TJ Walker argues that video is a powerful and accessible medium for presenters and tells a personal anecdote about creating a VHS demo tape in 1997, mailing it to New York PR firms, and landing long-term clients from that single video. He uses this story to recommend that professionals capture and publish their presentations on video to increase impact, accountability, and long-term business opportunities.
Chapters
There is power in presentation, live, in person, but also on video. These days, it's never been easier to present on video, and yet still most people don't do it. Even more so. Decades ago, way back in 1997, I was struggling in New York trying to be a talk show host, political commentator, little training on the side, but really, frankly, kind of struggling, living in a commune. I decided to scrape together just the last few dollars I had and I made a media training video, just with an old VHS camera, poorly edited, but I made a video 5, 7 minutes long, demonstrating media training principles. I had someone stage being caught off guard and me bombarding them with tough questions and them looking bad. It really wasn't very good. I don't even have the video anymore. But I took every last remaining penny I had and I made duplicates of this VHS one at a time. I think it cost about $3 each. And I mailed it to every PR firm in New York City at the time. Really clean me out and nothing left. I was just hoping to make something from this. I then called every PR firm in town. Was about 300 out of those 300, I got a response from three. I went and met with those three firms. Every one of them hired me. One guy hired me. Training went well. He then retired. Never heard from him again. Another woman's PR firm hired me. They used me, oh, half a dozen times over the next couple of years. But another firm hired me. And I'll never forget, I asked the woman who owned the firm, oh, tell me, what did you like about the video? What made you decide to hire me? She said, oh, tj, I never watched the video. I just assumed because you had a video, you were professional. She hired me. She hired me again and again. And I worked with her for the next 20 years. In fact, when you look at the revenues I got from her clients and spin off business, it's probably way in excess of half a million, maybe closer to a million dollars at this point. It came from one video. Now, I did that in a time when, frankly, few people, especially a few media trainers, were putting together demo tapes on video. These days, everyone can. It's so much easier making video. Everyone has video cameras. Everyone has access to YouTube. Anyone can post an online course right here. And yet most people don't. Most people still deliver their presentations, their sales pitch over the phone, in person, one on one, but then take tell themselves, oh, you know, I don't have the skills it takes to be on camera. Oh, I don't look polished enough. Nonsense. Now, I'm not saying just having a video is enough to get you hired. These days, people will look at video maybe just for 10 seconds online with one click. It's not like the old days where you had to pull out of a box, get down on your hands and knees, see if the VCR is hooked up the right way. It's a lot easier to watch video, so you can't just send out a blank video, which I guess I could have done. But it's also easier to make good video. And after going through courses like these and other media training courses, you can look comfortable, confident and relaxed. So even though the tools are easier than ever, cheaper than ever, distribution is easier. Look around. My bet is that most competitors in your industry, in your field, it doesn't matter if it's consulting, finance, banking, energy or politics, most of your competitors aren't doing this. So if you want to have a lot more impact with your presentations, my advice, capture your presentations on video. Then people can see it anywhere, anytime, sometimes years later. So why do I tell that story? Obviously, I'm trying to motivate people to not just give better in person presentations, but to capture their presentations on video. Because when you do that, you're going to hold yourself to higher standards. You're probably going to look at it, it's going to motivate you to get better and to improve. And that's the real goal.
