#026 3 Steps To Making A Bigger Impact In Your Videos

Hi, it's Sheryl Plouffe here. I hope you're having a fantastic day. Today is Personal Brand Breakthrough. Every Thursday at 2 PM I go live on my Facebook page, and today we're going to talk about how you can really have an impact with your videos. There is a blank space here, and I'm going to fill in that blank space for you in the next few minutes. My pen— I have to find my pen. Hang on a second. Found it. I am a video marketing strategist, and so what I do is I help entrepreneurs and small business owners to, to really shine on video and to shine their message on the world. And how we do that is by utilizing tools like video or formats like video in order to get our message out to more people. So while— here's my setup that I have right now. I've got my flip chart here. I'm going to fill in this blank for you in a minute, and I'm going to give you kind of the rundown of how you can actually truly have an impact with your content, with your videos specifically. I'm also keeping an eye on my Facebook page over here. Hi, Dawn, how are you? On the side, so that if you have any— there it is— if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to put them in there. I will check them on the live broadcast, but I also check after the fact. So if you're watching this live right now, type live in the comments below. And if you're watching the replay, then welcome to the replay. I always go back and look at the comments. So if you have a question, don't feel shy to ask because I go back and I look at them. So what I really want to talk about today is how to truly have an impact. It seems backwards. Oh, you know why? Because I'm using my— I'm using the front-facing camera. Oh, that would explain it. I wonder if I'm able to switch this. Hang on, Dawn. This is live. This is what happens on live. Okay, so what if I turn this this way, although I can't see myself, but I'm going to trust that this is okay because I can't see the screen now. Let me actually just check the computer and then we'll get into it. Thank you, Dawn, I appreciate that. So let's just take a look and see where the live video is. Oh, you know what, Dom? I think I might be on the wrong page. Pardon me, guys, this is live right now. Oh, there it is. Okay, hang on. As long as I know that I'm framed up properly. Okay, there we go. Yeah. Okay, I'm back. I'm actually looking at my screen on the side. I think this is actually gonna work. There, I'm back in the frame. Okay, great. So I can see it now. Thank you, Dawn, I appreciate it. This is why I love my community because they've got my back. I really appreciate it. So now it's all working. So I'm gonna add in the word here and basically what we're gonna talk about is how you can have a really big impact with your videos and I've got 3 different things that are really gonna help you to elevate your videos and take them to the next level. So if you're watching live, type live in the comments. If you're watching the replay, type replay. And also, I want you to type the word yes in the comments of this video if you are interested in having a bigger impact with your message in your industry, in your niche. Everybody should be typing the word yes. You should all be striving to have a bigger impact with your content and specifically with your videos. That's my specialty, right? So the word is here. Actually, you guys can even take guesses if you want what the word is. How to add blank to your video. Um, we have no context, so this will make sense when I fill this in. Substance. How to add more substance to your video. And I'm going to give you 3 ways that you can add more substance to your video. Let me preface how this topic came to be for me, and it actually ties perfectly into what I'm talking about today. Is that this topic was inspired by one of my clients who did a video, and it was a good video, technically sound energy, yes, on point. But what was really missing from it was some substance. And that was the feedback that I gave her, was that it just needs a little bit more meat on the bone. It just needs more substance, because if you don't have substance to your video, the video doesn't have as much impact. And that's what we're going for. That's why we're doing this. We're doing it so that we can have an impact with our message. When there's— and here's how you can add more substance to your video. It's fine to go on camera and be like, "Hi," you know, and talk about things that are maybe, you know, adding— relaying information would be a good example of that. And just sort of the facts. But what's lacking is substance. And substance can be through the following things. I've got too many pens in my hand here. All right. So number one is your story or a story. It doesn't really— actually, it doesn't really matter what story it is so long as it is a story. That is one way to add a lot of substance to your video. So to tell a story. Tell a story, right, to illustrate a point. To illustrate a point. I hope you can read my writing. Okay, so as an example with my client, and this was, you know, what I said was, you know, you just need to dig in a little bit deeper on— I guess in this case the example was she she was trying to encourage people to take a first step at something in life, right? It's like, don't be afraid to take that first step, was sort of the message. But there wasn't enough substance to it because she didn't dig deep into her own story. So my suggestion was, well, dig a little bit deeper. Is there something that, um, that you did or a personal story that you can relay to people about how you took a first step at something and the result that it gave you. Now we're talking about having more impact because there's more substance to the message, right? So number 2 is to have a point of view. In other words, a stand. This is probably one of the most difficult parts because entrepreneurs and small business owners are are so busy dealing with running the business, they don't often reflect on their point of view or their stand on a particular topic because they're busy, overwhelmed, right? And so it does— it actually benefits you to sit back before you do a video, before you start sharing your message, to say, what is my point of view or my stand on this particular topic? So using the same example of the message of taking it, the importance of taking that first step, what is your opinion about taking the first step? And it could be something like, for example, your opinion or point of view could be that you can't get to the finish line until you take that first step, or the first step in your journey is the most important one because of— again, you could relate back to a story of your own or someone else's. But now all of a sudden what's happening is You are adding some meat to the bone, like there's some meat to the bone now. There's some substance to the message because now you're sharing your point of view. And the commonality between all of these 3 points is sharing. It's communicating. And the third one here is being vulnerable, vulnerable. Test my spelling here. Be vulnerable, open, honest, you know, genuine. This is probably the most difficult part for people to do because this is the part that most business owners and entrepreneurs want to hide. They don't want to hide the true, the real authentic story, right? They don't. They want to appear a certain way and put You know, again, you know, put their best foot forward. I'm all for that. But there does have to be some sense of vulnerability in there, openness, honesty, and genuine want and desire to share. And why that's important is— and again, as it relates to impact— is because this elicits emotional response. I'll give you an example of this, and this is something like, for me personally, this is where I struggle the most. I struggle with vulnerability. I struggle with— because, and it probably stems from the fact that for many, many years I was on television and I was communicating someone else's message, right? And so in the news industry and news business, you know, you take an unbiased approach to communication and information and stories, right? Like, your job is to support, not necessarily to share your own insights about something. So I think from a career standpoint, this is probably where I struggle the most. One of the things that I've, you know, coming to sort of explore about myself in this area, you know, I didn't grow up— certainly in my teen years, I had, you know, we were living in poverty and we were on social assistance. And, and I even know You know, one of the stories or one of the memories that I have of that period of time of my life was we were— my mom was doing the very best that she could. She took great care of us and only had limited funds, you know, obviously to go around. And we rented a lot of different homes over the period of that time. And one of the homes that we rented actually was infested with mice. And once we realized that, she got us out of there, into the next rental home. But this is a reality of kind of where I came from. And so I remember at night, you know, lying in bed and hearing sounds, ksh, ksh, ksh, ksh, ksh, all through the walls. And so these are stories that I previously probably wouldn't have shared with you or with probably anyone, even people closest to me. But now I'm coming to terms with that and realizing that my vulnerability in sharing a story like that has impact and can help others to see that, hey, you know what, if she's able to do it, why can't I? And so now all of a sudden, a story like that can have more impact on someone else who also maybe had a similar story or sees something in you. There may be people watching this right now who say, oh my gosh, I grew up that way too, and I didn't know that that was the case for you, or look what you've been able to do despite that. And now all of a sudden connection starts to happen. So that's kind of where the magic begins. And I do struggle with this. This is something that, that I still work on every single day, is the vulnerability. I do have a point of view. I do have a stand. I do tell stories to illustrate a point. Case in point, my client who inspired this whole topic today. So that's really what I want to impart on you today, is to say, here's how you can add more substance to your videos I should put an S here because I would like you to do multiple videos, but also, you know, to, to add substance to your videos and really truly have more of an impact with them. That's really what I want most for you. So if this message has resonated with you and I'm just checking over here on the live broadcast, if this has resonated with you and you're interested to know more how your topic or your niche or your industry or how you can have a bigger impact on what you do specifically, because everyone's in a different business. They're all at a different stage of entrepreneurship or small business, and so your situation is not cookie cutter. Your stories, your point of view, the vulnerability that you could add to that may be different for you than someone else. I'd be happy to talk to you about that. And so what I would encourage you to do is just type the words "let's talk" in the comments, and I will look for that, and I can reach out to you, and we can set up a time to talk and see how can, for you specifically in your unique situation, be able to do this so that you can have more impact with your videos. And when I say impact, I'm talking about engagement. I'm talking about comments, likes, shares. I'm talking about The ability to sell more of your products and services in a non-salesy way. Making an impact also means resonating with people, connecting with them on a deep level so that you build your tribe and build your audience. So impact is a one word to describe multiple things, beautiful things that can really happen in your business as a result of applying this. So I hope that's helpful for you today. Please comment below if you want to talk, just type "let's talk" and I'd be happy to reach out to you and make an appointment to do that. But otherwise, you know, this is really key. This is really key to getting you to have the impact that you want in your content, in your videos, in order to do all the things aforementioned. So thank you so much for watching Personal Brand Breakthrough today. Thank you, Dawn, for indicating to me that this had to be the other way around. So I'm gonna actually turn this now again. And there we go. You can actually see out the window there. So thank you so much, Don. I appreciate you doing that. Hi, Joe. Nice to see you. And Frank's watching as well. And I hope you guys have a fantastic day. I'll end the video there by saying adieu and have a great rest of your day. And I can't wait to talk to you soon. Bye for now.