Do I Need to Hire an In-House Videographer to Drive Sales? [Endless Customers Podcast Ep. 129]

This transcript has been generated by AI and not checked for accuracy. 

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:10

Lindsey Auten

it should be

00:00:01:12 - 00:00:05:17

Lindsey Auten

not a question of if they're going to hire a videographer, but when.

00:00:05:19 - 00:00:06:21

Lindsey Auten

but also

00:00:06:21 - 00:00:12:18

Lindsey Auten

they should be taking away how they set a videographer up to be successful.

00:00:12:20 - 00:00:30:05

Bob Ruffolo

You're listening to the Endless Customers podcast, brought to you by the team at Impact. Ellis customers is the proven system to become the most known and trusted brand in your market. You want to start to learn the principles of endless customers and how you can implement them in your business. Pick up a copy of Endless Customers, the national bestseller.

00:00:30:05 - 00:00:51:22

Bob Ruffolo

Wherever books are sold. Ready to start implementing endless customers in your business? Talk to impact about how our coaching program can help you implement endless customers to success. And if you want experience endless customers in person, do not miss our upcoming conference! Endless Customers live in Chicago March 30th through April 1st, 2026. Registration is now open. And now onto the show.

00:00:51:22 - 00:00:54:06

Bob Ruffolo

Here's your host, Alex Winter.

00:00:54:07 - 00:01:14:22

Alex Winter

Video is one of the most powerful ways to educate buyers and build trust, but many businesses aren't using it to its full potential. Without a dedicated videographer, a content can feel inconsistent, unclear, or disconnected from what buyers actually need to know. That's why I'm excited to be talking with Coach Lindsey Auten. Lindsey helps businesses understand the value of video.

00:01:15:02 - 00:01:34:04

Alex Winter

Define the role of a videographer and make it consistent in their content strategy. In this episode, Lindsey will share what she sees before videographers add it to the team, why the role makes such a difference, and how teams start seeing results when video is integrated into their buyer education process. Lindsey, welcome to the show.

00:01:34:06 - 00:01:37:21

Lindsey Auten

Thanks, Alex. It's been a while. I appreciate you guys having me back on.

00:01:38:00 - 00:01:41:06

Alex Winter

It's great to see you. It has been a while. It's been too long, in fact.

00:01:41:08 - 00:01:44:20

Lindsey Auten

Yeah, yeah. And we weren't due for, for a visit, so we.

00:01:44:20 - 00:02:02:19

Alex Winter

Are definitely due for a visit. And we're talking about my favorite topic, video. We're the video experts on the crew here at impact, and you are definitely, well seasoned veteran when it comes to video and all things video. So first question, let's kick things off. We'll get right into the conversation here for the modern buyer and for buyer education.

00:02:03:01 - 00:02:05:07

Alex Winter

Why is video so important.

00:02:05:09 - 00:02:29:16

Lindsey Auten

Yeah. If you think about your like how you consume media right now, anyone out there when I say you like, if you're going through your day. What what are you doing? You're probably on your phone scrolling, Instagram scrolling, TikTok scrolling Facebook. Because people still do that. I still do that. I'm probably dating myself a little bit, but yeah, like.

00:02:29:16 - 00:02:38:11

Alex Winter

It's a generational thing though, right? Like certain generations are on certain apps, but they're all kind of similar in a way with the UX and how the user experience goes.

00:02:38:13 - 00:03:05:02

Lindsey Auten

Yeah, for sure. And and obviously YouTube as well. Like there's a good chance that in your like day to day media consumption, the majority of what you're doing is watching video. And watching video could mean a number of things. It could mean you're watching video with the sound off. I do that all the time. I'm scrolling something and, I don't want to turn sound on or like if I'm listening to a podcast in the background and I'm scrolling while I'm listening, I'm scrolling while I'm watching TV.

00:03:05:04 - 00:03:11:17

Alex Winter

Or like if you're in a meeting that you don't want to be in but you want to watch, something is you're bored. No, I'm kidding. We don't we don't actually do that. Right.

00:03:11:19 - 00:03:29:04

Lindsey Auten

But, it it happens to happen at some point. And you're watching, you're doing something and you're consuming some kind of media and it's video. It could be with the sound off. It could be with the sound on. But I would I would say most people these days are watching video as part of their everyday media consumption.

00:03:29:06 - 00:03:30:22

Alex Winter

And 100%. Yeah.

00:03:31:00 - 00:03:43:03

Lindsey Auten

You know, that influences how how we buy. How many times have you looked on Instagram and seen a video for something, and then you follow that thing and then eventually, like you buy from that, like.

00:03:43:08 - 00:03:56:20

Alex Winter

Even on Amazon, I do that if it's like certain products on Amazon, if it doesn't have a video that I can watch, I'm not as likely to buy it because for whatever reason, I want to see it in action. It's a weird psychological thing, but it works. It really does.

00:03:56:22 - 00:04:17:02

Lindsey Auten

Yeah. Like I right now, one of the things that I love to do in my free time is when when I plan vacations, I will go on Instagram and create a shared like Instagram space with my husband of what we're going to do and like pin certain posts into that, like into that shared bookmarks. And a lot of those bookmarks are video.

00:04:17:02 - 00:04:36:22

Lindsey Auten

In fact, one of the things that we did when we went to is we did a trip to Oregon. We live in Florida, so going to Oregon is a is a long, long travel for us. Yeah. For most of the, places that we went, it was stuff that I had seen on Instagram, posting videos up to our shared bookmark.

00:04:36:22 - 00:04:46:18

Lindsey Auten

And then we made reservations, whether it be hotels or to the various wineries and restaurants, based on the those things that we saw on Instagram.

00:04:46:20 - 00:05:05:05

Alex Winter

Yeah, we do the same thing. It's really it almost it's almost like the old Pinterest boards, right? It's like that's the new way of doing it is like it's the the modern Pinterest board, but with video. And it just gives you a firsthand look at and give you, gives you a chance to feel what it could be like and allows you to, like, envision it for yourself.

00:05:05:05 - 00:05:16:05

Alex Winter

And it I don't know, it just makes it it makes me that much more open to wanting to do it versus trying to imagine it or trying to piece these like gaffs together where there's just a lot of question marks and unknowns.

00:05:16:07 - 00:05:37:07

Lindsey Auten

Oh yeah, for sure. And if you think about, like a small boutique hotel that's trying to stand out amongst the like big hotel giants, and they have a really strong Instagram on it, and they post a bunch of videos of people like entering the property, different videos of the rooms, different videos, like views from the property.

00:05:37:07 - 00:05:56:03

Lindsey Auten

That's what sold us on one of the like, boutique hotels that we stayed at, was all of the videos that they had. It looked like you were in Tuscany. Oh, you you're you're in Oregon. But it and it lived up to that expectation. Like the service was wonderful. The like it was everything that it showed on Instagram.

00:05:56:03 - 00:06:22:22

Lindsey Auten

It was not a Instagram versus reality kind of thing. It was reality versus reality. Yeah. So back to the question of how has video changed the modern buying experience? I think it's changed it so much. I think people do extensive research now on and especially video when they're trying to make decisions about where they want to stay, where they want to eat, what they want to buy, what products are they looking at for reviews?

00:06:23:00 - 00:06:49:05

Lindsey Auten

I was talking about watches earlier, before we started recording, and, my husband's a big watch guy, and he watches a watched channel on YouTube comparing different watch brands or doing honest reviews of different micro brands. And he will make a buying decision about what type of what he wants based on that person's review. He's even buying, watches from this person's micro brand that they started after they had the YouTube channel around for a while.

00:06:49:05 - 00:07:05:01

Lindsey Auten

So very and like the video can help you create a cult following. Video can help like sell a product. It can also hurt you if someone makes a video review of your product and it's not very good. Like video can influence a lot of things related to the buying experience.

00:07:05:02 - 00:07:23:06

Alex Winter

Yeah, and I think that's rooted in trust, which the endless customer system as we know it's it's about building trust. That's the number one goal. And I think if you're a business, it doesn't matter what product service you're selling. If you can't convey trust and show people transparently what's what's going on, that's the make or break situation there.

00:07:23:08 - 00:07:40:05

Alex Winter

we know with the endless customer system that building trust is number one. That's like the number one component here. Transparency helps people make a better buying decision. So I think video is a great way of doing that for companies out there, that are trying to start the endless customer system or that are looking to build trust.

00:07:40:07 - 00:07:50:07

Alex Winter

What problems do they run into if they don't have a videographer? We know how important that role is. Why do people need a videographer and if they don't have one, what are some some issues that they could face?

00:07:50:09 - 00:08:20:04

Lindsey Auten

Yeah. I would love to say like video. It is. I will caveat this by saying that it's easier than ever for anyone to pick up a camera and create video. Does that mean everyone is going to do it and have the capacity and ability to do it? No. Yeah. Even though it is even an even though it is accessible and even though there are instances where if the company doesn't have a videographer, but they could benefit from video, I will tell them to start creating video.

00:08:20:06 - 00:08:50:01

Lindsey Auten

It's often slower to adopt and there's a bigger barrier to entry as far as the skill set goes of understanding what looks good, what sounds good, how to make something sound better, how to make something look better. It is accessible, but it's also really hard to be good at video. And so companies can do it. And some people who have some experience can do it and be coached to do it.

00:08:50:01 - 00:09:14:11

Lindsey Auten

But if you don't have someone owning the process of ideation all the way to optimization, I say optimization, meaning something has already been published and they're going back and looking at it and seeing what they can improve and making those improvements. Then video is just another thing that you do, and it doesn't really. It doesn't always go anywhere.

00:09:14:17 - 00:09:54:09

Lindsey Auten

You could get lucky and create a viral video on your phone by yourself, but that doesn't make a strategy. You need someone who owns that, that portion of the strategy, and you can execute it without being held back by barriers to entry that relate to skill, that relate to just a design, like the eye for video, the understanding of sound and how to make sound good or how to fix bad sound, etc. like, companies with the greatest intentions can do video, but they're going to run into the challenge of if someone doesn't own it, it's always going to get it's always going to be a thing.

00:09:54:09 - 00:10:01:14

Lindsey Auten

They can prioritize because it's the thing that, while accessible, is really difficult to attain.

00:10:01:16 - 00:10:17:11

Alex Winter

Yeah, you make some really good points, and I think the viral effect is a really good stand out. From what you said at least for me, that's what resonates, because I think that's the mentality of a lot of businesses is like views and like, let's go viral and that'll that'll get us the results that we need. And usually that's not the case.

00:10:17:11 - 00:10:34:06

Alex Winter

And we talk about vanity metrics a lot. But like are those are those viral views that you getting a million views on a video you posted. Out of those million people, how many actually converted? How many turned into leads? How many turned into this after the video? Have you looked at any of the engagement and are you using that to optimize new videos you're making?

00:10:34:06 - 00:10:50:17

Alex Winter

Like you made some really strong points that I think a lot of people tend to overlook. So what I guess my next question, or the way to segue into this, is like having an in-house videographer bringing a dedicated person onto your team. It might sound like a lot, and it is an investment, but why is that so important?

00:10:50:19 - 00:10:52:18

Alex Winter

Especially with what we're talking about right now?

00:10:52:20 - 00:11:02:13

Lindsey Auten

in our endless customer scorecard, which if anyone on the endless customer journey, anyone on the, on this customer journey knows the scorecard very well.

00:11:02:15 - 00:11:04:23

Alex Winter

And just Asterix, if you don't know the scorecard.

00:11:05:01 - 00:11:35:00

Lindsey Auten

And advertisers go, okay, don't work hard. There's a section where it said we're talks about video. It's number four on the scorecard and it is essentially relenting, leveraging video better than anyone in our market. We have someone on staff who's qualified, accountable, empowered to oversee the success of our video strategy for if you think about those two, those three things, qualified, accountable and empowered, you got to have someone who's qualified to do it.

00:11:35:02 - 00:11:45:13

Lindsey Auten

Like I said before, video is more accessible than ever before. That doesn't mean everyone's qualified. So someone who someone who's who knows how to shoot something, someone. And I'm not saying like this person has to be an

00:11:45:16 - 00:11:56:17

Lindsey Auten

Oscar award winning cinematographer. But they do have to have an idea of how to frame something, how to make something look good, how to make someone sound good.

00:11:56:19 - 00:12:30:08

Lindsey Auten

And I don't just mean technically sound good. I mean coach someone to say the right things on on video and make them feel comfortable and then empowered, meaning that they feel like they can own it. It's their strategy to own, their strategy to execute and they feel like they have they have the raw talent to do it, but then they're also put within a position in the organization where they're trusted and held accountable to executing a high level video marketing strategy, video marketing and sales strategy that, you know, that makes them feel good about the work that they're doing.

00:12:30:10 - 00:13:01:17

Lindsey Auten

So you need someone who has. Yes, the in the like the hard skills of a videographer. But you also need someone who understands the the people skills of being a videographer. You also need someone who understands the strategy of videographer, meaning like they can analyze YouTube analytics and say, oh, if my shorts are getting swiped away 70% of the time and people are only staying on it 30% of the time, like that's an indicator that something needs to be different.

00:13:01:17 - 00:13:13:05

Lindsey Auten

About my shorts. That's a really basic example, but being able to go into those analytics and say, like, I'm going to make an informed decision about this strategy based on what I'm seeing and reading.

00:13:13:07 - 00:13:36:20

Alex Winter

Yeah, no, it's at all disposal. No, I love that we're talking about this because I come out of a video background as, as most people know that watch the show on, you know, you know, traditionally film school trained went out to the West Coast and did the Hollywood thing. And the way that you just positioned what you said to me, I think there's a stereotype most people think of videographer as like the camera person's like, that's the person who holds the camera and edits the videos.

00:13:36:22 - 00:13:54:18

Alex Winter

And there is a technical component to that. But our definition, an endless customer as a videographer, is a lot deeper and more more rounded and shaped out than that, where it's like those technical pieces are important, but you're also a key member of the content team in the sense that you have to interview people. You're running that particular strategy.

00:13:54:22 - 00:14:20:02

Alex Winter

You're also doing the articles and working with the content managers. Like it's a lot more than just picking up a camera and pointing and shooting it and making sure the lighting in the sound is good. And I think that's really it's a really integral part of being on the team. So when companies are hiring a videographer, how does that play into not just the hiring process, but once they're onboarded, like consistency and continually making, because we're we're talking about 2 to 3 videos a week, week over week.

00:14:20:02 - 00:14:26:07

Alex Winter

So how do you create consistent content and why is having a dedicated person like this so important?

00:14:26:09 - 00:14:47:15

Lindsey Auten

Yeah. So in the in the hiring process, you need to make it very clear what this person is responsible for. And often when I'm working with clients, I ask them instead of posting the job as videographer, because I do find when we do post it as videographer, I get a lot of people who just want to point and shoot or have the like, cinema background.

00:14:47:17 - 00:14:54:07

Lindsey Auten

And so while some of some of that works out, most of the time it's not the skillset that we're looking for. Well, it's.

00:14:54:09 - 00:15:16:07

Alex Winter

It's funny to sort of just jump in here. It's funny too, because most, most videographers that I know and the world that I came out of, people are incredibly talented from a tactical standpoint. But if you're if you're a camera person, most people that are camera operators are not. Also, interviewers are not also analytics. And like back end specialist for looking at like data and metrics and how that plays into a content.

00:15:16:09 - 00:15:21:04

Alex Winter

You know, campaign or content push that a company is trying to do. So there's layers to it for sure.

00:15:21:06 - 00:15:44:02

Lindsey Auten

Yeah for sure. And to that, that level to in the industry. And I come from that to that to an extent from that industry as well. But I'm certainly more the executive producer type and not the videographer whatsoever. Like I can point, shoot and hold a camera and do that stuff, but I'm way more of be like planner and helping someone execute and helping that person behind the camera get that interview.

00:15:44:02 - 00:16:12:22

Lindsey Auten

Like, that's more my skill set. Yeah. So we're into blend the skill sets and that's why I like I always tell people to instead of posting it as videographer posted as video content producer, you're going to get a different candidate pool than you would just say videographer. And so that's the first thing that I look for is do we have someone who can think like a producer but execute like a videographer?

00:16:13:00 - 00:16:46:17

Lindsey Auten

So I need someone who can own pre-production, can stay organized. And that's probably the biggest thing to success and get. And being successful when you start day one is the expectation is, oh, we have a videographer now, we're going to make videos and publish them. And so like, no, you're not, you're going to hire a videographer. You're going to give them a runway to create a backlog, meaning they have between 6 and 8 videos that are ready to be published before you even hit publish on your first one.

00:16:46:19 - 00:17:07:12

Lindsey Auten

And that gives us time to work ahead versus the hurry up and wait game of I'm going to make this video. And then publish. I'm going to make it this video and then publish, and then you're stuck in a cycle of, well, I can only make and produce one video a week. It's like, well, yeah, the only reason that you're in that cycle is because you didn't take time on the front end to build your backlog.

00:17:07:14 - 00:17:28:21

Lindsey Auten

So I think the key to success and in the first nine years especially, is intentionally focus on building the backlog, intentionally focus on building a b roll library, intentionally focus on creating your assets and setting yourself up so that when you do go and hit publish, you're not you're not working from. You're not always trying to catch up to yourself.

00:17:28:21 - 00:17:47:09

Lindsey Auten

You are. You're consistently working ahead. And it's easier said than done. But that is the, advice and instruction I give my clients. When we have a videographer getting on board, it is we're not publishing immediately. We are building a backlog, and you're going to need to be patient.

00:17:47:11 - 00:18:08:03

Alex Winter

It makes a lot of sense, though, when you when you position it that way. And I'm speaking from experience because we practice what we preach here at impact and we do the same thing. The backlog is so important and it takes time to build that backlog to capture the b roll, to get the assets that you need. But you need to do that because consistently pushing out content week over week, it's it's not easy.

00:18:08:03 - 00:18:24:21

Alex Winter

And if you don't have that, you're going to constantly be chasing your tail. It's like living paycheck to paycheck versus trying to at least put some money in the piggy bank, right? So it's very important. And strategic to do it that way. How does this role as a videographer play into the endless customer system when it comes to the content piece itself?

00:18:24:21 - 00:18:32:15

Alex Winter

So like answering real buyers questions and going back to what we were talking about earlier about building trust and how like, how does that play into the equation?

00:18:32:17 - 00:18:51:02

Lindsey Auten

This is a great question, and I think it can get a little bit confusing because you and we had this question come up in the impact platform recently where someone was asking, well, we're supposed to publish three pieces of content week. It's like, that's a great starting point. Three pieces of content a week is a fantastic starting point.

00:18:51:04 - 00:19:15:23

Lindsey Auten

But you have to think about it in a and diversify it, because usually when we're saying three pieces of content a week, it's three written pieces of content a week. They get published on your website. That's fine. And if you're on a platform like YouTube or Facebook or Instagram or any of these other great platforms where you're talking about that buyers are on, they're going to require their own level of consistency.

00:19:16:01 - 00:19:43:22

Lindsey Auten

And so you can't like it's not enough to say, oh, I'm going to publish. I'm going to publish three pieces of content a week in perpetuity. And like this is how they're going to be segmented. It's like kind of like if you have two people on staff, you're in a diversify. So how this fits into the endless customer system is it's yes, you're publishing three articles a week on your website now you're adding on video, which is two videos on on its own on ostensibly different platforms.

00:19:44:00 - 00:20:07:12

Lindsey Auten

Right. You could publish a video on your website, you can publish a video on YouTube, you can publish it on both. The video is a separate publishing cadence right now. Then written articles. And so that's an important distinction to make, is that video sets its own tone for what's possible, in terms of publishing in cadence. So just be publishing two videos a week doesn't mean you stop publishing three articles a week.

00:20:07:14 - 00:20:36:01

Lindsey Auten

They should work together. Not every article is going to have a video right away, so you should prioritize. If you've been writing content for six months, 6 to 8 months in that range. What are your best performing articles? Those best performing articles could be topics for YouTube videos and then working together from there. So your content manager and videographer should be working together, right?

00:20:36:03 - 00:21:02:07

Lindsey Auten

There's also going to be times where you make videos that don't have an article attached to it. If you think back to our selling seven, the selling seven hour videos that are strategically placed on website pages, that should improve conversion rates so best example landing page video your landing page video of how like what's going to happen when I fill out this form does not have a corresponding article.

00:21:02:07 - 00:21:27:16

Lindsey Auten

It is a separate video. It does not like that. It's not it's not a topic for an article. So it really requires an understanding of the nuances between the different types of content and understanding. Once you hire this person, they're responsible for their own publishing cadence and that publishing cadence is on top of what the content manager is already producing.

00:21:27:18 - 00:21:47:04

Lindsey Auten

And eventually, like, you could get to a point where you have an understanding of your video strategy. Well enough to say. And I've been recommending this to some, some of my clients. All your shorts are performing better. Well, maybe we do three shorts a week and one long video a week because that's like where your channel is going right now.

00:21:47:04 - 00:21:49:01

Lindsey Auten

Let's follow that path.

00:21:49:03 - 00:22:10:08

Alex Winter

So that's a big piece to this too, that I think is really important to highlight is that there's a big difference between what you think you should produce for content versus what you need to produce to build trust. And you really have to listen to your your potential customers and your, your audience. That engagement is going to tell you the content that's working and what's not, and you have to adjust and react accordingly.

00:22:10:08 - 00:22:21:12

Alex Winter

So if you want to be, you know, putting videos on your website, but they're getting traction on social, guess what? You got to lean into the social piece more. That's just part of the game. It really is.

00:22:21:13 - 00:22:22:03

Lindsey Auten

Yeah.

00:22:22:05 - 00:22:43:11

Alex Winter

Yeah. So there's also something that's really cool that happens that we've seen. And I know you've seen this a lot with your clients and we've seen this a lot here at impact too, where the videographer does a lot more than just the technical piece. Like we said, they also bridge gaps. And it's a pretty cool thing that happens internally with companies where marketing has to start working with sales more.

00:22:43:11 - 00:22:56:02

Alex Winter

And sometimes there's a divide line between marketing and sales, and sales is doing their thing over here, and marketing's doing their thing over here. How does the videographer help bridge those gaps and really create what we call a revenue team or revenue squad?

00:22:56:04 - 00:23:19:17

Lindsey Auten

Yeah, I think of it. A videographer is in a unique position to do this because they, they create the content people, or they put the subject matter experts and salespeople in a vulnerable position, meaning they put them in front of a camera and tell them to say something. And, that, like, inherently requires some amount of trust.

00:23:19:19 - 00:23:45:07

Lindsey Auten

So, like, I see the videographer as the, and I don't mean this in a way that, like, the content manager should, should be upset about, but the videographer is the is the link between sales and marketing. They truly are. They are the like they're putting sales in vulnerable positions. They are positioning them as visual, like people of authority.

00:23:45:09 - 00:24:07:17

Lindsey Auten

They are, they create relationships with them. Like I love when salespeople are like, oh yeah, we like hanging out with our videographer outside of work. Like, cool. So they make you feel uncomfortable and you still like them. That's a win. So I see the videographer as the like as the true person who really sits on both teams.

00:24:07:17 - 00:24:29:21

Lindsey Auten

And I think what that does is it allows the quality of video in general in the organization. And I mean, especially when you start having sales people make 1 to 1 videos or one to many videos on their own in different platforms, or even when we ask them to start making, I've been doing this a lot recently in with home services clients.

00:24:29:23 - 00:25:03:09

Lindsey Auten

Asking salespeople out in the field to make like, selfie style videos with tools like Company Cam where it could look really clunky. But because they, like the sales team has had training and then in videos for the videographer, there's a lower barrier to entry and they come out better. That's a like having a videographer elevates the quality of video throughout the company, not just the like videos that are being published on the flashy platforms, but the videos that the salespeople make too.

00:25:03:11 - 00:25:18:06

Alex Winter

Yeah, for sure. Especially when they're doing the selfie style. It's like anything else with practice, right? The more you do it, the better you get at it. And then when you have a dedicated videographer that can give you some tips and some pointers and some tricks, you start to pick those things up over time and everything just gets better over time.

00:25:18:09 - 00:25:37:14

Alex Winter

Yeah, I think too, there's a good point there that you made where trust to build trust through your content that also starts from from the jump internally with your teams. Right. So the sales person has to trust the videographer. The videographer has to know how to build trust with that person because they're putting them in a very vulnerable, maybe uncomfortable spot.

00:25:37:14 - 00:25:55:11

Alex Winter

So like there's layers to building this trust that ultimately if you can do that, it's going to it's going to show up in your content and the end result of what you're putting out there. And it's just going to be exponentially better. Yeah. Very cool. Do you have any examples of this? Can you share you work with a lot of different industries and companies and people.

00:25:55:13 - 00:26:02:06

Alex Winter

Can you share some examples or something that like has stood out to you recently? That's just been working really well from a videographer standpoint?

00:26:02:08 - 00:26:34:20

Lindsey Auten

Yeah, I think the, the client that I would love to shout out right now that's doing, a lot of really great work is, the whole roofing team in, in Indiana, they, their videographer, Adam, he wears a lot of hats. But he has found a way to make his long form content and, like, really improve the quality of it while also empowering his sales team to go out and shoot, the types of videos I was just telling you about the selfie style shorts.

00:26:34:22 - 00:27:01:07

Lindsey Auten

And those are the most powerful. Like, those are the most popular shorts on their channel. This will be style videos where it's just a guy on a roof. You see his face, but you see what he's looking at and you see him explaining something and that's not an easy thing to develop a system around, because people have to be people.

00:27:01:07 - 00:27:23:12

Lindsey Auten

Salespeople have to be reminded. Salespeople have to be trained. They have to understand, like why they're doing it. They have to see value coming from it. But they have created a system. And he was so excited to share this on, my last call with him. Where, they're starting to get traction. Where the sales team just out of nowhere will send him videos without being prompted.

00:27:23:12 - 00:27:41:20

Lindsey Auten

So there was their first snowfall in Indiana, and one of their salespeople, like, went out, took a video talking through, like, now that the snow is falling, here's what here's some warning signs that you might look out for, but also like, here's what can be done on your roof if you need work done. Even though it's snowing like.

00:27:41:23 - 00:27:43:04

Alex Winter

Nice.

00:27:43:06 - 00:27:46:19

Lindsey Auten

It's like it's the habit is starting to sink in.

00:27:46:21 - 00:28:04:04

Alex Winter

That's that's the dream scenario for me as a videographer, right. If you can get people so excited about creating content that you don't have to go shoot everything you can, you can consistently shoot what you need to do on a weekly basis, but then you're also getting submitted content from your sales folks. That's just, yeah, that's the dream.

00:28:04:09 - 00:28:05:15

Alex Winter

That's what it's all about. Yeah.

00:28:05:17 - 00:28:41:01

Lindsey Auten

And I think one misconception is that you have to have perfect video for it to perform well. Now, especially in the social world, the less produced video I think performs, and I've seen it perform better than the high quality, high production value videos. There's a there's a place for both, for sure, but if you're talking about initial awareness and getting people into your funnel and into your system and what you do like that less at least highly produced videos on paper at least, or at face value, are usually the ones that perform best.

00:28:41:03 - 00:29:00:11

Alex Winter

Yeah, it's so true. And I think there's a time and a place for for both formats in both scenarios. Right? But especially on social, we've seen this time and time again, the the less produced it is, the more real it feels and the more real it feels, the more you build trust because people know you're not trying to fake it or add some sort of pizazz or AI to like it.

00:29:00:12 - 00:29:18:11

Alex Winter

It's just the more real you can keep it, the better off you're going to be. So I think that's a great point for people to take away. So for people who want to do this, they're like, they read the book endless customers. They're excited, they're thinking about maybe hiring a videographer onto their team. What can companies do to make this position successful?

00:29:18:11 - 00:29:29:21

Alex Winter

So like, all right, we're we're going to hire somebody on we made the decision like what are the steps that you tell companies to like set this videographer up for success and to start creating content that's great and effective, like right out of the gate.

00:29:29:23 - 00:29:33:15

Lindsey Auten

So they need to first off decide.

00:29:33:20 - 00:29:54:05

Lindsey Auten

Like what they want to do as far as equipment goes. I always tell companies that you should buy your own equipment. You can wait for the videographer to make that purchase, but you should have your own equipment for a number of reasons. First off, the reason you should have your instrument is because if the videographer leaves and you're using their equipment well, sorry, that's their equipment, not yours.

00:29:54:05 - 00:30:02:05

Lindsey Auten

You don't own it. So now you're out of equipment. And if anyone wanted to come in and pick up the camera and start working on something, you're you don't have anything, right?

00:30:02:05 - 00:30:06:01

Alex Winter

It stops the content brain dead in its tracks. Yeah, that's a good point.

00:30:06:03 - 00:30:29:05

Lindsey Auten

So decide the route you want to take for free, for what equipment you want, for your videos, and then you can strategically decide to make those decisions. Now we just passed Black Friday, which I always tell companies, if you can make purchases during Black Friday for video equipment, go for it. Yeah. Obviously there are other sales throughout the year, but that's usually the best one.

00:30:29:07 - 00:30:51:15

Lindsey Auten

So step one is equipment. Step two is you should decide what videos that you want to make, the videographer to make first before they even get onboarded. I would say come up with a list of 24 videos. And that should be if you're just starting a mix of selling seven and big five. So usually I say your first video should be your landing page video.

00:30:51:16 - 00:31:25:07

Lindsey Auten

That's the easiest video to make. Get the ball rolling quickly establishes we're serious about this and we're doing this video thing. So you're landing page video first. Then you can then start doing bio videos for all your customer facing people. So after you've written down the a number of bio videos, you need your landing page videos. Then you can start filling in the gaps to the rest of those 24 pieces of content with other topics, using the song seven and big five as your guardrails for what you should be making.

00:31:25:09 - 00:31:31:15

Lindsey Auten

Next piece of advice is always how do you want scheduling to work?

00:31:31:16 - 00:31:53:08

Lindsey Auten

Number one thing that gets in the way of being successful is making sure people understand, hey, our new videographer is going to be coming to you, and they're going to need an hour or two of your time at first to make this video. You're going to be required to make time for them. So being serious with your team about, hey, we're committed to this and you're expected to be on camera.

00:31:53:13 - 00:32:00:10

Lindsey Auten

So setting proper expectations for your team of once you have this person, here's how they're expected to interact with and utilize this resource.

00:32:00:10 - 00:32:18:07

Alex Winter

That's a huge point. And I'm just going to interject here because from from a leadership standpoint, if you're deciding to implement endless customers as a system, you're bringing a videographer on, you're making this investment. You need to fully commit to making the investment. And sometimes people get busy. Salespeople are busy. They don't want to have to take two hours to film a video.

00:32:18:09 - 00:32:30:23

Alex Winter

But if you make it a company mandate, you make it like this is we're all committing to this. We're all paddling in the same direction. It really helps set the videographer up for success instead of having to basically, like, swim against the tide.

00:32:31:01 - 00:32:54:20

Lindsey Auten

The last piece or last piece of advice is that this person is going to need someone to review their videos, so someone at the company is going to be responsible for approving and reviewing videos in a timely manner. And when I'm working with companies, I tell them I cannot be the final say. You should not be relying on me to approve your videos.

00:32:54:23 - 00:33:18:05

Lindsey Auten

I will review video content and I'm reviewing it for and most customers I'm reviewing it for analyst customers best practices. And I'm also like I will I will make tips and suggestions on production quality if I see that it's needed. But generally like, not like you shouldn't. I shouldn't be making notes on lighting and sound because that's like, that's a requirement of being hired.

00:33:18:05 - 00:33:19:15

Lindsey Auten

You need to be good at those things right.

00:33:19:15 - 00:33:21:01

Alex Winter

That's the baseline.

00:33:21:03 - 00:33:53:23

Lindsey Auten

Yeah. So someone is going to have to set time aside to review videos for factual accuracy. Right. Is videographers likely not going to be part of your industry. They don't know what they don't know. You need to review their content for factual accuracy, for tone and brand consistency. And just a final like final EIS on this. Yeah. Now that might sound like not a lot of work on paper, but if you're a leader and you have a million other things on your plate, you need to figure out and you're already reviewing written content.

00:33:54:00 - 00:34:20:18

Lindsey Auten

How does this fit into my workflow? Am I the best person to be reviewing this? If I have if I am the best person to be reviewing this, what's the timeline? I should, you know, work with my videographer on expectations of how quickly I can turn around video reviews. Right. What I've seen companies do in the past is if it's the same person reviewing both content and video, then putting like a block count on their calendar, and that block isn't a meeting.

00:34:20:18 - 00:34:37:15

Lindsey Auten

It is just a, like the calendar block is there? They know to check a folder for content and video and that's how they like, get like structure that review time. Yeah. Is they have their folder of stuff that they need to get through in that hour.

00:34:37:17 - 00:34:57:08

Alex Winter

All very good points. This has been a great conversation. I feel like we've gotten a ton of like tidbits and advice and tips and tricks. But just to recap, videographer is critical to your endless customer journey to help creating that content. Train that you need to have to build trust. What is the one thing people should take away from this conversation?

00:34:57:08 - 00:35:09:08

Alex Winter

If you're a business owner, if you're a marketing officer, if you're in one of those leadership roles and you want to bring a videographer into your team, what's the one thing that they really should take away from this conversation? Put you on the spot here.

00:35:09:09 - 00:35:32:00

Lindsey Auten

Yeah. If anyone if anyone is taking something away, it should be not a question of if they're going to hire a videographer, but when. And also, I'm not sure they should be taking away these two things when firing videographer, but also they should be taking away how they set a videographer up to be successful.

00:35:32:02 - 00:35:48:06

Alex Winter

Exactly. No, that's that's a critical point here. You need to have the buy in to set people up for success because it is a team effort. You're not just going to hire a videographer and they're going to magically make everything all your problems go away. It's a it's definitely a team effort. And I think that's the coolest part about the endless customer system.

00:35:48:06 - 00:36:05:22

Alex Winter

When you implement it, it brings the team together. It really unifies the team if it's done correctly, and the results can be pretty epic. So, if you don't have a videographer and you're out there watching and listening, gotta get on it. Got to get focused. Lindsay, thank you for being on the show today. Thank you for all your insights and for sharing

00:36:06:01 - 00:36:08:06

Lindsey Auten

Yeah, thanks for having me, guys, I appreciate it.

00:36:08:10 - 00:36:14:09

Alex Winter

Absolutely. Well, for everybody out there watching, listening. This is endless customers. I'm your host, Alex Winter, and we will see you on the next episode.