Episode #27 -The Art of Authority Podcast with Mike Saunders-Video Authority with Steven Washer

Welcome to the Art of Authority podcast, bringing you interviews and episodes to help you radically optimize your authority and influence to become the go to expert in your field. Here's your host, authority positioning coach, Mike Saunders.

Hey, welcome back. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. And today we have with us Steve Washer, who is the Sherlock Holmes of video marketing. Welcome to the program, Steve.

Thank you, Mike. Great to be with you.

Hey, so give us a little bit of background on yourself and then what led you to focus specifically on video? Because in marketing, there's a lot of things you could focus on and you could be a marketing consultant, which does, you know, a litany of things, but you chose video. So give us that bit of intro. And then what made you select video as the medium that you focus on?

Okay, thanks. I've been doing video for about 30 years, so part of it just came naturally. I used it professionally. Professionally I was a teacher at the university level. I taught it in university. And then I went into the corporate world and used it in the corporate world for about 10 years doing marketing for Fortune 100 companies.

And then around about 2005, I left the corporation in a big buyout, you know, when there were a lot of buyouts that were occurring there and I didn't want to go, I didn't want to continue with them. And so I had to make a decision, do I continue with this new company or just go out on my own? Which I had been wanting to do for a couple of years. So I started my own production company and kind of never looked back from there. But that was the time when a lot of people were using video in business and flocking to YouTube and putting a lot of unfortunate stuff out there, and it was really not doing what it was, I think, intended to do for them. And so I saw a way to be of more help, basically. And I've been doing this since about 2010. Seriously?

Sure. And specifically working with business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, that type of thing. Or is it more C suite, VP level type video?

No, it's more working with entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, that sort of thing. I do a little bit of work with consulting and corporations, but not as much as I used to. This is very all consuming now. And so what I've discovered over the years, and I think I always knew this, but it's becoming more and more apparent and our message is becoming more and more honed along these lines for people to understand it better. And that is that video can be used much better. I think when people think about it in terms of how it can build trust with others long distance. In fact, I have some people who use video simply because they're geographically constrained. But that brings up all kinds of issues because.

In one sense, you could say that video is just a delayed conversation. I say something and then three days later you say something.

But it's also a lot more than that. And I think about it in terms of. I'm sure you've heard of Gary Vaynerchuk, right? He's written lots of books. And one of the books that I read that I really enjoyed of his is called Jab Jab Jab Right Hook, which I believe he later said was an unfortunate title. He wished he hadn't made it about fighting, but it is about fighting in a way. And that book was all about using the medium the way the medium wants to be used. So you wouldn't go on LinkedIn and talk about what you fed your cat last night or great dish that you had or something like that. You wouldn't go on Facebook and really hammer people with buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff.

Maybe some people would.

I thought it was a good message. Well, I think that we can extend that to other forms of messaging, like video. And I think video likes to be used in a certain way by certain people. So in my world, I tend to attract people for whom trust is a really important part of their value proposition, People who think of people who meet with other people behind closed doors, Financial advisors, physical therapists, surgeons.

Attorneys, a lot of professional people. And for them, trust is probably one of the more important parts of the value proposition and probably the most important part when it comes to getting their message out.

But when it comes to video, there's a part that precedes that that's even more important. Can I talk about that for a minute?

Yeah. And one thought that's running through my mind, and I want to make sure you either address it in this section or let's remember we it. When we talk about video, are we talking about talking head video, like what we're doing right now, or are we talking about commercials with shots of the business and shots of what they do, or a combination of both?

Most. Well, I say 99% of the video that I do is about talking heads. And the reason for that? I mean, there's a lot of. There's a lot of videos that use a lot of places where you can learn to make PowerPoint videos and other videos where you do not appear in the video.

But for me and for the people that I work with, being the face of your business and being out there and talking to others is just such a big part of this.

And all of the issues that it brings up technically and aesthetically and message wise become really quite salient. And so, yes, this is what we're talking about. Good.

Okay, so continue with the point you were going to make. I didn't mean to.

No, no, that's quite all right. So in fact, it's really important for what I'm about to say, and that is when you're going to put yourself on camera, the thing that you need to understand. There are a lot of things that you need to understand, but one of the most important is what your inner authority really is all about, because you're going to project it out there. In fact, the name of our company is Visible Authority because it is about helping you discover that inner authority that you always knew was there or you wouldn't even have a business. But giving it a form and a function and a message and then broadcasting it to the world. And people who really understand this about themselves are often the people for whom this is the most difficult thing to do. Because they don't want to be bragging, you know, they're not, how do I say this?

They're not the limelight, the spotlight. They don't want to feel like they're saying, look at me, look at me.

Yeah, they're not like a attaboy type people going, dude, dude, this is really, you know, they're not those kinds of people. They're often in the second half of their life, they've often had a very substantive career and they're looking to make a rather large transition of being able to create that same.

Impression about themselves online as they've always had offline. And that can be very challenging for people in many ways. And so one of the things that's really important for them to do is really claim that inner authority and don't be afraid to project it in a way that. In a full throated way. I mean, even the Bible says, don't hide your light under a bushel or as a basket or whatever it is. And so it's not about bragging, but it's about being very clear and very open and being able to protect the authority. So when you're on camera, it is possible to do that in a very understated way because, you know, like, I like to use humor a lot in my videos, but I. But I'm going to do it in a way that doesn't undercut my own gravitas about what I do and how I help people. And there is always a way to do that because it goes back to who you really are as a human being and then not being afraid to project that or even if you are afraid, then standing in that authority while you're doing that message and getting it out there.

You know, one thing made me think of this is a lot of times people, you know, I heard it called and I shot a video recently called the imposter syndrome where people feel like, well, you know, I'm good at what I do, but boy, if I start talking about this in an authoritative way, then maybe I'm not all that great. And I feel like I'm an imposter because I'm saying that I know this and this and this. But I think one thing that people need to realize is have you gotten questions from people that are prospects of yours in the last couple months and they'll say, yeah, well, what kind of questions do they ask you? Well, they asked me this and that. Well, what was your answer? Oh, well, I told them that one time I had a client and one time I, you know, here's the outcome. And I said, look at that. You are an expert, you are an authority because you know more than that person. Now you might not be talking head cnn, you know, president of university level authority expert, but you don't need to be. So I think that when people realize that and like you mentioned, your inner authority, your inner voice comes out where if you can be that advocate for the target audience and teach and educate them on some of these things, you know, one thing you have to think about is this. And now on the other hand, now you know, so that they see both sides of the spectrum, I think that helps them realize that they do know more than what they actually think because it's part of their DNA and their nature. They just think I'm just doing my job. But in reality they know more than what they think they know. Have you seen that as well?

I certainly have seen that, yeah. It's a well known problem for a lot of people and there's a couple of solutions for that. I like yours. I like yours. Thinking about questions that people have asked you and how you responded to them. And there's a couple of other things that you can do too when you're in the middle of this messaging piece. And one is to remember that and I got this from Shonda Souza and I always remembered it. And that is to a third grader a fourth grader is God. You don't have to know everything. You just have to know enough to be valuable to that person or that group of people. And then the other thing is that when you're in this process of making a video or writing an article or something.

When you're standing in that spirit of giving, of sharing, of being generous, when you're in that moment of being generous, it's impossible to also be in a moment of neediness. Those two states can't exist at the same time. So as long as you stand in the fact that, okay, I'm going to give this, I know this, I want people to understand this, your inner authority will come out and you don't have to worry about it. You may be scared to death before you do it, and you may be shaking in your boots after you did it, but in that moment that you were doing it, primo, as long as you're in that moment.

And I think that part of that is that you're just being real, you're being authentic, transparent, whatever word you want to call it. And people tend to gravitate to that because they trust those kind of people. They can tell they're not using a technique or a closing, you know, kind of a close on them. They can tell that you're answering the question and that you're kind of laying out the options. And I think when people realize that, they go, you know, I could, I can trust old Dave or Fred or John or Mary. And I think that's a big piece of it, right? Because then it takes the selling out of the aspect of it. You're really teaching and educating and having them assess all their options and. And in video, here's another thing that I know, it's almost so obvious, you don't even need to mention it, but haven't you had somebody that took your email the wrong way? You know, if you didn't do a smiley or if you didn't do a period the right way or an exclamation, they were like, that's cold. And in a video, in that kind of. Even if It's a video, one on one communication, but if it's something you put out on YouTube or online, your voice inflections, your facial expressions, your mannerisms come through and they can really tell what way more than just that blog post that you did.

That's true. And I'd like to take one step back from that to talk about an important point. There's a distinction to be made here between persuasion and attraction. You mentioned that people are not doing a lot of this and that and trying to catch people up and make them do something and all that. That's very, very popular. That's taught everywhere, how to be more persuasive, nlp, hypnotize people, make them do things. And you can do that in a video, and you will completely undercut your authority. But what you can do is use video in a system of attraction. And the way I like to explain this is like, years ago, I was in acting. I was involved in the theater. And I remember that.

There were two kinds of actors that we worked with. And one was the kind of actor that would just be really, really powerful and would reach out to the audience and almost like, grab them by the throat and demand, look at me, look at me. And it was that kind of thing. And they would get looked at, you know, and they would get applauded, and people would stand up and cheer and all that stuff. Sometimes not, but then there was this other kind of actor, and this actor would be in the moment and the audience would be drawn into what they were doing. That was always my favorite kind of actor. And I worked with both, and I really, really loved working with those kinds of actors. So I could see where drawing the audience in, because what they did was they made everybody better.

And the ones who just were very, very always out there and always trying to demand attention, they actually couldn't learn. They could get to a certain plateau, and that was it for them. They had to have some awful thing happen in their life to realize that they were part of a world. But the people that were drawing people in through attraction had a completely different outlook on life. Now, the reason this is so important is that attraction is all about giving control away. And this is not what the persuasion people want to do. They want to keep control. They want to have a path that is so well defined that there's never any doubt about what's going to happen. But in the world of video where you're using attraction and you're laying down a path of attraction, you're always giving the decision to that person to make. It's almost difficult to talk about because, in essence, you don't know where your next sale is coming from. You have to trust the universe that if this is going to happen, when you have engineered this path properly, it will happen, and it will happen in wonderful ways, but you'll never quite know how it happened. And this is the thing that can't really be taught. It's got to come a Little bit on faith. As long as you know that you have created a situation, a benevolent situation. And I'll just give you a couple of examples. I teach courses online and I work with people in a combination of working online and working one on one. And like, people will sign up for a course in a certain way, like to get, you know, like just the information. And then if I decide, sometimes I decide, well, why don't you join us here in the premium section here and see, see how this works. And that's all I do. And they will often come back and say, hey, would you sign me up for the premium section? I don't know why I figured they did that because they saw might be a good idea for them. But I don't pitch them. I don't say, hey, this might be a good idea for you. I don't think any of that is necessary.

I don't get invited. That's why I don't get invited to do a lot of these things, because.

It'S not a message that people want to hear in the persuasion industry.

But it happens. And I think I want to go back to something you said about having a strategy.

I feel that this is a good strategy and approach and it should relate to video and it might even be part of what you recommend. So let's think about the customer's buying journey. They notice something online, they have a need for something, they start researching, they start comparing all of those steps. What if you took your top 10 frequently asked questions that you get and then went deeper into another section of questions, you know, call them should ask questions like they don't get asked, but they should get asked, you know, or ought to ask questions. And you've got, you know, a series of 10 or 20 really deep questions about your service. You know, what people normally are asking some things that really, you know, make them go. Now that's a good point. I never thought of it that way. That's great. I'm glad you brought that up. If you just put those in a FAQ section on your website, not helpful. But if you created pieces of content. Now, today we're talking about video, but you could record a podcast episode, you could write a blog, any piece of content, but you could shoot that video and say, hey, guys, today we're going to talk about, you know, how people feel when they, whatever, whatever that question is, and do maybe, I don't know, three, four, five minutes, whatever timeframe, but just a nice nugget of knowledge. And now you have this video that is part of this strategy that when you get out there and people stumble on, and maybe you even use it probably proactively to go in your email campaign to respond to someone when they have a question, and you could get an incoming email and go, oh, here's the answer. Or you could respond and go, you know what? I just shot a video on that. Here's my response. Let me know what you think of it. So what are your thoughts on having that type of specific, answering objections ahead of time strategy in putting your videos together?

I don't believe in objections.

But I do believe in the path. I do believe in the path of attraction. And so let's go into that strategy a little bit. When someone comes into your world, it's usually because you have answered some little question, like a lead magnet. You've used a lead magnet and they've come in there because you've answered a very specific, annoying, not overarching problem, but really a big problem. Now they're in your world. Now you can start giving them the real stuff. Those videos may never go on YouTube. They might go on YouTube.

But before they start getting those videos, you need to give them a series of videos. And this kind of touches on what you were saying. You give them a series of videos which are all about what your world is about. So they're kind of orientation videos. Because everything that you create on video should be based on a number of themes. Big ideas, big, big themes that are.

What your life and your business is about. And so what I tell people is that often if you can think of an idea of a big idea of a big theme in your business and think of it as going in the center of a compass. And if you can think of 360 videos that you can write around, in other words, slightly different angles on the same idea, that is a really good theme. One of mine is simplicity. So.

Simplicity trumps complexity, as long as you're good enough to pull it off. Which means, I mean, I never say these things. I mean, just like my information speaks for itself. But the idea is that I can give you 360 ways of simplifying how you put yourself on video, how you think about what you do on video and how you create your path of attraction. And I remember, I like the FAQ saq. What was it? Who came up with this was Mike.

I think it was Mike Koenigs is what I heard.

Mike Koenigs. I met him at a conference and talked with him about this.

I still think it's a great idea for a lot of businesses, especially if you have a business that has a lot of technical kinds of things. But I think that if you orient people toward what you do and speak to them.

At a fairly high level, like, if you think about it, here's a technique or here's a tip, and here's the benefit of that tip, and here's where you should be talking to them. Because when.

Because what that does is it shows them that you understand what you're talking about, that you're the person that they should be talking to about this, and you've demonstrated that you understand it, and.

It pulls them through the process a little quicker because they're looking up a little further. They've kind of got their head up above the.

I never thought about it like that. Maybe it does pull them up sooner, I don't know. But in any case, it does make you a little more indispensable than the person who's just saying, tip, tip, tip, tip, tip, you know, because, like, where is this tip coming from? So if people can understand the why, I mean, and you know what? This may just be the kind of people that I talk to a lot who are people who do think quite deeply about what it is they do and how they can help people who trust them through sometimes very difficult problems. You know, those problems might be. They might be financial problems, they might be marketing problems, they might be personal or even physical problems. And so. And I think that they are oriented to think this way. So when they know that you have thought about their problems from a higher level than Joe down the street, then when you stop creating this kind of content, you're missed. And that's the way it should be. You should create it in such a way that you'll be missed. That's why I don't create videos that are here today, gone tomorrow. I hope, I always hope that they'll have a fairly long shelf life, which means they're an asset to my business. They grow in value as opposed to just disappearing in the midst of the dawn of day.

Well, what I would say is, so far. And we need to wrap up here with just a couple more questions, but so far I've observed that your approach is not just video is good. Shoot some videos, right? You're not saying, pick this lighting. There's all those technical aspects. But what. What I agree with you on is exactly what we're talking about, which is, ready, fire, aim is not correct. It should be ready, ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim. And then. Okay, right, you need to have that strategy and you need to know where you're headed. You need to have, you know, work with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey said. And you know, have now what you want to educate people on and have that process in place and have that 360 degree view. So my question would be, when someone realizes, okay, I've got to get myself out there, create that authority and influence using video, what's one thing they should do immediately? Once they've, you know, got their strategy, let's assume they've got that down pat. What's the next step, what's one thing that they should be doing and what's a tip for them to keep in mind?

Well, mostly when people come to us, they don't have their strategy down. And so that's really, that's a very, very important piece. But once we get that squared away, then the thing they need to understand is the technology. They really got to understand the technology. Because if they don't, video, which is a cutting edge tool, also makes it kind of a sword and it can cut both ways. So if you don't understand that bad lighting can make you look old and tired, if you don't understand that your very posture can add £20. If you don't understand that using the wrong kind of audio can make you sound like you're far, far away instead of being present, if you don't understand that your background can not support what you're doing, then you can undercut your own message. And I think for a lot of people recognize that right away. And they can't even deal with talking about strategy until they've gotten the technical part of it out of the way first. Other people really want to understand the high level stuff and then they want to tackle the technology. It really. People are individuals and I can't really say that there's one way for one person to do it. Sure.

It'S going to be one of those two things. It's going to be one of those.

I was just thinking the same mental process people go through when you write a book or when you're doing a big project, a lot of times getting that book cover or getting that launch graphic in place with the headline and the subtext and things. Now it's like, okay, I see where I'm going now. I can, it could be inspiring. It could be. And then you can get 10 other people that go, no, no, no, for me it's the other way. So you have some people that go, I need to know the technical to know to make sure that as I'm developing the strategy, I know that, okay, good. I'm going to have this and this and this in place. And then other people go, don't confuse me. I'll feel overwhelmed. So let's talk strategy first. And then now that becomes the springboard. I'm sure there's not a right or a wrong way, but we need to recognize that you need to have both in place. Because it's like you said, you can have this one wonderful strategy and use bad lighting, a poor camera, poor audio. Now all of a sudden, you just shot yourself in the foot.

Exactly. Oh, yeah, that's funny. I have a video. The very first video I ever made was called how to Film Yourself Without Shooting Yourself in the Foot.

Hey, I didn't say that, but it's interesting that I thought to say that. So good. Let's. Let's wrap up with just a couple things that someone can tactically practical, tactical tip. You know, what can someone do once they've figured out their strategy and now they think, okay, I'm not going to be writing blog posts. I'm going to do some videos as part of my strategy. What's something that they should be doing with regard to some easy tips on lighting, audio and video camera?

Well, okay, so video, you could say, in essence, that video is all about the control of light. So if a person can get a handle on their lighting, they can do very, very well. So basically, you want to have soft light, which means so you don't have any harsh shadows on your face. I take off my glasses here, you can see this is not so good here in the webinar kind of thing. But generally speaking, you want to have a soft light, which means very few shadows or at least no harsh shadows.

For men, you want to have one side of your face slightly less lit than the other side of your face. For women, you want to have your whole face lit with very few shadows on it. Sorry, I hope that doesn't sound sexist, but that's just kind of the way we perceive people. In order to do that, you want to have your light come from above, from either side of your camera equally, and not shine on you too much directly unless you are using a big softbox.

And also, the way you're sitting and the way I'm sitting is generally pretty good, because if you divide the.

Screen into a tic tac toe board and if you have your eyes, your eyes on the line, that is the top line of the tic tac toe board, that's good. Composition. Having a lavalier microphone like this sort of position, like, you know, do this, like, but do it down here and have it at the point of the tip of the finger. Then you won't sound like you're far, far away.

Is that helpful?

Yeah, that's exactly what I was looking for. Because I feel like, you know, people say, you know, do video because it's really helpful. And you're like, well, what does that mean? So, excellent, excellent points.

Oh, and the other thing, just what if you don't have any lighting? If you don't have any softboxes, you don't have anything. Just sit in front of a window and let the window light you. Because the window. The window will take that harsh sunlight and turn it into soft light.

Sorry, just wanted to mention that there's a great tip. And of course, test, test, test, practice, practice. And don't feel like, you know, for the people that have never seen themselves on video or heard their own voice, I remember the first time I heard myself, I was like, do I sound like that? And I think that that is. You get that a lot. I'm certain of.

But you have a very nice voice, Mike. You have a very nice voice.

Well, thank you. But when you hear yourself, you feel like, ooh, that's weird. But that's the way you are. And then, you know, over and over, it's just like, okay, good that you. It's almost like your. Your ear has calibrated to your voice, you know, because you. When you speak to someone, you hear it one way, but then when you hear it back and when you see.

Yourself, when you see yourself for the first time, you go, who is that? Because we're used to seeing ourselves in a mirror.

Yes.

Image. The first time we see ourselves on video, it can be quite, quite alarming.

Yeah, I agree. Hey, so let's. Let's wrap up with what are some things that people can do to reach out to you? If you have some resources that can help them out with improving their video and improving their marketing.

I have a ton of resources. A ton of resources. If they just go to visibleauthority.com and subscribe. When they subscribe and click on the emails and verify their email address, they will get taken to a page where they will learn how to start their videos. There's a whole free green screen course that they can take. A lot of people are interested in green screen nowadays.

They can learn about all about the different levels of video equipment. Beginner level, aspirant level, and sensei level. As I like to call it. There's all kinds of resources on there, all the 27 different kinds of videos you can make for your business. You can decide which ones will work best for you. It's a page full of wonderful resources. Then they'll get the five Minute Authority every week, which is my take on all this kind of stuff. And that's also free.

Perfect. Well Steve, thank you for your time today. It was wonderful getting to know you and talk shop and talk about some great tips with video marketing.

Thanks Mike.

You've been listening to the Art of Authority podcast. Are you interested in building your authority positioning as the number one strategy to grow your business, brand and influence? Book your authority audit today. This seven point audit of your current authority position will uncover opportunities and show you how to be seen as a leading expert and authority your industry looks to. For advice visit www.awordancepositioningcoach.com.