Ep. 300 YOUR VIDEO INTRO?

Hey there, Mark Brown. Video intro. I don't understand why more people don't use them.

I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I know I'm guilty.

It's just if you listen to us before and you've heard us, you know, I talk about you must connect. Before you can educate, entertain or inspire, you must connect first. So we know that a lot of people introduce us, are more nervous about their two minute intro than we are about our whole presentation. And it's on us, not on them. All they gotta do is read it and even that can be challenging. So our next speaker is. How do you get over that? Check it out.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the unforgettable presentation podcasts with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown.

Mark Brown, your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time. Stage time. Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation? Ahas, let's dive right in.

Hey there, Mark Brown, like, granted you have a gift, you have a way of connecting, but for most people, I would think that if you're still growing or even if you are seasoned, like, why would you not use the tool of video with music? Because as you and I say, we learn from Michael Hague, we must elicit emotion. It is that emotion that connects us. And we need to overcome horrible introductions. Horrible. So what can we do to overcome that? And I just feel it's powerful to use a video intro. Mark, what's your thoughts from. You're from the other side where you don't use them. And that's okay, I respect that. But there are some people that, oh, please get help just to connect.

Yeah, I agree. Because I have seen video intros used very effectively for seasoned pros, hall of fame speakers, and even for emerging speakers as well. And you're right, not every introducer is going to be efficient and careful and diligent. Some will go off script if they tell them not to. A video intro is much safer. And the best part is with a video intro, you decide what goes in, what stays in. And hopefully you'll work with not only a good editor, but somebody who understands your business and what you talk about to create the expectation that the audience that when the, when the video is completed, they can't wait to hear what you have to say.

And we still need to, we still need to give a intro, a text intro, for the introducer. And so I have clearly say point to the screen, but I still have to have a conversation with them before. And I also talked to the AV guys, so they know because sometimes they keep the computer volume off and I'm like, okay, at the beginning I need that volume on because there's a video intro that brings me up now you gotta be careful. We gotta use royalty free music. We want to make sure we have a pro do this. This is like a great simple investment and we're talking 90 seconds to two minutes tops. But we wanted to give a couple ideas, examples, and one, my two philosophies is you either need to connect, use your video to connect the audience to you personally or the video to connect your audience to the subject you're talking about. So very different introductions now. I've been using one for years, so if you've been listening to this podcast, you've probably seen mine. So I'm not going to use mine as an example. Mine is designed to kind of do both at the same time. So we have one of our YPO clients, his name is Harry Sanders. He's just, he gave one of the best speeches, stories, his personal story at YPO this year in Barcelona and then again in D.C. a few weeks ago. So I wanted to show you a quick clip, not the whole intro, but the beginning of it. And Mark and I will kind of talk about it. So this is the only thing that brought him up. So let's just take a quick look.

Hi, I'm Lawrence Hitches. I am the general manager of Studio Hawk. We're a specialized SEO agency originally founded by Harry Sanders. When I first met Harry, it was actually for my first job interview when I moved to Melbourne. I knocked on the door of this warehouse and Harry answered the door and I felt an instant connection with him. His way of wanting to invest in people is very apparent to me and we've been so close ever since.

Hi, my name's Roxane Sanders and I'm the proud mother of Harry Sanders. As a child, Harry was adventurous, quick learner, intelligent. I remember getting our first computer and Harry picking up the mouse, navigating it and showing us what to do. I'm proud of so much, it's hard to sort of put into words.

What I love most about Harry is he is a true visionary. He's able to take a simple idea and deliver really great things. He's willing to find people that you may not expect, have a lot of potential and unlock that. And I can say personally, everything he's done to pay it forward to me. I always try to pay it forward to the rest of the team. I love the fact that I get to spend so much time with him every day. And I love the fact that you guys get to hear his amazing story. I'm so honored to introduce my close friend, my mentor, my best buddy in the world, Harry Sanders.

All right, so this is an example of personally connecting. Now, his intention is to tell a story, his personal story of how he started his life and turned into a CEO. And that's another subject. We might talk about that next week, the speech itself, but this is designed. What I love about this, Mark, is you have his mom who he talks about in the story, and then you have gentleman that works for him. And notice how concise it was. But we learned how this guy who became his best friend and one of his managers, how Harry greeted him from the beginning. And I love the visuals, too, of this, the manager and Harry together. And like that goes a long way to you. Again, our goal is to have the audience lean in and. And want to know more. Lean in and want to know more. Mark, what were your observations?

Well, you took all my ideas. Well, first of all, no, no, I do want to point this out. The use of still photography included in the video, we see, you know, what we call talking head. And here is the introducer. But funny thing is, the introduction was designed to set the audience up to hear Harry's story, but the video intro was a story of its own. Catch that. The video intro was designed to set the audience up to hear Harry's story, but the video intro was a story in and of itself. Let us pause and process that for a second. Perhaps you've considered a video intro, and in your mind, we're going to show four or five different clips of you speaking somewhere, maybe due to audience interaction. And that's great for business, but I always say your audience wants to hear you, but they really want to know you. And Darren said earlier his video accomplishes both. On the personal side, we see from this introduction, we understand the relationship of his manager. We understand how they met, we understand how that relationship grew. And you catch the end. He calls Harry his friend and his mentor as well. So you see a dual relationship as part of the story from the beginning to the end. In the middle, we get to hear a little from Harry's mom. And Darian is right. In Harry's story, we hear more about her, we get more. A much more emotional connection to her. But seeing her and hearing her say honestly how nervous she is about it and her as a mom talking about her little boy picking up the mouse the first time. All those components are parts of a story interwoven. And here's the cool part. None of the story we hear in the intro is included in Harry's personal story. So here's a point for you. Cleverly, the intro told its own story but didn't impinge on or detract from anything Harry said. One of the keys there was they were able to create a video that was a great lead in but didn't take anything away from Harry's story. There were no spoilers, there was nothing in the intro that took away from the story that Harry told. Why am I going to so much detail? Because Darren will tell you it's work to do this. If you truly want to have a successful and impactful intro video that connects emotionally, you do not want it to encroach on what you're going to say. You want it to lead into what you're going to say. And so we learned about Harry being young, willing to help other people like his manager, hear about his mothers and what he was like as a child. We learned so much about him and we, we now we want to know his story. If we, if this short one minute clip is so intriguing, what more can he tell us? So don't forget the intent was to lead into a personal story or by using a story in itself. That was key.

Yeah, I love, that's a brilliant observation mark that we don't give away. Remember, the intention of the video is to get us to want to hear more. So the video in his case, it actually makes him likable because he went from greeting them, the young kid at the door, to manager, to becoming one of his best friends and now he mentors him. So like you said, it truly is a story in my video that I've shown a thousand times, ten thousand times, same idea. There's a conflict, the conflict gets worse and then the aha comes and then I become the mentor. So that's a different one, but I'm going to show you the beginning of this which is to connect the audience to the subject. So one of my newer keynotes is called All In. So just show you the first few seconds of this one. Check it out. So remember their person is verbally introducing me before this happens. And then I have them point to the screen and they say something like, check it out. Can one decision change your life? For me it did. And the 2001 world champion of public speaking, Darren Lacroix. King Darren, your subjects would like to hear a few words from you. Man, that's cool. Did anyone else ever cry during this thing? Am I the first one? Okay, so I actually took the standard introduction I use and. And now I added a little bit at the beginning, but then after this, I use a teaser, an intentional teaser, to get people to want to know the rest of the story, where I queue up that the woman who designed the Vegas sign didn't copyright it. That when they moved the Raiders to Las Vegas, they invested $350 million just for the rights to bring them. And then the sphere and the choice of the building, the largest spherical building in the world. So I ask a couple questions that I answer in my keynote, but it's about making that one decision. So I talk about when I walked off stage at that comedy club that very first night. I made a decision that I was gonna figure this out. So it's designed to, yes, connect to me personally, but also the subject Mark.

Well, I noticed you had the still about all in and being a speaker and a leader everyone wants to hear. And your intro specifically points to an accomplishment as a speaker, which gives you credibility going into your presentation as well. The cool part is we also see a vulnerable side of you. When you say quiet is thinking about the first one. And also the family side. Let go, mom. Let go. And of course, that weird Jamaican guy hugging until you get on stage. But we see the personal side of you. And because it's about speaking and you're focusing on being a speaker and leader, it does connect to both the personal side, the speaker, and the subject side of becoming a good speaker. What greater credibility than winning a contest with over 25,000 people over six months? That's credibility. That says, okay, now he has qualified as a speaker. I need to hear what he has to say about being all in for my career as well. So that really did a very good job of that connection of the audience to you as a speaker and the subject, rather.

Yeah, the video with music. And look, you might have to play around with it. You might have three or four different edits, but now it does most of the work. Now, as a professional, we got to be ready that, hey, the video intro doesn't work and go on and take over without it. But if we have that plan B, it gives us confidence. Now, I sit there and you saw the. In silence. The silence with the 25,000 contestants from 14 countries. Like, that's designed to get the audience to shut up and lean in and get them to read it. That's why it's short. Just black, white text on black and mark. I always kind of sit up over on the side. Even though we tested in advance. I sit over on the side because then the first audio part is to hear. And then you hear alfred herzing the 2001. Like, I always sit here, like, is the sound going to work? Because you don't know.

Well, you know, funny you mentioned that, Darryl, quickly. The silence with just the writing on the screen, the words on the screen, the silence, people wondering what's happening? And they am I missing something? And it does kind of okay, what's coming next? And sometimes silence is a wonderful tool to create attention. Silence can be a wonderful tool to get attention, to focus attention, to get the audience to look in and oh, what's happening? And that was strategically done for a purpose. It also had one line of text. 25,000 contest contestants, 14 countries compete for six months to here. And Darren could easily have put those four sentences on one slide. But each one was a mini cliffhanger. Each one was designed to say, what's next? So you keep your eyes focused. Same place, middle screen, one line. Now, I'm not technically astute, but as a human being, aesthetically with my senses, I want to see what comes next. In movies, they'll give you first three lines, dot, dot, dot, ellipsis at the beginning of the movie. Back in the Roman, you know, empire, Claudius Rastus was emperor. And you're not going to turn away, you're going to stay in, you're going to lean in. It's a way to keep attention. It's simple but man, it's effective.

Yeah. And even introducing characters that you may talk about. I think of our friend Marcy Rankin who is a stage time member and she sometimes talks about her son who has disability. And like showing us a picture could introduce the character that then she talks about later. She also was in the. I think it was the. She played the bugle and she or the trumpet, it's paid played caps. Like having an image of her doing that back then could set up. Oh, okay. And again, your intro is designed to create curiosity. So we want to hear more. Do not give away the answers. Get them to want to hear the answers. Look, you could use Fiverr99 designs. There's so many sources out there that you could get this done. But test, test, test, test, test. Those of you, if you're a toastmaster, test it out in front of your toastmasters. See what they think, get feedback. Make an adjustment. Make an adjustment. I spent six months getting my video down to where I wanted it. When we've been working with YPO CEOs and helping them tell their story, they do a lot of the work, but most of them ask us who should do the intro, what should be in the intro, and we look for those emotionally connecting images that we can put in there. And even then we take a look at it. Version 1.0 gets us to 2.0. You can't edit what you don't create. We could do hours on just this subject. Our goal is to inspire you to just do it. Get started again. Either emotionally connect people to you or connect them to the subject. I also have one on heroes. And I interviewed a bunch of kids and, like, they have funny things. I shot it for hours and then brought it down to 2 minutes, 90 seconds to set up my subject on what really is a hero. So there's so much you can do. Mark, final thoughts.

One phrase for you. Be creative. You want to generate some curiosity. You want to make your audience lean in to hear who you are and what you have to say. These are simple techniques and I recommend you also look at the intro videos of other presenters whom you have seen before. And that's a really cool way to find out. Oh, I could use a technique. Decide who's going to be my introducer. These are all tools you can use effectively to create your video intro.

Yeah, and most speakers. If you know some speakers that you love, go onto their website generally. I know, we were just talking about this earlier. Ford has a video intro that makes it easy for the event planner, even though he might send it ahead of time. The event planner can just go and download it and boom, they have it in the tech booth five minutes before if there's a problem. So go check out other speakers and see if they have a video intro that you could check out. But don't. Don't copy it. Model it, make it yours. Ask yourself what created and what grabbed that emotion to create the connection. How can I do that? It's going to take some time. But what's cool is now you just hit play and it works for you. So it multiplies your time, doubles your connection, and helps your content create that bridge between your content and their world. We'll see you next week.

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