This week’s episode of Good Girls Get Rich is brought to you by Uplevel Media CEO and LinkedIn expert, Karen Yankovich. In this episode, guest Sarah Michelle Brown and Karen discuss why video is so important for your business and how you can get comfortable on camera.
Sarah Michelle Brown is a video coach, filmmaker, and actor who empowers big-dreaming entrepreneurs to stop hiding from their cameras and start feeling confident making videos so they can create more visibility, more income, and have a bigger impact with their work.
#GoodGirlsGetRich
We want to hear your thoughts on this episode! Leave us a message on Speakpipe or email us at info@karenyankovich.com.
About the Episode:
It’s the year of the video – we heard that in 2018, in 2019, and now in 2020. That means video isn’t going anywhere, and it’s a critical tool for your business. And while you need a professional sales videos, there’s something special about the turn-on-your-camera-and-just-start-filming videos.
The Benefits of Video
Posting these videos on social media, whether they be live or pre-recorded, allows your audience to feel more connected with you in the moment. It closes the gap between student and teachers and allows your audience to feel more like peers.
Overcoming Hesitancy
Even if you’re ready to start using videos to promote yourself on LinkedIn, you might be hesitant. Being in front of a camera tends to make people self-conscience. Sometimes they feel like they can’t handle it and don’t have the talent. Hear this… talent is a myth.
Sarah Michelle Brown teaches that you have to practice to get better. Who cares if your first videos aren’t good! You’ll get better as you go. Just show up as yourself.
It might feel awkward at first, but once you get used to being on video, you’ll see the benefits. Posting your videos on social media like LinkedIn will help your audience to feel less alone and make meaning connections.
Listen to this episode to learn more about making your first video, myths about being on camera, and the benefits video will bring your business.
Episode Spotlights:
- Where to find everything for this week’s episode: karenyankovich.com/130
- Introducing this episode’s guest, Sarah Michelle Brown (2:47)
- What and when to video (8:00)
- Maintain who you are (10:47)
- One of the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make with their videos (11:41)
- No-pressure videos (13:55)
- Myths about being on camera (16:50)
- Show up as yourself (21:15)
- Talent is a myth (22:20)
- Tip for making videos during these challenging times (30:10)
- Sarah’s visibility challenge (35:55
Resources Mentioned in the Episode:
- Join the Free LinkedIn Workshop
- Sign up for the She’s LinkedUp Masterclass
- Join my free Facebook Group if you have any questions about today’s episode
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Read the Transcript
Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast Episode 130.
Intro 0:05
Welcome to the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your host Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are, girl. Stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies, and make the big bucks.
Karen Yankovich 0:23
Hello, I’m your host Karen Yankovich and this is Episode 130 of the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast and I am so excited for you to meet my friend Sarah Michelle Brown today. Sarah and I have been friends for years we’ve met in person off the dig out some of those pictures and share them on social media when we share this episode. But she’s amazing and I’ve learned so much from Sarah and I think you’re gonna learn a lot from her in this episode as well. This podcast and this episode are brought to you by Uplevel Media where we teach simple relationship and heart based LinkedIn marketing to women that helps you get on the phone consistently with your perfect people. Very simple, very strategic and easy to fit into your life. We’re not looking to take over your life with your marketing, we are looking to seriously grow your personal bank account. And that’s what we that’s what our goal is with these episodes and video marketing, which is what we’re talking about on this episode definitely is a huge, huge, huge part of that. Because, you know, we talk about digital marketing with the human touch. That’s what we teach. And even when we you know, aren’t meeting people in person, like the first time I met Sarah in person, but like I knew or because we had done so much video together, right? Maybe a really helps with that human touch even when we’re not able to meet people in person. So if you love what you hear when you’re listening, please do me a favor, and take a quick screenshot and share it on your social media. Share it in your stories, tell everybody that you’re listening, tag me I’m @KarenYankovich. You can use the hashtag #goodgirlsgetrich Let everybody know that they should, they should hear what Sara is saying, because it’s good stuff. And then when I see that you shared it, I will share it with my audience. We both get some loving from each other. And that’s how things go viral. That’s how we all get more visibility. And that’s how we lift each other up, right? We love your reviews, we love to hear what you loved about it. So there’s a link in the show notes at karenyankovich.com/130 for Speakpipe where you can tell us what you loved about this episode. You can also tell us that there’s a guest you think we should interview or there’s a topic you want to hear me talk about use that link that Speakpipe link to leave me a voice message, and I can get back to you and let you know what I think about it. So I am going to jump in to today’s episode with Sarah Michelle Brown. Check it out. We have Sarah Michelle Brown on the show with us this week. And I’m so excited to have Sarah on the show with us because Sarah and I have known each other for a while and we’ll tell you all about that in a few minutes. But Sarah is a video coach, a filmmaker, and an actor who empowers people dreaming entrepreneurs to stop hiding from their cameras, and start feeling confident making videos, teaching them how to make engaging videos in a fun and powerful way so that they can create more visibility, more income and have a bigger impact with their work which we all want that right? So Sarah, it’s so fun to have you here on the show.
Sarah Michelle Brown 3:19
Hey, I’m so excited to be here. Karen. Like, I’m so thrilled to be chatting with you. It’s been way too long since we’ve talked. So who knows what kind of gossip we’re gonna get?
Karen Yankovich 3:32
Very, very true. Very true. Um, you know, Sarah, so Sarah and I, you guys are probably you know, as you’re listening, you’re probably like another B school friend. But Sara and I met Marie Forleo’s B school ages and ages and ages ago. And we have actually met up in person a couple times, right? Like when you were in New York Times, and we also like kind of joined this like ad hoc little mastermind group that we started. So we’ve really dove into our business. Is our individual businesses with each other for a while, and it’s been a while since we’ve done that it’s been years since we’ve done that. So I don’t know if you know, if you’ve ever masterminded, you know, you’re really kind of get to know the people in the group pretty well. Not just their business, but their personal life and their personal business and all that cool stuff. And you know, you really get to be friends with them. So I’m, I’m really looking forward to hearing what you’ve had going on in the past few years. And to catch up with you. Because Sarah is so… I mean, you heard in her bio, that she’s not just like, Hey, I like video. She’s a former filmmaker, an actor, right? So she really approaches this with the skill of a filmmaker, but with the empathy of an entrepreneur, right. So understanding that we might not always have the ability to, you know, to get the filmmaker type equipment and lighting and things like that, but how we can do our best with what we do have and that’s what I love about the work that you do, Sarah.
Sarah Michelle Brown 5:00
Thank you. Thank you, Karen. It’s funny because you mentioned the E word empathy and I thought empathy for days because even though I started off as an actor many moons ago, I’m also a natural introvert. So for me being on camera did not come naturally and oh my gosh, I really was bad. And all those symptoms that come up in my clients, you know, the abject terror that that strikes them when they’re in front of that camera, the their face flushing, forgetting what to say, shrinking themselves, sweating profusely, getting hot in their face, and like not knowing what to do with their hands and feeling so self conscious and hard on themselves. Yeah. And that’s how I started I had to learn how to get comfortable on camera I had to learn because I was hell bound and determined to make it work. And with the filmmaking Yeah, on the other side of the camera, and I’m still a filmmaker. I up my threw up toss up through threw away my acting shoes a little while ago. But yeah, I still have my heat in on the filmmaking arena. But what I love about working with my people is the just the transformation that happens from them being terrified to soaring with their videos is just so exciting because as you know, we were just talking about this before we press that record button was video is just getting more and more and more important.
Karen Yankovich 6:30
It is and I you know, it’s so funny every single year we hear this is it 2018 it’s gonna be the year of the video and then 2019 is the year of the video and here we are 2020 and it is still the year of the video. Yeah, right. So it’s not going anywhere. Oh, and it’s interesting to me and I really want to hear what you have to say about this because you can sound I have also worked together on my videos. So Sarah helped me and I don’t actually live in that house and learn how Sarah helped me stage, my office where I used to live and you know to do to be able to do that. I want to be able to like just quickly turn my camera on and talk. And as an entrepreneur, especially now with zoom calls, we’re like, constantly, like you guys can’t see it because we’re doing, you know, audio here, but I got my green screen behind me right now because like, I just can’t I just, I’m on video all damn day long now. But maybe there’s no two schools of thought. But I’m going to say there’s two schools of thought there’s the, let’s organize this. We want to look professional, we want to look amazing and as amazing as we can, because people are investing in us. We’re entrepreneurs, people are investing in us and we want to look worthy of their investment. And then there’s the turn on the camera and be yourself and make it fly type video. Yeah, so and there’s probably the right answer is probably somewhere in between, but both together, yeah, somewhere in between, but I think that I think that as time goes on, the turn on the camera type video is becoming more common. And the more the more we there’s a place for like a sizzle reel, for example, you want that to be perfect. sessional right, but but the more you edit and plan, you’re just talking to your people videos, the maybe the less that they feel connected to you because so many other people are just turning on their camera and talking. Sure How the heck do we know what to do and when to do it?
Sarah Michelle Brown 8:16
Yeah, it’s part of it is experimentation. Because your people will let you know what they respond most to. Also, it’s kind of looking at where it’s going to live and the type of vibe that you want it to have. So if you know this is going to be a video for your sales page. You don’t want to just wake up and film it and rain and not edit it and not make it look like the value that you’re about to ask them to invest into it. So anything anytime you’re asking for money, you should have some sort of a video that that reflects the investment that they’re going to make. And that involves things like making sure you have a good light, at least one good light, make sure that you know you notice Little bit about video and can edit it together or hire someone to edit it for you. But you know, again, like they just kind of turn on your camera and go videos. They still require listening to your people, and being in the moment with them. being in the moment with what you’re experiencing those types of videos essentially help them to feel like they’re in time with you, if that makes sense. It makes them feel more connected in the moment with you when they can hop on and ask you questions. It just it closes that gap between teacher and students so that they feel more like peer to peer. But you’re the pear who knows what they want to know.
Karen Yankovich 9:48
I love that I love that and I think it’s really valuable because you know, and it’s one of the things that this podcast gives me when I speak to people sometimes they say to me, like I thought I already know you I hear your voice all the time. Yeah, and that’s That’s a beautiful thing. And that is, that is part of my brand. Like as I do brand work and brand positioning and things like that. I want people to feel that like when people ask me, you know, like, if I’m doing brand work with somebody, and they say, well, like what do you like, like, I feel like, I feel like I’m gonna open my front door someday. And Oprah is going to be standing there, not because I think I opened up but that’s her brand. Her brand is like, she like her branded that you can sit and chat with people. And that’s kind of what I want people to feel with me. So therefore, when I do my videos, I really don’t want to be standing in front of a palace and feeling like I want to be relatable. I want them to feel like I can be sitting because I would love to be sitting on the couch with them someday and chat on. Right and I truly mean that. So yeah, so therefore your videos have to kind of reflect that. And even just how you’re how you’re showing up.
Sarah Michelle Brown 10:47
Let me add something on to where we were. Because you talked about like this. We talked about how it feels like it’s more peer to peer when you are just doing those like videos that feel more that where it’s a live video and then are able to like on social media, they’re able to come and ask questions or engage with you in some way, shape or form. But that energy that you bring to your live videos of being you know, that conversational on the couch, with Oprah kind of vibe that you have, you should still maintain that in your bigger videos. You shouldn’t all of a sudden become the entrepreneur because it’s a sales video, you should still talk to them like they’re your friend. Because they are I mean night truth, right? They are, they’re gonna they’re coming into your circle into your world into your environment and getting help from you, you know, so you should still maintain who you are just no matter what type of video you’re making.
Karen Yankovich 11:41
So, do you think that’s one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make around their videos is overthinking it and and kind of kind of being what they’re not instead of what they are because they think they need to be more professional.
Sarah Michelle Brown 11:53
I’d say that’s definitely a symptom of a bigger problem. So I’d say like the biggest Mistake entrepreneurs make when it comes to making videos is they start at the end. And this What this means is they, they, they have they know they want to make videos and they process in their, in their brains. It’s like okay, I want to make videos and they dream up how amazing it’s gonna be and then all of a sudden they’re like, Okay, I need a sales video tomorrow. So they without having gone through the process of having learned how to get comfortable on camera, then starting to incorporate a little bit of tech when you are feeling confident on camera because we don’t want to freak out. Instead of going through all of that and learning the process of making videos. They start at the end with like a sales video, a blog video, and some important video for their business. So welcome video homepage video. They start there with having had no training and so they’re terrified on camera. And now they’re also going okay, I’m going to pile on like a foot like in a football game. When people violate That’s what they’re essentially doing onto their, their beautiful, scared soul, because they’re scared to put themselves out there. And all of a sudden, it’s a train wreck in that first video that they try to make that they put so much importance on turns out horribly wrong. And then they can either they’ll go one of two ways. They’ll go, oh my god, I suck at video. And then they’ll just go go down that road, mentally, or they’ll be like, you know, I want to nail this. I’m going to figure this out. And very few people are the second type. Most people go the other way and go, No, I tried. And it was all I tried to make sales, but it was awful. I’m like, of course it was. Because if you don’t know how to stand in front of the camera and breathe, right, you know what I mean? So that’s the biggest mistake I see time and time again is people start at the end of the journey instead of starting at the beginning. And the beginning is like I always what I love, what I love walking my people through is starting With that basic piece of getting comfortable on camera with no pressure videos, period.
Karen Yankovich 14:06
So what’s a no pressure video?
Sarah Michelle Brown 14:08
A one minute video maximum. And we talk about something that is fun and not business related. And in order to take that pressure off your shoulders, because you know, if you sit in front of the camera and you’re like, Okay, I have a sales video I want to make, I want people to love it. And I have to hit this point and this point, don’t forget to say your name and you know, and they’re, they’re having this mini meltdown. If I just say what’s your favorite color? You have a maximum of one minute posted in group. Okay, so you start with little, it’s kind of like, baby signs that you can do this. Because people come into this going I can’t do it. No, Sarah, you don’t understand. I can’t do it. I suck at video. I hate cameras, and they give me the whole spiel every single time. And I’m like, I know. I understand. Thank you for sharing that. And it’s like, but just take this baby step. And so you teach them confidence in themselves and their ability to do it. And I partner that with positivity. And the reason I partner with positivity only is because their inner critic is already working overtime. their inner critic is trying to say don’t do this. Who are you to do this? Look at look at you. How can you think that people want to see you? Do you think they want to hear from you? What your voice You sound like a little child like, Oh my gosh, such a squeaky voice who’s gonna want to hear you? And they have all this like this negative talk that is has built up for many years. Right? Right. And so their inner critic is working overtime. It’s my job to let them know what they’re doing well, I think it’s something small. I like that you almost smiled that one time.
Karen Yankovich 15:55
Know and I always think to myself because like in you know, I certainly can relate to a lot of that stuff. In the beginning, yeah. And I remember thinking like, okay, Karen, I know that you can’t stand the way your voice sounds. But that’s how it sounds when you’re talking to people. That’s how other people are hearing your voice when you’re standing in front of them. So just because you hear it differently, because you’re hearing it on video. Like, you got to get over that because it’s not like you’re never going to speak to people in person again, because you don’t like your voice. So you can you have to kind of have that same I felt like I needed at that same mindset with my videos was like, this is it. This is your voice. I mean, yeah, there’s things I could learn. I could learn to speak a little bit more slowly. I could learn to, you know, some little breath techniques, but at the end of the day, my voice is my voice. And I had to kind of get that through my head so that I would get me to the point where I would just do some more videos. That’s really cool. Yeah, what else do people think is gonna happen when they do videos? Like what are myths like what what are the biggest emitter about making videos and being on camera.
Sarah Michelle Brown 16:59
I’m going to Talk about two. One just is something that just recently happened to me and I’m actually doing a facebook live tomorrow on my page to address it. But I got my first troll. I got my first troll on a live stream.
Karen Yankovich 17:16
Yay, congratulations.
Sarah Michelle Brown 17:22
And, yeah, so I’m going to be one big thing is people are worried they’re worried about or a myth that is like, Oh my god, I’m going to screw up on camera and they’re all everyone’s gonna know how much I suck. Oh my god, there’s gonna be trouble and somebody’s going to say something horrible, and I’ll just it’ll just break me. Like that type of stuff. People are really worried about things going wrong in some way, shape or form while they’re in front of the camera, whether they’re live or not, and that it’ll be proof that they are not worthy. That proof that they’re they don’t deserve success. And there’s all sorts of mindset stuff that happens with videos right? Right. So this big Missed that things are going to go wrong. Oh my god, and it’s going to be the end of the world. So yes, things are gonna go wrong. When you do your videos live and pre recorded Yes, yeah, walls may appear out of the woodwork. Yeah, the more videos that you make. But here’s what the myth is the myth is that you won’t be able to handle it. And the more that we build up your resilience on camera and your confidence in who you help and who you serve, and that you have the right to be here and you have a voice, the more you’re able to handle anything that goes wrong. And in fact, you get to show your audience how professional and amazing you are, when you handle things that go wrong, go wrong with grace, with humor, with dignity, you know, all those fun things, which is glitches and we in the film industry, anything that goes wrong during production because there’s always stuff that goes wrong. During production, right, right, you try your best to approach it as, you know, could this be a happy accident? Okay, look for things that can go wrong that you can turn into gold. And it happens all the time on film sets. It happens all the time. Like if you go live and something goes wrong, it’s your opportunity to laugh it off. People how you handle being under pressure, and go, Oh, I trust her even more. Look how she handled that.
Karen Yankovich 19:26
Yes, yes, yes, yes. And that’s okay. Yeah, I agree with that. And it makes you more relatable and more real. And when everything’s perfect. I actually saw somebody I saw somebody talking about one time about like, even like things like podcast reviews. Yeah, all of your reviews are five star. People don’t believe them as much. Yes, they are more believable when they see an occasional one star two star because they know that it’s not just all your brothers and…
Sarah Michelle Brown 19:53
… all your family…
Karen Yankovich 19:54
… and mastermind friends, right actually. So so it is so it’s those kinds of things that make you more for real. When you when you have people that are pushing back at what you do, and you know, like I said this to you in the beginning before we went live like, you know, because we were talking about because Tara and I have known each other for so long. Yeah, like, who knows where this conversation is gonna go? So I said, Listen, if you say something I don’t agree with, I’m just gonna jump in and say, at the end of the day, I don’t I this is how I this is my way, but it’s not the right way. It’s just my way, you know, and if you want to do it a different way, you’re welcome to and that’s okay, too, you know, and actually, and, and so, so even if I’m saying things and somebody disagrees with me, that’s okay. You don’t have to do anything my way. I actually learned that really early on from one of a mentor that I had before I even had my online business, that lateral learning, you know, like, you know, like lateral learning is here’s what I teach but if you learn a different way bring it to us because we will all learn from each other. Yeah. And and I love that concept and I still teach that concept today because because you will get pushback and The more you that makes you more, it just makes you more relatable. And that’s when people invest in you. Yeah. And they feel like they can trust you. Yeah. Versus You’re so perfect that, you know, there’s something was wrong and I haven’t figured it out yet.
Sarah Michelle Brown 21:14
Yeah. And I think that’s the thing is like, I think a lot of people who wants to make videos at the beginning are like, well, I don’t want to offend anybody. I don’t want to, you know, make someone not like me or make you know, but you can’t control what other people do. So you know, your best bet is to show up as yourself and to express what you need to express for your business. And whether that’s something that is controversial, whether it’s something that is for more for a one gender or another gender or another gender, like it’s up to you to decide what your video party is going to be like and what your video or sorry, what your business party is a video so much. It’s like the go to word for me and my life now. But what your business party is Like you know, and people who feel angry, you dare to put yourself out there who are angry at life and once you know, do something like you can’t control that. But again, it’s about building up your resiliency on camera so that you can handle anything that happens. Another big myth that I come across is people think that being making amazing videos, being amazing on camera is talent. Sure, there are a few people who come by it more naturally, who are more predisposed, because they just don’t care what people think. So they’re going to put themselves out there anyhow. And then there’s people who are more sensitive, who have a big beautiful heart and want to share it with the world but are you know, worried about the impact that negativity can have on you? So we feel like it’s like, oh, no, it’s somebody they have talent and that’s why they’re able to do it. Talent is a myth getting comfortable on cameras about skill. In skill, you’ll learn how to get skilled at some By practicing, and doing it consistently, over and over and over, if you try one video today and another in five months, you’ll be like, Oh my god, I’m no better at this. Or better at this. You guys have been diligent about it. There’s an ex boyfriend of mine who he would once a year would decide, he’d want to learn how to use this really hard audio program. And he’s not an audio engineer. He’s he was He’s an actor, and a writer. And but every year, once a year, he would dive in and he would try to teach himself how to learn this program, not even teach himself he tried to use the program, and they get angry and upset and be like, Ah, I’m so stupid. I can’t do this. This is terrible. I’m awful at this. I’m like, Well, of course you’re awful at it, let it like, you only do it once a year. Like you have to be consistent, you know? And it’s the same thing with video. Like, like if you want to run a marathon like Karen say, let’s say both of us decided we’re going to run a marathon. Okay, we like right now we make a pact we’re like, Alright, we’re gonna run a marathon.
Karen Yankovich 24:05
Okay, just everybody listening just you know, this is not a real thing. Hypothetical.
Sarah Michelle Brown 24:10
Nevermind, I have my back injury. So like I am not running. Medical marathon that we are, we’re gonna like, okay, we’re going to we’re going to run a marathon. And then we decide that the marathon is tomorrow. So we head over to our imaginary start line and we start running a marathon. After not so much time passes, we’re going to start feeling…
Karen Yankovich 24:34
… we make our way to the corner, cafe and coffee.
Sarah Michelle Brown 24:38
Then our muscles will be aching will be sweating, it will be horrible. Because we didn’t plan we didn’t train. We didn’t practice running a marathon. We just started to try running a marathon so it’s the same video so it’s not talented skill. And it’s practice. It’s like, you know if you want to make a video for your business Don’t make one tomorrow, make a practice video today, and make another practice video tomorrow and keep doing that.
Karen Yankovich 25:07
I love that. I love that, you know, I talk about a similar thing when I talk about LinkedIn marketing, like people say, Well, I did LinkedIn once and it didn’t work. And I’m like, well, you got to be consistent, you got to do it all the time. And I you know, I say like, LinkedIn is my money tree 100% of my money tree, but if I don’t water it, it’s gonna die. And I gotta water it every week, like you, you don’t have a plant and say, I love this plant, you’re gonna put it in your kitchen, and it’s going to continue to bloom for you, if you don’t take care of it. You don’t continually nurture it and nourish it. And I think that that is the same for video. And it doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to you just have to build it into the work that you do and and in a simple way, and I think that that’s, to me what I think the same is for video. It’s just it’s not about blocking six hours of your day every week to do this. It’s just about incorporating some simple strategies, some simple video, even if it’s just making Those practice videos a couple times a week for a couple weeks, just incorporating that I love that strategy.
Sarah Michelle Brown 26:05
So around the the talent thing in your early videos, your early videos will suck. They will be terrible. They will be horrible. You’ll be awkward, uncomfortable. Even just talking about your favorite color. You won’t know where to put the camera, the lighting will be just god awful. Let it suck. I call it the substitute of the early phase. The first phase of making videos is it will suck. It will be bad. So let it be what it is right? Because every single time you press that record button, whether it’s terrible, like the worst video ever made in the human history of videos, or it was not so bad. You’re making a step towards getting confident and comfortable on camera. Yeah, even if it was awful, and you’re like, Oh my god, that was the worst thing. Right like you’re still you’re still on the heading forward in the right direction.
Karen Yankovich 27:00
Well, you know, and one more thing on that topic and then we will move on. I remember when I first started video, I was, you know, I do not have an acting or production background at all. I was stalking books on a shelf and stalking books behind them and putting my iPhone in front of them and trying to find a way to do this. And then I realized that that tripods were like 25 bucks to hire lighting kit is like 100 bucks. I was like, I am wasting so much time because you put it up and then it’s at the wrong angle because you have to angle it backwards so that it doesn’t fall forward. And then you look terrible, you know, and I’m like, so we don’t have time to get into all this but know that video equipment I mean, obviously if you want to get really good at it, you could buy expensive lighting, and things like that, but some simple video, like a simple microphone and a simple you know, tripod I have like 20 tripods Now, like I just have, like, they’re all different things. And they’re, you know, they’re out. One of my neighbors is doing Zuma videos now and she’s got one of my tripod She doesn’t live on Facebook. And I gave her one of my tripods in our driveway.
Sarah Michelle Brown 28:04
I love it. So many tripods.
Karen Yankovich 28:06
I do right so I guess you know, you can you can take some of the solitude out of it with a very inexpensive investments and some of the stuff, but here we are, it’s spring 2020 and I am sheltering in place and I you know, I live in New Jersey, we are in the you know, freakin nightmare world at the epicenter of this. Yeah, it’s insane. Yeah. And and who knows what, who knows what the other side of this looks like? I mean, nobody knows what the other side of it looks like. Right? Yeah. So what we’re seeing though, is that a table doing zoom videos and lots more people are like, I think that what I think personally, and this is just Karen’s opinion, not any. Any thing that’s that is based on anything other than my opinion. I think that we’re a long way from being just comfortable walking into rooms and saying, hey, let’s go to a networking meeting. Go with I for breakfast. You know, I think that I’m going to think twice. I got an email today about a conference that’s happening in September that said, What do you think? Would you come? We’re trying to make decisions on whether we should do this or not. So and I think it comes down to what are you comfortable doing? I booked I booked a hotel for a conference in October in Arizona, and I hope that I go, but I don’t know that I’m gonna go right. Yeah. So I think that we have to we as entrepreneurs, or non entrepreneurs, friends, even if you’re looking for a job or you’re, you know, you’re an employee and you get a paycheck. Yeah, our personal brands and bringing our our soul and our heart and our skills to other people, virtually is more important that skill is more important now than it’s ever been. Yeah. And I teach relationship building and LinkedIn marketing so that we’re, you’re learning how to build relationships virtually because I think that that is so powerful as we move forward. And I think what video does, you know, we all have had those text message conversations where you’ve gone back and forth and you know that they’re not getting it and they got the wrong vibe, from And so video lets people see your heart. It’s very hard to be fake on video, especially if you’re live and you’re interacting with people. Yeah. So So what kind of tips do you have for people that are making these videos, business videos, especially during these challenging times?
Sarah Michelle Brown 30:16
Yeah. Such a great question, Karen. I think what what everyone listening needs to keep in mind is that video more than ever, is a way to, first and foremost, allow your audience to feel less alone. Before sales, before content or brand awareness. It’s an opportunity for them to feel less alone. Because isolation, the lack of touch right now the lack of really being able to, you know, live that normal life can be amongst the world but being able to let you know empower people to feel understood to feel seen to feel heard is a way that you can help them to feel feel a little bit less alone during this time. And I think our videos, you know, should be used in a way as a tool for generosity, even if you’re asking for something. And the generosity comes from generosity of spirit of energy, how you are showing up, so that it’s not just all about you and be like, Look at me, look at me, but it’s about them and you’re listening.
Karen Yankovich 31:32
Okay.
Sarah Michelle Brown 31:33
And, you know, and it’s not about faking it. It’s not about faking empathy, faking, listening, pay attention to your people pay attention to what’s happening in the world, and how they might be feeling. And when you start your videos, you know, you can absolutely invite them to be where they’re at, but to also learn something from you. Yeah, yeah, to be where they’re at, but also buy your product. You know what I mean? So it’s not like you Need to get into my world? And I’m just gonna come with all my energy blah, blah, blah, blah blah. It’s like no, it’s like, Hey guys, it’s a crazy time. We can address the elephant in the room if you feel like it needed in your communities on a given day or in a given moment to start your videos with acknowledging in some way shape or form the energy that’s needed what what is needed from you for them, energetically. And then you get into your spiel, you know what I mean?
Karen Yankovich 32:32
I do and you know, while I do hope that the day is sooner rather than later that we’re having coffee in New York City again together in the same room, there is something to be said for, for building relationships. And you and I’ve done it because our businesses are online. But there’s a lot of people that listening that don’t have not really experienced that as much and I remember the first time I experienced it was remember Periscope, like a few years ago perio was a bearing my video you So I was a speaker at the periscope summit in New York City. And it was kind of in the beginning of live video. And I remember the most bizarre feeling walking into a room full of people that I have never met before. And feeling like I knew them all. Yeah, because I’d seen them on video. And I had talked to them on video and we chatted on video and yeah, and it was striking, because I, I speak at conferences all the time. But I’ve never walked into a room before where there was just everybody like most of many people in the room. I felt like I know, even though we had not ever been in the room before, and there are people that I still have to stop and think, have we ever met in person? You know, because I’ve, I’ve had so many so the point being that video can kind of like, it doesn’t have to be it feels cold, and I really do want to be hugging people again. But at the same time, you can build relationships, not just individually one on one relationships, relationships with your audience. Yeah. And people listening to you that By doing more video yeah, and now and that’s why I love that you’re saying it makes people feel less alone. It is. It is important to do that I think, I don’t know I think if you have a business now all the more reason to be doing it because we know we know that we go to the dry cleaner because we love talking to the guy every time about how his kids and his grandkids are, we know that and if we can’t experience that in person anymore know that other people want to experience that from you about your business and will help them continue to come back because they’ll get it to tell them about your kids or your grandkids and you can use it adds a little bit of human interest to your brand and I think that’s important.
Sarah Michelle Brown 34:42
You know what it does is it brings the brick and mortar experience of like having that bakery you always go to and you know you’re gonna see so and so there and you’re like, hey, high five Give me that bagel, right? It’s the same experience if you do it right. Video is that same experience. They know they’re going to you’re going to come you know that you’re going to be consistently there for them online that they can come over and be like, Hey, girl, Hey, what’s up, you know, so it creates the same type of relationship is the brick and mortar. And like the mom and pop shop brick and mortar, if done right, your people will absolutely feel like they know you feel like comforted by you, you know, and showing consistency in in new ways, perhaps for your audience is also a beautiful way to build that trust up again and to create more engagement, more sales and all that kind of stuff.
Karen Yankovich 35:39
So Sarah, when we started this conversation, before we started this conversation, we said there’s two things we’re going to talk about. We’re going to talk about the different kinds of LinkedIn videos and you said I have a 28 different kinds of business videos. And we didn’t talk about either one of those things now in this whole interview. So let me ask you something. So I know that you have tons of resources for people. Everybody here knows I can talk about LinkedIn video forever so I’ll make sure that you get some resources on that. But so I know that you have a visibility challenge and this I know it’s awesome. So tell everybody a little bit about your visibility challenge and will they get this different kinds of videos that you have in that challenge? Or is there a way for them to get that resource from you somehow?
Sarah Michelle Brown 36:20
They don’t so let’s I’ll do something for you Karen. So I don’t have a way outside of my webinars to get that list of 28 but I will do a special 28 kinds of videos for you and it will be at videosthatshine.com/28 Okay.
Karen Yankovich 36:38
Oh my gosh, you’re the best. And we’ll link to that in the show notes. Of course. So and tell us tell everybody about your visibility challenge because honestly even if you are a video Pro, you totally want to be you want to get in on this because Sarah I mean like when I kid you not when I say she is a pro she is a not a real life producer and a real life actor not you know, one that plays one on TV or maybe Both.
Sarah Michelle Brown 37:03
Okay, so guys, guess what just happened. irony of ironies, my Wi Fi went down, internet went completely down in the entire house and our interview got cut off. So as we talk about building up your resiliency when it comes to things that are on camera recorded putting yourself out there in some way, like just handling it with humor and grace and with a cool head. That’s the way to go. So Karen, I’m back.
Karen Yankovich 37:33
I know I know somebody because I said, we’re not gonna cut that out. Like we’re gonna cut out all the dead air between us. We are totally not going to go back and pretend that didn’t happen. We are totally gonna talk about exactly what happened. And I actually texted Sarah and said, like, Hey, I can just finish this up and just laugh about it. She’s like, No, no, I’m coming back. I’m back. So I’m like, we totally have to just tell everybody what just happened because we just talked about how, you know so. Yeah, so that’s just so funny. Yeah. So okay, so what you were saying, My dear was that you were going to be gracious enough to create a special thing that we will put in the show notes as well. Yeah, that gives us the information about those 28 things, but tell them about your challenge as well. Yeah, I want people to get in on that.
Sarah Michelle Brown 38:14
Okay, so the five day video visibility challenge is an ongoing challenge. So it’s not like a hard stop heart and heart end and like, you have to get there, you know, Oh, my gosh, I only have these days where I can access the training like no, I get video can be scary. And some people need to like sign up for the thing and wait a bit. Get their nerve up. But it’s specifically designed to get you taking your first visibility steps and more specifically with video. And you know how I talked about those simple practice videos? Yeah, I’m giving you one for each day of the challenge. So I’ll tell you what to talk about. I’ll give you all the rules of engagement and that kind of fun stuff. And you also get training you get some of my mindset. Like mindset tricks that help you get past this awkward uncomfortable phase so that you can reach out and really create videos that have impact. So this is like a first a first toe in the water and it’s a lot of fun. And you get a lot of encouragement from from me and from your fellow adventurers. So yeah,
Karen Yankovich 39:23
Yeah and again like I like I think I said before we had that a little break. You want to do this even if you’ve done a lot of video before because Sarah is Sarah has so many great tips. I learned from Sarah every time I listened to her so and I’m you know, sometimes you hear things that you just couldn’t hear before cuz you weren’t in the right place before. And now you’ll hear a little differently The next time you hear it. So, Sarah, this was so fun to hang out with you. I’m like I am going to jump back into a visibility challenge. And I encourage everybody else to do that. Thank you so much for making extra special bonus stuff for us. And thanks being here.
Sarah Michelle Brown 40:01
Thank you for having me.
Karen Yankovich 40:02
Am I right was Sara not amazing? Sarah’s awesome. I again, I’ve learned so much from her, you know, push the button record, do some prep up up front and video can really do amazing things for your business. Speaking of video, and speaking of LinkedIn, like that little segue there on Tuesdays at 4pm, Eastern, we’re doing a regular LinkedIn live show. And I would love for you to join us, Sarah will be on in a couple of weeks. What we’ve been doing is having past podcast guests on and you know, just they’re telling their stories, and we’re just kind of catching up since after you know, like after the podcast, behind the podcast those like you see on TV series, right, we’re doing that with the good girls get rich podcasts. So check them out, you’ve got to be connected with me on LinkedIn. So hopefully, if you’re listening you are by now, if not send me a LinkedIn connection request and then put 4pm Eastern on Tuesdays on your calendar. You just got to come on over to my LinkedIn profile and if you’re logged in the link You’ll get a notification if we’re connected that I’m live on the show. And you can ask your questions of all of our guests. We love doing this. We love just bringing an extra free resource to all of you. And speaking of free resources, if you haven’t checked it out yet go to karenyankovich/com/masterclass. And you can watch the connecting or disconnected masterclass and get some tips on how to stay connected and really grow your business and your career and your brand through some of these times where we’re a little bit disconnected, right. So check that out. I hope you love Sarah as much as I did. And we’ll see you back here again next week for another episode of the good girls get rich podcast.