Why Leaders Must Show Up Authentically on Video (feat. Todd Hartley)

Hi, I'm Susan Drumm and welcome to the Enlightened Executive where your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution. Each episode we feature groundbreaking techniques and strategies to help executives and entrepreneurs get the edge in personal and leadership effectiveness. Today we're focusing on the power of video and how an enlightened executive serves his or her clients by putting the ego aside. And and I'm happy to introduce my guest, Todd Hartley. Todd is the CEO of Wirebuzz and the rock star of remote selling, video marketing and sales optimization. His track record for being years ahead of his industry is why billion dollar companies, celebrities and world leaders hire him to develop their sales and marketing strategies. Some of his clients include 23andMe, Justin Timberlake, MD Anderson, Home Depot, and an American president. Todd is one of Tony Robbins Business Mastery faculty speakers who trained each of Tony's 74 businesses on how to sell remotely. His strategies earned his sales and marketing optimization agency, Wirebuzz, a spot on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest growing privately held businesses in America. So welcome Todd.

Susan, thanks for having me. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Yes. I'm so excited you're here and really wanted to kick it off by talking about the power of video because that is what you're all about. And so maybe you could share with us why is it so valuable and what stops leaders from embracing it?

Well, when we talk about the value of video, it's the most human type of content we can provide. It's like the top of the content food chain. Video replicates a human to human engagement better than anything else. Like we can make eye contact like you and I are doing right now. We can share insights, we can teach people, we can create emotion with it. But when you go and look at the data, people are four times more likely to watch video than to read text. So it's the most valuable asset on an entire website. People will retain information in a video significantly better. They retain 95% of the information in a video, but only retain 10% of the information when they read it in text. And then when they go to make a purchase, when people watch a video, they're 85% more likely to buy. Really this whole big phase that we're in right now, the whole digital era, eventually everything boils down into how do we become better facilitators of what was a face to face relationship and how do we simulate what worked face to face in now a more remote and engaging world. And a lot of that revolves around how you use video strategically for your business.

Yes. And so there's so much opportunity in using video strategically for your business. But there's important part we talk about personal development and leadership development that seems to be getting in people's way from really, truly embracing it and leveraging it, even though it'll boost your sales. Tell us a little bit about what you think could get in the way.

Well, vanity gets in the way. Like, vanity is the biggest thing. Susan, I've got clients all over the world. Sometimes I'm doing trainings with them. It doesn't matter if they're solopreneurs or billionaires. They're trying to figure out how they can leverage the superpower of video to either extend their brand or develop deeper relationships with clients, maybe become a knowledge broker or a guru in their space. And the number one limiting belief that I hear from clients is. And they typically whisper it to me, they're like, I don't like how I look on camera. And the reality is none of us really like how we look. Even supermodels don't like how they look on camera. Like, we all have issues about it. But I always look at it like, what is the value of the information that you provide? Like, are like, do you provide information that changes lives? Do you provide information that makes people healthier or more profitable or makes them a better business leader or better spouse or husband? If so, you have to give that information, share it with people so you can impact their life. Like, for me, I had this exact experience when the pandemic started and all of the doctor's offices closed. I was noticing I had on the side of my nose a bump that wouldn't stop bleeding. But I couldn't get in to see the doctor. And I got scheduled by Tony Robbins team to come in and start training each of his companies and his clients how to sell remotely. So I booked all that. It was my whole summer last year, all booked out at one time. And then the next week, the dermatologist opened. I went into the dermatologist, and they've discovered that I had skin cancer in two different spots. Was gonna need three surgeries to reconstruct my nose, and it would take the entire summer, but I was already booked. So I had this same exact deal. And by the way, I grew up following Tony Robbins. So this was, like, my moment to be able to get out there and to give back to. To Tony. And my first thought was, oh, exactly what you said. Oh, no, I'm not. This isn't the way I pictured it. I didn't picture myself getting there and serving him or serving others with Bozo the Clown bandages all over my face. And I don't see myself that way. So I struggled with it for a while. What I realized was my need to serve people, to lift up their lives, help get them to their next level superseded my vanity. But it took a long time for me to deb this out, and I did all of those trainings with bandages on my nose. Now here's the big discovery when I got the hell out of my way. And it's same thing with being an enlightened entrepreneur. When I got out of my way and allowed my ego to be tamed or I allowed my vanity to be squashed, and I led with serving others. All the magic in my life happened because those audiences bonded with me and my vulnerability, and they identified and connected with my willingness to serve. So. Right. So for anybody who struggles with the. With getting on camera, it's like, dude, get out of your own way and just start helping people, and everything will figure itself out.

Yeah, get your attention off yourself and looking good and focus more on how can you serve? What is it that you. What's the message that you have to get out there? And if you make that shift, you're far more powerful. Plus, the humanity of it. Right here you are. I mean, I. If I was in the audience watching, I was like, what guts this guy has. Like, if he can do that with bandages all over his nose, what the heck is stopping me from getting out there and connecting with my clients in a video format or creating some of the important trainings that you need to do over video? And so I think it just. Video allows us to see inside the soul in a way. And that's very. Such an inspirational story. Thank you for sharing that.

I'm telling you, I struggled with it for a long time. And it wasn't until I was doing the first event and it was live and there was, I don't know, several hundred people in the audience. But when I explained what was going on in the opening seconds, I saw people in, like, the Zoom Gallery lifting up their arms, celebrating me. And that told me for the first time, I made the right decision.

Yes. Oh, fantastic. You know, I was trying to figure out when I started this channel. I got a lot of feedback that this should just be a podcast, audio only, because that's where most of my target audience are. They really on YouTube. And I felt strongly that there should be a video component. So if you're listening to this on a podcast, you can do that. But you can also check it out on YouTube. What does in your sense, what does adding the video component, what would it do for leaders and where is their untapped potential for using it?

Yeah, I think you want to be where your prospects are. So your prospects may be listening on a podcast, but they may also be on LinkedIn and on Facebook and Instagram and on YouTube. And just like Toyota, for just the sake of discussion, Toyota wants to be wherever their prospects are. And they don't just limit it to running a radio ad. They think about all the different environments. But like we mentioned before, videos are the most powerful tool on the Internet. It is the king of the content jungle. So if you create it as a video, you can always in your editing program, detach the audio, export the audio out as an MP3 file, and then use it to for a second purpose as a podcast. But you can't do that with any other type of content. And that's why videos on the top of that food chain, because you can use it, slice it and dice it for multiple different uses.

Got it. And what. So can you give some examples of the different uses that you've seen leaders? I mean, obviously there's using it in a sales, you know, in the sales process. Right. You could talk a little bit about that. I have a hunch there's a lot more leaders could do also in leading their teams and how they lead the rest of the organization as a CEO. So perhaps you can share a little bit about both the external and kind of internal company usage of video.

Yep. There are five zones for using video effectively in your business. I created this once I started to hear other experts talk about the use of video and it felt very one dimensional. And so to help everybody understand the full context of video, the first zone is, is how you get discovered. There's strategies there for how you use it, mostly on social or webinars or video ads. Then there's a whole nother zone that just lives on your website. How do you use video on your website when somebody comes there to transition them through an effortless on demand buying experience? The third zone is how salespeople crush their quotas each month using the power of video through their mobile phone, getting themselves on camera, recording the videos, making a heart to heart connection with their prospect, or answering the prospect's confusion that they detected during the meeting and following up with a additional piece of information that helps move that prospect to the next level. The fourth zone is how you use video for your existing clients, which is like Those are, that's your low hanging fruit. You're like 70% likely to sell to an existing client and only 5% likely to sell to a new one. So if you can use video, the most powerful tool to educate your existing clients, you could pick that low hanging fruit and get them to buy from you time and time again. The fifth zone is how do you train your employees? How do you get them up to speed so they can go out and represent you and your brand and your services with the right terminology, language, and skill sets that you would expect people representing your brand to be able to do. And that Zone 5 training information all ends with a training quiz. And people that pass get to go on to that next step and represent the company. So that's kind of like the five different ways that you can use video to impact your business.

That is really clear and sustained. I'm wondering if you would share the piece that was fascinating for me, which was how much data you can capture also when people are watching video.

All right, I love this part. It's super creepy. Can we get creepy for a moment?

Yes, kind of.

Okay, kind of. All right, so here's the deal. In the old world, salespeople were face to face with their prospects. And when they were face to face, they were evaluating things, Susan, like body language and the, you know, and the type of responses. And what we discovered is now that we're in a remote first world, and we will be for the rest of our business lives, I can be certain of this because I've already seen the data. And now executives in the B2B world, 80%, are now preferring to buy remotely for purchases $50,000 and above. And the stats prove out even in like $500,000 million purchases. People are comfortable now buying remotely. So your ability to get a little creepy and spy on the back end of your website or the back end of your videos and determine of all the people that you're engaging through your sales process, who are the people that are watching the videos the longest? Now, why is that important? Because people who watch over 80% of a video, they're buyers. Like, for example, I don't watch knitting videos, Susan. Like, I know this is like a big revelation. What do you mean you don't watch knitting videos? I don't watch knitting videos. Yes, but my mom crushes knitting videos because she's a buyer, right? She wants to know the latest patterns. Now, for anybody's business that's following along with us, all they have to do is use the appropriate video player. And the big hint is it's not YouTube. And put it on your website. Vidyard is a great video player that's super affordable. We use it on my website and all of our client websites. And what you're doing with that is when somebody goes past like let's say for the sake of discussion, the 80% mark, your sales rep should get notification on the phone, ding, ding. And you sales rep sees it and it's like really? That guy just watched over 80% and there's his phone number. Yo, that dude's a buyer. And what it does is it changes the dynamics inside of a sales team. So instead of chasing all of your leads with the same level, level of urgency and burning all of your time chasing cold leads, this helps you prioritize which leads to follow up with and which ones are ready to buy. Right now we call it digital body language of a buyer.

And what do you think the mindset shifts are that leaders need to think about as they enter this, this realm? I just thought he talked about one which is, you know, get your attention off yourself and the vanity of that. Yes, but I have to believe that.

There'S more, well, ease of use, like for a leader. How many times did we jump on an airplane and get center seat on Southwest or whatever, go across the country for one friggin meeting, we meet people for like 90 minutes and then we fly back home. So ease of scheduling. You're able to be more efficient and on top of it, if you know how to do it right, you can get your foot in the door with places that you wouldn't originally have access to. So there's like a lot of benefits. And so people struggle with the limiting belief of well I'll wait until I get an expensive camera because obviously I must need an expensive camera. The reality is your mobile phone, use what you got because this thing's really damn good at creating videos and helping you educate people and influence them. And there are plenty of tools to, to shine when you get on camera and allow your best self to be represented. And the real trick is training and repetition.

Got it. And you also mentioned that you can get into places that you might not otherwise be able to do. You have an example of that or a story. I think sometimes examples are really powerful in these instances.

Yeah. So here's probably my favorite and it is you won't be there when you submit a proposal to your internal champion. Susan, Most of the people that are listening are going to be doing big purchases. They're going to be or asking for a big purchase. And so what they do is they educate an internal champion. They're probably on seven phone calls with them or zooms, maybe they've met them in person once and then they submit the proposal and they wash their hands and they move on. But that's a low success tactic. And companies that use this strategy that I'll give you right now, last year closed somewhere between 41 and 103% more deals. And it's really simple and everybody should write this down. Every time you submit a proposal, that's a low success tactic because only 20% of emails get opened in their lifetime. So the way to do it, the way to hack into that, is to realize your internal champion can't explain you with the same level of energy, excitement, or certainty that you provide. Like, if you could get into that room when they're reviewing you, you'd have great results. So here's how you do it. You put your beautiful face on camera and you put your proposal next to you. Use a tool like Vidyard and you teach them through the proposal. So if you, let's say Susan is my internal champion. I've been working with Susan. She loves me. She's going to go in and introduce my proposal to, to the review committee. And there's going to be three other companies that Susan's going to talk about in that room. They're all going to be PDFs, and PDFs are boring. So if you teach and you send a video and you're like, hey, Susan, it's Todd Hartley. It was great working with you to get this proposal. And for the rest of Susan's team, I'm the CEO of Wirebuzz. We're digital. And then you sidestep Susan and you start teaching them the proposal. Susan and I worked on this proposal. Here's the strategy we identified. And then you visually create a proposal with a PowerPoint or a keynote that's visually pleasing. When you go and teach them through it, they're going to go, wow, this looks great. And wow, he's so accommodating. He's even here to teach us this. And it's exactly what all salespeople ever wanted was to be in the room when the decision was made. And now it's totally available. So, like, in my own life, I submitted a proposal for a couple hundred thousand dollars to the CEO of a company in Canada. And I did it the old way. I submitted the proposal and then she sat on it for two weeks. I got nervous. I was 100% sure I'm going to lose the deal because I was a loser. And I sent a PDF. So that two week period went by and I realized, wait a minute, you should be drinking your own Kool Aid, dude. Create a video for her. So I sent the video of me teaching the rest of her team. Five minutes later, I got a text message back that said, you rock. Thank you. And then I started getting creepy. I started spying on the back end. And Susan, I started to notice that all these people in Canada were watching this video. It was her review committee that were at their homes in different parts of the country and they were watching 93% and 92% and 95. And there was like 10 of them looking at my content within two hours. I got the next text message. Ding, ding. I looked at my phone and she was like, you rock. Thank you. Your video sold them. Totally made my job simple. I'll be sending you the contract in a couple of minutes. And had nothing to do with me. It was my video, sold them, and I made her life easier.

Yeah.

So how many deals should we be retaining somewhere an increase of like 40% to 100% more deals by just teaching the review committee. And it's so easy to do.

And what would you say to the leader that wants to feel more comfortable doing that? Meaning, oh, God, how do I give the presentation? And I'm not really. Actually I'm better when it's. I see their face. But I'm looking at this video and I see my own face and I'm teaching myself this. And it feels weird. How do I get over feeling uncomfortable?

Yeah. One of my favorite quotes is, you're going to be rewarded in public for that which you intensely practice and refine in private. I mean, just think about that. It's repetition. So I would recommend to that executive, let's do it five times or ten times the proposal. You've already spent like a month working with this company. You know it off the top of your head. You know all of their common objections that they've been pushing back throughout the time. So get on camera, go through it enough times where it feels like you and you got your vibe on it and you're relaxed and you're coaching and you're energetic and optimistic. You inspire them and you don't have to send it. This isn't like live, go do it now. It's like you can do it a hundred times and you're going to find one in there and it's probably like your fifth or your seventh time. You're like, that's really damn good. That's the one to send. And then when you send it, get creepy, start spying, and you'll know, like, my next meeting, I'm meeting with one of the largest social networks about doing a training series for them, but I've been spying on the back end, so I already know they've been watching my video. So I've got a certain level of swagger going into that meeting because I know they're crushing the information, which means they're interested. Use the same thing for your brand, your business, and you and you close so much more deals.

Yes. Well, let's shift gears for one minute. I'd love to hear how you persevered through the pandemic, given that you're also on an enlightened leader path. Tell me a little bit more. What were the mindsets or practices or routines that helped you that have carried on now as we're coming out?

Thank you. This is one of my favorite topics, and I love getting myself in position to be a source of inspiration and support out in my community and for my clients. So the very beginning, my mindset set shift at the very beginning of COVID was how can I be the peaceful, loving leader? Might sound corny to some, but how can I be the peaceful, loving leader that I always wanted to be, that I'd like to be known as? And my choice is, well, you could be the frustrated leader that's dealing with crisis and is lashing out at people and making more enemies than allies. I could do that. Or I could be somebody who inspires my team and holds the torch and guides them. So the very first day of the pandemic, when I had to shut down the office, I let everybody know, by the way, I got to be the peaceful, loving leader. And it's. I let everybody know on that day that, don't worry about your job. Everybody's job is secure. If we don't sell for another year, we fortunately have enough in the bank to care for all of us and our family. So let's go through this and be a loving support at home and to each other, like, that's the most important thing. And I set the tone for my company with that. But I really set it with myself and getting up every day to do fitness first so I can get my mind in the right place so I could be burning off all of that agitation and fear and manic craziness that's going around inside my dome. So when I start interacting with my team, I'm the cool guy vibe that I always strive to present myself as, like, that was a super big deal. The next thing was, what story did I want to tell about this time period, this pandemic in my life for the rest of my life. And once I decided what that story was, that this was the best year of my life, that we prospered. We had our best year ever as a company, and we retained everybody and we grew and, you know, on and on and on. Once I held that story, I stuck to it for the rest of the pandemic. So every day, I knew what I had to do in order to make that story true. And I manifested it. And it ended up being not only the best year in my company's history, but we hit the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest growing privately held businesses in America. But it was a mindset shift that happened right there in the CEO's office.

Yep. I love it. What an inspiration you are, Todd. So what would you tell people? What's one thing they could do today that could help them along this path?

Get a business coach that also provides therapy. And don't be afraid to get in there every week or every two weeks and vent and voice and allow them to help you be. Leave there a more composed leader like that was super helpful for me. And. And so that allowed me to be a better man at home and to be a leader there, too. So I think that's one of the most important things that I've discovered going through this is I don't have to shoulder everything. The second most important thing was I don't need to be working in my company. I need to be working on it.

Yes.

And in doing so, I'm not doing the menial tasks, though I love doing them and I love rolling up my sleeve. And I want everybody in the company to realize I'm the hardest working person here. I didn't need to be doing that anymore. Instead, by working on my company, I got to remove all of the unnecessary details out of my head so I could focus on the strategy and the company navigation and being that peaceful, loving leader that I had hoped I would mature into becoming. So I would say make sure you're working on your company, and if you find yourself doing too much of the menial tasks, remember to offload it. Somebody will be glad to take it.

And what's one thing that you could offer for people to jump in and using video in a more powerful way?

Yeah, I love this. Start serving. Like, literally start serving your community. And by community. I mean people that you would normally be out there meeting at like a conference and giving advice to. So what I would recommend is keep a list. And it could be a physical list or it could be one inside your phone. The one that's in my phone works best for me. That's what I chose. But every time throughout my day, when somebody, a client asks me a new question, meaning a question from a new part of the relationship, like early awareness stage question, like I just met them, write those questions down. Those are gold. I'm going to show you how to use them to serve your community. Become a magnet. Here's what you do. Anytime somebody asks you one of those questions, write them down. Grab your phone, record a video later on where you're answering that question. In a couple minutes, make eye contact with the lens. Put it out on LinkedIn and on Facebook or whatever social network you're rocking, and then answer the question. Write a little article about an everyday Be a light and beacon for helpful advice on social media. Here's the trick if you want to get discovered, if you want to be a magnet that attracts new leads, remember that helpful is the new viral. So put helpful new information out there on a daily basis. People will think top of mind. They'll keep seeing you. They'll think you're blowing up. They'll recognize you're the guru in your space and the next time they have a need, they will automatically think of you because of all the times you've been so damn helpful to them. They will call and fill up your leads list and before you know it, your company will take off and all you did was was recycle the helpful advice that you're giving to people on zoom in early meetings, created videos. Push them out on social and your company will grow.

Love it. Giving is the way, the path to enlightened leadership. So where can people connect with you to learn more?

LinkedIn's a great spot. It's probably my favorite spot to connect with people. I drop value bombs throughout the week in the forms of helpful videos. And the other thing is, if you want to figure out how to like, start selling in this new world, the remote first world, I've got 20 minutes of free video that I'll give to your audience, Susan as a gift. They can access those videos@wirebuzz.com remote-sales and on that page I'll teach you not only how to structure your website with video so you can create an effortless on demand experience, but how to create videos with your phone so you can move people through your buying experience.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for being here with me. Todd. You are a wealth of information and inspiration. So what a pleasure it was to have you on the Enlightened Executive.

Thanks for having me. I love it.

Thank you. And if you like this episode, you're not going to want to miss my interview with Rabbi Simon Jacobson. Another enlightening discussion about how discovering your personal mission statement is a must for most leaders. Hope you enjoyed today's episode, and I'd like to point you to the next important step. Hit the subscribe button to get notified when we release new content. I'll see you on the next episode of the Enlightened Executive. Sa.