We are here for our final presentation of First Videos month to hear from Ed Troxell. Ed’s gonna talk to us about how to create your first video in less than 10 minutes, which I think is an intriguing prospect. 

Wanna be able to have this as a two-way conversation so it’s not just me talking about all this stuff but you engaging as well. That’s the beauty of video and just being on social media in general. For social, I’ll check in with it afterward, but be sure to engage as we go through everything. We are gonna be talking about creating your video here in less than 10 minutes. This is going to prep you for that. And then hopefully by the end of it, today you’ll want to go ahead and create your video and really only takes you maybe five minutes or less. All right, so what are we gonna learn today? We’re gonna learn about why video, and planning your content. We’re also gonna be looking at what equipment to use and then recording your videos. And if you stick around till the end, you’ll also get a bonus about video goal setting. It’s gonna help you with setting some goals around video besides just, I need to record video because we know that well now we need to actually do it and that’s where we’re gonna set those goals. And then we’ll also have some resources for you as well. Mils stop me at any time.

 We can keep them close to our hearts. We’ll FaceTime with them.

In the comments, wherever you’re at, live streaming, replaying, Zoom, in the comments, I want you to say, “Hello,” and tell me who you are and what you do. This is a great way for you too, one, advertise yourself, and two, network with each other. And it’s really important to be able to put this out there. Take a moment, go ahead and drop into whatever comment section you have available and share who you are and what you do. This is gonna warm us up to some other questions that are coming up here, which leads us to our first one. What do you find challenging about video? We’re gonna take a minute here for you to do your little intro in the chat and then also put out what you find challenging about the video. There are so many things that you might feel challenged by video, especially because traditionally video has felt like a huge project. It’s a huge production. You have a full day if not more of videography going on. You have to hire a crew, you have to have the right, the place and the hair, the makeup, the outfits, all of the things, and it can be really overwhelming. Not to mention all the tech equipment. Now we’ve shifted while that still can play a part, by the way, we’ve shifted a lot in business, especially for being able to use our phones, which is what I specialize in, in creating our video content and being able to share that out on our channels, in our networks, wherever we’re showing up online.

And I know some of the challenges that have come up for people who are camera-shy. Being on camera is very intimidating if you are not used to being in front of one, the camera, but two, being in front of a device just by itself, with no one else around you. When I first started being on video, it was not my first choice. I wanted to stay behind the camera. I didn’t like how I looked on camera and I didn’t like how I sounded on camera. But I knew that if I wanted my business to survive, and that’s because I was going full-time into entrepreneurship, it was no longer part-time. I knew that if I wanted to survive, I needed to be in front of the camera. I needed to embrace video and use it in my business to market, to create conversations, and to really be able to attract the right audience and be able to connect with that audience and nurture them. That’s why we talk about video and why we need to start using video now. Perfect! We have lots of them coming in. Video challenging, figuring out, and engaging content. Yes, that’s another one. Anybody else can raise their hand on that one? Find it hard to schedule the time. Ooh! This is such a good one. Scheduling your time. I will say, and this is for everyone, not just for the person who commented on this, this is for everyone because one of the number one, it’s gonna hurt a little bit, but one of the number one excuses that I hear is, “I don’t have time.” Listen, I know we’re all busy running our business and doing everything else in the business, so we don’t wanna say we don’t have time. We wanna shift that we just haven’t made time for it yet. Because we haven’t seen it as a priority. We haven’t built it into our schedule. You do have time for it and we will find that time. It’s just a matter of learning the process and understanding what’s required of you and what you need, which is why you’re here today. If you’ve never met me before, please connect with me on social media, you can find me everywhere. But if we haven’t met before, I am Ed Troxell and I am a video coach. I help real estate agents and solopreneurs grow their businesses with video using their phones so that they can have more conversations, get more qualified leads, and close more deals. 

And this is something that if you would’ve asked me seven-plus years ago, I probably would’ve said, “You’re crazy!” Because video again was not the first thing I wanted to do. But as a business owner and as time has evolved, I’ve gotten more comfortable with it and I’ve overcome those challenges so that I could be here. I know Neil had asked in a previous episode, by the way, I call all of our videos pretty much an episode. Neil had mentioned in a previous episode about asking someone, the guest about their first video if they could think back to their first video. And it sparked one of my first videos, which I probably did if it wasn’t just recorded on my phone, sitting down in my living room on the couch in dark lighting, my first livestream was on Periscope if anybody ever remembers Periscope. And the reason I did that was, Periscope was out first before Facebook live. But two, I was scared to go on Facebook live because I didn’t want my friends and family and people who really knew me to see me and judge me on Facebook Live. That’s why I stuck to Periscope because it was a bunch of strangers, for the most part. I share that because I feel like that is something that many of you might be able to relate to and feel like, “Oh yeah, that’s me,” or, “That was me.” So what’s the point of the video? 

Well, this year alone, over 80% of all internet traffic, all internet traffic is gonna be video-based, which means if you’re not creating video content for your business, you’re getting left out. And recently actually we’ve heard data about people using TikTok for their searches versus Google. People are going to TikTok to type in a search versus going to Google. And that’s huge ’cause TikTok is a video-based platform and we have to understand that whether or not we like using video, we need to start learning how to embrace it because we don’t wanna become the next blockbuster video store, we wanna become the next Netflix. We wanna keep up with the times and we wanna keep moving forward. Make sure that even if you’re at the stage in your video journey right now that you’re not doing anything with video, keep an open mind ’cause really everything that we do with the video and pretty much anything in business all starts with this equipment here, which is your mindset. And so the more that we can slowly shift that mindset, the better and it’s gonna allow you to start taking action. 

All right, so where do we start? So I broke it down into three pillars here. First, finding the time. I want you to take a look at your schedule. I want you to look at when is the best time for you, not the platforms, not your audience on the platforms, for you to record a video. Now I almost was gonna say sit down and record a video, but if you’re like me, you might not like sitting down to record a video. You might like standing. Right now I’m standing as I deliver this presentation, a speech. Find what works for you, and test different things out. It’s really, really important to test sitting versus standing and finding the time. That’s the biggest one. ‘Cause if you don’t do this, you’ll never have time for video because you’re not looking at your schedule. So time management’s a big one. And I will say when I’m working with clients on time management, this opens up so many doors past video. So if you can build this habit right now with just video, it will carry over into everything else that you do in your business. Next is brainstorming content ideas. This is big. What have you already created? Don’t even worry yet about what you could create. Take a step back and ask yourself, “What have I already created in my business?” Is it a blog post? Is there a newsletter? Is there an email exchange? Is there a text message exchange? Is there a flier that I created? What have you created already? Or if you haven’t created something, what is a conversation that you’ve had whether directly one on one with someone, or online? There’s so much content out there that your problem is not finding content. It’s taking a step back and looking at what you can start with and looking at things that you’ve already created and how you can bring that to life. The beauty of video is that it’s allowing you to bring your content to life and bring those conversations to life here online. It’s the next best thing, if not even better than you being in person. That’s the beauty of video. Curious and you can type this in the chat wherever you’re watching this from, but do you know why I say it might be better than you being in person when it comes to video? 

Next is recording your videos. You already have your equipment, you don’t necessarily need a DSLR camera. You don’t need all this fancy equipment. You could certainly, depending on your goals and your business and what you want for your brand, by all means, please do that. But what I’m here to teach and help you start with is the equipment you already have, which is your phone. And unless you have a Nokia phone from the 90s or a flip phone, good old razor flip, you’re fine. Your phone camera is going to be fine. And now it’s just really you getting used to using it, again, shifting your mindset, it’s not just a phone, it’s a camera, it’s an assistant. I like to look at my technology as an extension of myself. My phone is actually an assistant, her name’s Ava and she is everything to me. She handles my calendar, she makes sure I get to appointments on time and she’s my photographer, and my videographer. It’s amazing and we get so much work done together. Really think about your technology as an actual person and it will help you so much because looking at a little circle on this device that maybe you know how to use or maybe you don’t know how to use can be very intimidating. Keep that in mind. I’m gonna check the chat. The great things said could be replayed. Going back to the conversation around why I say the video can be even better than you being in person. I love what you guys are sharing in Zoom. Convenience for viewers. Yes, great things can be said and then you can watch the replay because as you naturally talk, things will come out of your mouth that you didn’t even realize were a great quote or was a great share that you didn’t even have planned. That’s the beauty of video. And then you can go back and watch it and then create other content from that, whether it’s an image or a quote card or whatever. Specifically though where I was going with that, these are all great adds to that. The reason why I say video can be even better sometimes than you being in person is that once you get comfortable on video, people get to see the real you. Now there’s no more, I’m just using this as an example, suit tie, very professional, I’m in person, nice to meet you. And then you go home and you’re like, ” I’m just so tired. That was a great day.” Once you start getting comfortable on video, you’re naturally going to be more yourself online and that’s gonna attract the right audience and it’s gonna also repel the right audience. And that’s okay. That’s what we want. And like others said here, video helps with those replays and it will help you get seen more. As I mentioned earlier, I work with a lot of agents and solopreneurs. A lot of my clients are moms. Of course, they’re gonna be worried about kids running in the background or a messy living room or whatever. But if your clientele is also busy moms with kids running around and the living room not cleaned up, that’s content that’s gonna be relatable and others are going to connect with. And that’s the beauty. And that’s why we see platforms like TikTok taking off so much and people wanting that more real authentic raw video that you can capture right on your phone. ‘Cause, it’s relatable, it builds that trust factor quickly. And consistency is also key. 

Wherever you’re at, drop it in the chat and talk. Let’s just, let’s just start right now. What’s one topic that you are an expert on that you could talk about? Earlier we had mentioned that you probably already created some content somewhere. Doesn’t have to be a video, it could be a newsletter, email, text, call, or whatever. You’ve created something, somewhere, you’re an expert in something ’cause you also said it in the welcome earlier and now we wanna pick out what’s that one topic that you can talk about that you’re an expert on.

‘Cause now you’re putting it out there, you’re taking these steps towards your video journey, I should say. Networking, organizing, reframing, fraud prevention. Woo, that’s a good one. How many of us are like, “Yes, please for fraud protection,” is what I wanna say, “fraud prevention.” That’s huge right now. There are so many things that I’m sure you could talk about on that by itself. Have that as your topic and then start breaking that down. What’s one thing about fraud protection that you could talk about? Food intolerances and food allergies. Oh my goodness! That would be huge. Huge right now. One of my clients does food allergies, talks about food allergies and that is huge and had a book around that and just so many, especially now, people are learning about food allergies and what’s causing things. There’s so much around that. Understanding your finances and your numbers. Now we’re talking business, right? And it’s so important, especially because a lot of agents and entrepreneurs don’t look at their numbers and don’t pay attention to the expenses as well as the income. And I’m not a finance expert, but I’m just saying that’s what I’ve noticed and we have to stay on top of that. That would be a great video series that you could talk about and help educate us on ways that we can improve our finances because we need to be better about that. How you speak and the importance of being inside a group. Yes, that is huge. Perfect. And those on Livestream, even on replay, drop it in that chat there below so that way you can be a part of this conversation. 

Here are two examples just to show you of service based versus product. On the left, we have what’s called a cheese board and one of my clients has this cheeseboard for sale she started to just show the cheeseboard but then she started bringing it to life with photos as we see here. And then this is actually a screenshot from her Instagram reel. A video shows the products not only with items on them but then she swerves them around so that you can see their spins. Now there’s action going on. Really, really important, if you have any kind of products that you’re selling. The more that you can bring things to life, the better. ‘Cause then people can visualize it and see it and be like, “Oh yes, I would like to have my strawberries, “but I’m sitting on the other side of the table. “Well let me just flip it around.” Boom, it’s there. Then you have the right service. And if anybody is familiar with real estate, they’ll know that this is Glenda Baker who is blowing up on TikTok, and she has been awesome with her videos. And this is where she just starts opening up and starts talking to people more about the real estate industry. And she shared her story about how she got into the real estate business and how no one wanted to hire her because they knew that she was gonna be their competition. There are just so many cool things that you can do with video using your phone. And it doesn’t have to be crazy, creative, and fancy and all the bells and whistles. You can certainly do that if you like, but it doesn’t have to. Don’t let that hold you up. I put this one in here because a lot of times we see a photo and we’re like, “Oh okay, yeah,” I mean a photo’s worth a thousand words and this is a great photo. I mean this is a restaurant and they’re showing that they have the bartender and they’re making the drinks. But I actually messaged them and I was like, “You know what would be even better than this is “if you made a video of this showing the bartender, “Jimmy who’s making this drink,” Cosmo, whatever, “and serving it up.” And literally, that video could be 30 seconds, maybe 90 seconds, and pop it right on their Instagram. And I guarantee you that would be so much more engaging and people will want to come down to your restaurant and actually have that drink. So, I’ve actually done that before with local restaurants where I would see something on their profile and I actually would go in and ask for that specific drink. Has anybody else done that? Whether it’s a restaurant or anywhere else, you see something and you’re like, “Ooh, I need that. “Let me get that.” What equipment do you use? Well, let’s keep it simple. 

We talked about having your smartphone. We talked about having, well we didn’t talk about living here, but we were talking about previously having some good lighting so you could have a ring light if you want. This is just a little box light that you can pop onto something. You can have natural light coming in from the window.  I’m in front of a window and I have a shade to kind of help with the lines here. But you can see my area got a lot brighter. You can play with lighting. You also wanna have headphones if possible where, especially if you’re in a loud spot, you can have wireless or wired. Keep in mind that when you have wired headphones, try not to have any earrings on or a necklace or a scarf because it will rub against the mic and then we won’t hear you, we’ll hear whatever that noise is and it will drive us nuts. Really keep that in mind. And again, these are just some tips to get you started. I know video, there are multiple levels to video and this journey that you’re setting out to be on. And then my favorite is a selfie stick tripod. Now, if you would’ve asked me in the beginning, if I ever would have a selfie stick, I would’ve said, “No, you’re crazy.” I have at least three if not four of these. And I realized today I need another one because I just can’t have enough of these. It’s a little crazy right now. But these are great because this is your assistant to your assistant. I told you I had Ava, who’s my assistant for video, she’s my phone. And then now I have my other assistant who’s helping Ava. It’s her support. And so these are great because they extend so you can have longer than your arm if you want. And they just rotate. So these are good, good, good to have. Someone just ordered a selfie sick yesterday. Yes! Awesome! And then a good spot to record. Listen, you can have it in your office, you can have it in the messy living room. You can have it out on appointments when you’re showing houses, whatever works for you. Being in the car usually is where most of us can get a moment to ourselves. It can be quiet and it can be part of our day and that’s fine. I have clients who are doing their videos in the carpool, or sorry, the car pickup line at school. ‘Cause if any of us have kids, we know it takes a long time to be in that line. You can do it right before you get into your listing appointment or right after or during, depending on if it’s an open house or whatnot. All of these things. But again, it starts with finding that time. So three simple principles I want you to know for video marketing. One, you gotta show up. You gotta show up, you gotta deliver, deliver something of value. And then you want to engage, just like we’ve been doing here on this live stream and in this Zoom chat. Engage. Engage as much as you can with your audience. During your recording, you can let them know, just like I have been throughout this broadcast, I’ve been connecting with those in the Zoom and those who are watching the life as well as the replay. And I just knew that going in that these were the different places that we were showing up. When you record your video, it’s gonna look a little different, but you can still act like you’re talking to one person, your ideal client, and have that conversation with them, even if it’s just you talking to your device. I love this quote. We’re gonna wrap up here in just a second. I love this quote though. “If you want to look good in front of thousands, “you have to outwork thousands in front of nobody.” For all of you who are waiting and waiting, ’cause you’re not ready, you’re not comfortable with it, we gotta again, shift the mindset and we have to start getting comfortable. And I’m not saying that you have to go record and post to social media right now if you’re uncomfortable. I’m saying that we gotta get comfortable with taking those steps in our journey here, our video journey, and making sure that we’re continuously working towards recording and sharing on social media. Today hopefully you’ll go grab your phone and start to record something. Again, you may or may not post it, but hopefully, you’ll hit a record. Now that you’ve stuck around. Let’s do a real quick bonus here of the goal setting. Then that way you can also keep this in mind when you’re thinking about creating your videos. Types of goals that you could have. There’s a list here you can watch the replay. I’m just gonna name a couple, just to help you get started. A big one is to record X amount of videos per day, week, or month. Now, this is gonna be different for everyone. I’m going to encourage you to at least record one video per week. There can be off-times for that, but that’s just to get the conversation started with you. But that could be a video goal. You could have a goal of wanting to increase your brand awareness, and be able to create Q&A videos so that way it’s less time for you to be one on one with someone and more time for you to be able to share a video that directly talks about whatever that question is. Increased traffic to your site, increased traffic to an event, all those things can happen. And then you can have others here. Live to stream as well could be one of your video goals. To wrap it up, you’re gonna be planning, if you haven’t already during this time, you’re going to be planning your topic, a spot that you can film in, you’re gonna hit that record and then you’re going to upload it to a network. What network? That’s to be determined based on you and your business and where you show up online. And then you’re gonna repeat that ’cause again, we’re going for consistency here. I don’t want you to run through and do a 30-day video challenge where you’re hitting a video every single day and then you burn out on day 31 and you’re like, “I’m good.” And then we don’t see you for 30 days. That’s not what we’re going for here. This is a video journey. We’re going for sustainable consistency here. If you would like more from me in terms of the guide, and steps to do next, I have two different freebies available for you solopreneurs and Neil, I can drop these in the chat here for us. I have a guide for real estate agents that is brand new by the way. And then I have one for solopreneurs. That way you can all have information that will take you to the next step. It will recap some of this information, but it will also take you to the next step in your video journey and be able to get you out there and get those videos seen, heard, and shared. Listen, a video is an amazing tool it’s literally in the palm of your hands and it costs you nothing but your time to do. And I will tell you, the more you think about doing it and actually do it, the more it will pay off and it will be amazing. And then you’ll be standing here telling all of us and you’ll be an industry expert telling everyone at your event how video changed the game for you. 

You’re going to pick your topic, you’re going to grab your phone, and you’re gonna hit record. And again, that is either gonna be in your camera app or if you want to put it on social right away, depending on your comfort level, pick your social platform to record in, and then you’re going to record yourself talking about that topic and then you’re going to share it. And again, if you’re camera shy and you’re not sharing now on social media, you’re just gonna keep it on your phone. But don’t delete it because it could be good content for you to share later when you are more comfortable putting it out on social media. As we talked about earlier, there are different tools that you can add to your toolbox here. But if you’re ready to just record a video, you just gotta pick up your phone, know your topic and share that, just like I was just mentioning with the bartender picture. You literally can take one piece of content you’ve already created and say, “Okay, now I wanna bring this to life.” And then know that topic and then hit record and record that. And again, it can take you 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, or five minutes, whatever works for you. Don’t worry so much about time, worry about how long it takes you to get through the content that you wanna share. Hopefully, that helped answer that and hopefully clarified things for everyone.

What about microphones? Do you have thoughts on microphones?

I don’t have a specific one to share ‘because I used different ones, testing different ones out. So I always say try, try them to see what works for you. Make sure there’s a good return policy. If you’re on Amazon, you’re fine for the most part. But try different mics. There are a lot of Bluetooth microphones and so a question came up around the bartender video, let’s say, or if you’re an agent and you’re out doing the listing, you can have a wireless mic that literally can clip on. I don’t have mine up here ’cause I carried it in the car just in case. But you can have a wireless mic and honestly, it’s impressive you can get very expensive ones, but you can also get some really decent quality ones for as little as $20 or $30. It’s really crazy. Again, test, see what works because you’re gonna, one, wanna test to see what works for you in terms of the equipment and whether is it easy to carry around. Do you have to charge it all the time? And then two, you’re gonna wanna listen to it to see how good the quality is and then go from there. If you’re using just your regular headphones, that’s fine. You’ll see people, especially on TikTok, that will hold this out as their microphone. They’re not trying to hide it, they’re using this as a prop in their videos. Some have even liked this little teeny styrofoam microphone like it’s literally a mini mic and they use that as a prop in their videos. You can use that as well to kind of also help with your, if anybody has, you know, that camera shyness, you can use props like that as well. You can even use a cup and hold it. Nobody can see it if it’s down below or hey, you know, we’re just talking and hanging out like this. There are different things around that you can also do.

Awesome. I think that is great advice.