scene videos. But I think there is a pattern that I see where if you only do maker videos, then you attract people who are other makers.

Okay.

Not necessarily end consumers. So that's my caveat around making videos. So I also would like, I would like to have information from a video about how to use it, how me as someone who's not going to make it, make the item, how am I going to use this? How's this going to make my life better?

Okay, so then you might show, you might do a little bit of the making in the video to show that it is handmade. But then, for example, if it's art, then you might flip to the next screen where it's being unboxed and hung on a wall.

Exactly. I want to know, how do I hang this on my wall? What's it going to look like on a wall so that I can visualize it in my space. If you have more than one piece of art, of course, show how to arrange it in a grouping, something like that. If it's a bracelet, show how to put together an outfit with it or how it enhances your look. But I'm going to want to know, as a consumer, answer my question first. I'm not going to be the maker. That's why I'm buying from you, the maker.

And everybody has customer service questions. If you have traffic and. Yeah, and those are the questions you want to answer. And then the other thing I see all the time is what we call B roll is a lot of people who are putting up B roll with captions over top of it. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Yeah.

And often it's point of view, POV and the. I don't know.

So B roll is in kind of video production. There's two types of video reeling. So a roll is what Susan, you and I are doing right now where we're speaking directly to the camera and there's a very clear subject. But B roll is video footage that kind of adds more atmosphere and it doesn't necessarily feature an actor. And we're not entering into, we're not following the action of the story. We're just getting atmosphere here. So some of my really most basic B roll is just a close up of my product and I'm simply panning my phone around in slow motion and I can put whatever text overlay I want. A trick I use often is if I have one video that might be getting a bunch of views and I'm getting questions in it, I'll answer the questions with a video I'm not doing necessarily A voiceover for that. I'm just putting my answer in a video. But that kind of feeds the system as well. So you can really recycle that same, like B roll close up content.

You can keep a library of B roll and then just use it to answer questions or if something strikes you, and then you just put the text over and off it goes. We have a member. Her name is Sylvie Roy and she owns Eclair Lips. She sells not cheap lip balm, and she sells a ton of this lip balm. And she does this a lot. This B roll strategy that we're talking about right now. She's a maker and her B roll is almost always her making the lip balm only see her hands. And then she does a voiceover. And we actually did a podcast together. I'll put it in the show notes. So if this is something that appeals to you, it's episode 106. It's called the TikTok strategy that exploded Sylvie's sales. But it's really about how she didn't want her face on camera, how she wanted to use a video strategy. She makes revenue from her videos now. Crazy.

Yeah. It's funny. The episode is called the TikTok strategy that exploded Sylvie sales. But I know from talking to her that now YouTube is actually like the biggest source.

Yeah.

Traffic and revenue. Because she's a content creator.

Yeah. And she's never shown. She never shows her face in the videos. She just. It's all voiceover. So if that's something that interests you and you feel like, oh, hey, I don't want to be on camera. I don't want to be feeling like I have to come up with something smart to say. But I'm okay with being filmed as I work and using some of that as B roll or filming people in my warehouse. If I have people, that content is gold and recyclable like crazy. So that's something else you could do. If you're thinking about, how can I do this without showing up with full hair and makeup and feeling like an idiot? Because I don't know what to say.

People who sell craft supplies really actually, like, they need product demonstration videos.

Yes.

Like, I'm gonna. I'm putting pressure on them that they really need. They might need that more than any. More than a brand video is. They might need that product demonstration. Because I need to see the paint coming. Yeah. How the paint coming out of the tube. I need to see, like, a video of just the quality of the materials and the kit. If you don't have that. You're. And you're trying to explain what your prod, what your craft products are for and who they're for, then it's going to be 10 times harder without a video.

Yeah, for sure. And people are only willing to scroll through so many photos. I think Kate has done some training for our members. She's a conversion specialist. And I think she said after nine photos, I think it's six to nine photos. I could be wrong. I might have to go back and look at that. But it's somewhere right in that area that the photos have no impact on conversion. And so you can pack a lot more into a video than you can into a photo. Yeah, for sure. Now let's talk about. And this is a completely much smaller segment of people that would be interested in this. But let's talk about the people who are totally cool with doing video and going live, doing live video and going face to camera. What do you think? What have you seen that's successful there? What are the things that they need to remember?

Yeah, I think for there, for going live, it's really a consistency game. So it's setting that appointment with yourself to go live at the same time every single week and doing it in a way that's very much on your terms so that you can keep it up. Because as someone who's gone live, most of the time when I go live, I am not speaking to anybody. Nobody is showing up for my live videos. Yes. If I go live on Facebook, Facebook will send out a notification. Thank you, Facebook, for doing that. But it's. No one's going to show up and necessarily watch the whole thing. So I always have an ulterior motive for doing my lives because there's some question, maybe like a customer service question that came through my Zendesk or it's a comment someone left on a video asking it could be a question they've asked like people have asked a million times. But I need to answer that question. Or there's some sort of product feature that I need to demonstrate that I don't have any video before. So I might as well do all that on the live because hey, why not? It's alive. But I always download the video and then I edit it to create.

Chop it up so you double down. I think the other thing that I would share that I don't have experience with really is for myself. Cause I haven't done it yet. But for. With others, friends of mine, I know that if you're. You don't necessarily have to be live. But if you're going to do face to camera video, do a lot of it and make it either actionable or deliver value.

Yeah.

Don't just show up to. So say for example, you are a. You are a. I don't know, you sell supplements or something like that. You need to deliver tips and you need to. And it needs to be a value, not something that they could find on anywhere. And I have seen that has been very powerful for some of my friends who are doing.

Doesn't need to be directly related to your product every single time. No. And I think that can actually be some. On the one hand that's like opening up all the possibilities and that can give you like a creative laugh. But it can also be encouraging that way. So I will I sell a fancy bike. How might. So this is for. Specifically for riding bikes. But a lot of it's also for someone who's interested in fashion and dressing up. So a lot of my live content is really just styling content. It's how to put an outfit together and then I'll throw on my hat and be like, this is how it looks when you put the whole thing together.

And so that makes you and your brand memorable.

Yes. Introduce like this is my taste. If you are interested, if you like this taste too, then you might like my product. But I'm not always showing up like trying to sell my product on these lives. I'm just having a discussion about styling, which I could talk about all the time.

Okay, so what we've really talked about here, for those of you that are like video and doing it myself, we've really talked about three things we've talked about. The simplest way is to create videos using slideshows. Create multiple videos and you can reuse them. The second thing we've talked about is using some B roll with voiceover that you can take some video of whatever you want and your message is in captions and your voice. Or you're creating some video that doesn't necessarily have any captions or your voice, but you're demonstrating something on that video that answers a question for people. That's a great. That's a great video strategy that doesn't require your face. And then the third thing we talked about is live video. And really that you don't necessarily. Or even face to camera video. It doesn't necessarily have to be live. But what we talked about is that consistency counts. Like you can't show up three times and say that doesn't work. Consistency counts. Frequency probably counts. Too you need to be do it often. And that there has to be some value. There has to be a reason for people to listen to you or read the captions. And it doesn't necessarily have to be about your product, but it has to be directed at that ideal customer. Like when you said this person that you know who buys your products and has bought multiple times, you know a little bit about their life, you need to be talking to her.

Yeah.

Really good. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. So where do we go from here? Like, they don't have to do it all, right.

No, and you shouldn't do it all, actually. And you don't feel pressured to do it all because if you jump in trying to go live before you built up an audience, before you've dabbled in these lighter lift type of videos, it can feel really discouraging to be talking to the wall or. Yeah, let's say. Yeah, yeah, it's just really discouraging.

Yeah. Happens to everybody, though.

Now I count on it. I count on no one showing up because then I can do my flubs, Just start over.

Yeah, it's. It's hard, right? It's hard to catch people's attention. But. But I think that if you're consistent and you deliver value, that again, is that snowball rolling down the hill. But I agree, choose one strategy and do that well before you take another one. Now, the other thing is, I think that there are some things you can do if you're still uncertain about what to talk about. That's everybody's hardest thing is go back and look at all the questions you've had, emails from customers, even go back and look at why somebody returned a product. Why did they return it? Is there a reason that you can talk about that you can. That you can educate people about your.

Product, even if it's a size issue. If you have a product that's apparel, it's a bicycle helmet. So the video I have to have is, here's how you measure your head so that you know which size to pick. Really basic. But people don't know.

No, they don't. So think about all those things that you could make a short video, whether it's a B roll video, whether it' a brand video, like a brand video style with just slides, or whether you want to do face to camera. Any of those things. And then we also have this guide, it's called Emails that sell, which is really nothing to do with a video. But that guide is full of ideas of how to talk to your client. Now, in that guide, it tells you how to do it in email, but every one of those ideas you could take and you could turn that into a video. And so if you're still looking for ideas, I'll put the link in the show notes so that you can get that guide. And I think that's a great jumping off point for you. Do you agree?

Absolutely. Because I think it's so hard for us to tell our own stories as shop owners, so we really need someone else's lens. We're trying to see through the eyes of our customer. But don't strain your brain trying to figure that out. Just download the guide. It's a free guide and it'll. It's more than enough to get you started.

Absolutely. And last thing, if you haven't watched last week's episode or listened to last week's episode, go do that now because that gives you the framework and a little bit more of specific information about what, why, how, and what success looks like. Because whatever you do, however, whichever you decide to do, you really do owe it to yourself to understand what success looks like, what the goal is of what you're doing, and then measure your progress so that you can see that you are moving one step ahead in baby steps. It's really important.

So, Susan, you've been my mentor for a few years now, and you've seen like a bunch of behind the scenes of my business. So I'm going to give you the same question that Joanna had that we started off with. But should I hire someone to create my video content?

No, no and no. You're really good at it.

And I didn't start off good at it. Right. Should I hired someone back then?

No. No. If there's one thing, like I. I still remember, for anyone who's struggling with this, I didn't turn my camera on when I started this business. And I would talk to people and it was really cheap to talk to me back then. Like it was. I was really little business and I was just learning. There was me and one other person and I would have calls with clients and not turn my camera on. How rude is that? For starters? But it was because I didn't want to have to look at myself while I was talking to them. And it took me a long time to get over that, and I'm over it now. But I think there's two, two big takeaways from that. One is that you're your own worst critic and people are generally kind and nice and if they're watching it's because there's something in it for them to watch. So that's the one thing. But the other thing is people also, like most people are not stupid. They have a really good little spidey sense going on. And so they can tell genuine from salesy and authentic and genuine and not perfect will win every time in our business. And when I think I still remember Melissa and you can stop listening if this is boring, but listen to this. So when I first started going live, like really put my big girl pants on and started going live, I work at home and my, my husband would come home for lunch, bless his heart. I really wanted him not to, but he did. And he, I could hear him coming in and one day I was alive and he obviously wasn't paying attention. And he yelled something at me like, you know what, what do you want for dinner? Or some stupid question. And I am, and I'm saying, oh, I'm live right now. So everybody's watching and I'm telling him that. And then my son in law who just loves a good laugh, he happened to be watching on his phone and he was at work and he's texting my daughter telling you gotta watch your mother. This is priceless. And I was wildly embarrassed and whatever, but nobody cared as much as I did. And everybody had a laugh at my expense, including me. And it was totally fine. But I. What I've learned is even though I'm not perfect, we're all not perfect. It's endearing for people. People want to deal with people that are like them, not perfect.

Yeah, a lot of credibility. If you're, if I know, if I'm willing to show up like and demonstrate the product and just be myself. I don't, I wouldn't say I'm being myself. Like ideally my ideal self is like sitting on a couch with a cup of tea reading a good book. That's my true, truest self.

In your pajamas with no bra on?

Yeah. And actually that's really. I love that tie in because we had a member talk about their experience hiring influencers to create her video content. And her product is pajamas that you can wear without a bra. So it's Gia and Kate and she was great. So she's a group member. She actually answered this question. She wrote a whole paragraph. This is in the Inner Circle Facebook group. And she talked about how she used like casting networks to find actors for filming like UGC style things. She talked about the different ownership and the costs and she really broke it down. And I think you and I both read that and we were like, that's really complicated. Wow.

Yeah. Yeah. Because there will come a point in time when you may have to hire someone to do some of this stuff. And the information she gave was like, was just so helpful for that because if you think about it, you need to make sure if you're going to pay someone, you own that content. And that was a big part of what she was sharing there. We have a great community.

We do have a great community. I learn from them every single day.

Good listen. Thank you so much, guys. Go check the Show Notes. I'll give you a link to that one podcast that we talked about and also again to the emails that sell that'll help you take that information and use it for a video and then also leave a link in there if you. The next time we run Brand Video Bootcamp, you can sign up to get on the wait list and we'll invite you to join us there. I think that's it, Melissa.

That's it. That's wonderful. Thank you, Susan.

Go have a great weekend. I really appreciate all you do. See you soon. Hey, if your sales are slower than you want them to be and you're not sure what you to do next to reach your sales goals, I want you to head on over to the Show Notes and grab a link to get your copy of my new course, Conversion School. It's absolutely free. And inside the lessons you will learn our step by step process to grow your sales without spending a fortune on risky ad strategies and without discounting your products. The strategy that you will learn in Conversions School works for e commerce stores of all stages. You'll use your store's data so if you're starting out, you'll learn how to get consistent sales every day. And if you're an established store looking to really scale your sales, you'll use your data to learn how to achieve significant sales growth every month, month over month. So head on over to the Show Notes, grab the link and get your copy now.