Your Personal Business Story is essentially your reason WHY you do what you do.
Master marketers such as Dave Dee, Kim Walsh Phillips, Amy Porterfield, Jeff Walker, and Russell Brunson often tell a personal business story as part of their introduction on webinars and sales presentations.
You may be able to tell some of THEIR stories if you have heard them many times.
It is time to practice telling YOUR business story. The business story that is unique to you.
There are many different ways you can go about crafting your story.
The following pages from Russell Brunson Network Marketing Secrets is probably the most concise model that I have seen in what he called The Epiphany Bridge Script.
Does the little stick drawing look a bit like your journey?
Try framing your Personal Business Story to follow the script.
Simple tell the story of WHY you do what you do.
And be your best authentic self.
Want Help? Contact Us gregdixon@sharedvisions.com 604-762-6410
First of all, is a Personal Business Story different than a Business Story?
Often, yes. If you are a sole entrepreneur or have a business mostly based on your journey and your gifts to the world, then it is your Personal Business Story.
If you are part of a large enterprise that you started, your personal story quickly takes a back seat to the vision and why of the company. You may have started it, but the company now has a life of its own.
Video Like It Was 2019!
In 2019 Bonnie and I were traveling in the Story Van shooting interviews and recording our own videos.
We used about $10,000 worth of gear, including a large Sony camera on a tripod, boom microphone, lighting kit, a green-screen, and at least one other camera to get different angles and to make sure we had a good shot.
Then we would download the video from the cameras and edit together in Final Cut Pro.
Then COVID-19 hit.
The world changed.
The Zoom Way
Everything changed with the lockdown and travel restrictions.
Persona meetings became Zoom meetings. Live events became streaming events.
Facebook Live began to make sense.
For many people and businesses, there is not going back, even when the global pandemic is over.
It has never been easier to capture you business story or that of others with Zoom.
TellYouStory.Productions has lots of examples of doing Zoom interviews, then editing a little.
I have paid gigs where I capture Facebook Live presentations such as the Unity of Nashville Service with Reverend John McLean, edit, then post on YouTube and unityofnashville.org.
Using Zoom to Record Your Personal Business Story
Now when Bonnie and I want to record our own stories or video posts, we simple use Zoom to record.
You can do it too.
Starting With What You Have
If you are reading this, you probably have a computer with a built-in camera, microphone, and a connection.
Often that is good enough.
Simple Tips:
Use a nice background. If you have a nice office, or living space, frame that nicely in the background.
Have good lighting in front of you or to the side. It is amazing how many people who should know better have poor lighting or bright lights behind them. Turn on all of the lights in the room, take advantage of light from windows and skylights, and move lamps if needed.
Frame yourself like a news anchor person on TV.
Wear something nice up top. Pants optional as long as you don’t stand up!
Inexpensive Additions
A headset or table microphone. We use an iRig HD2 microphone that sits on a small tripod on the desk. I like this better than headsets because the shot looks more natural.
Additional lighting. Many people buy ring lights. I prefer an inexpensive softbox that has difussed light that I aim to light me and bounce of the ceiling to give a natural light.
Green screen. Many options open up when you can use a virtual background. Some of the newer computers have enough processing power to use a virtual background without a green screen. Chances are you will need a green screen to make the masking look natural. Although we have two professional green screens, we made one out of foam board from Michale’s to use in the RV. We spray-painted it green and cut to fit behind the dining-table bench. Works like a charm!
Roll Camera!
Assuming you have at least written an outline of your Person Business Story, simple press the Record button and start telling your story to the one person in your mind that is behind the camera lens.
Try to look at the camera lens instead of yourself on the screen.
Stop and start as many times as needed.
Try different approaches.
Edit up the one you like best.
We use Final Cut Pro. You can do simple edits with QuickTime, iMovie, or other video editor you may have on your computer. There are many online and installable options.
We can also edit your videos as a service.
Consider using more than one version at different times.
Some Presentation Tips
Our favourite vocal coach is Danielle Benzon of TheInspiredSpeaker.com.
Here are some quick tips from Danielle:
Avoid reading your story. Outline the main ideas and practice until it is natural to simply speak it to your audience.
Vigorous exercise just before speaking can help ease nerves and energize your presentation.
Emotion trumps logic. Emphasize the emotional part of your story. How did you feel at the time? What was your emotional transformation?
Avoid rambling. People like me tend to take people on too many sidetrips. Simplify the story to tell your big WHY.
Allow space. We will fill our talks with vocal tics such as ‘um’, ‘so’, ‘like’, and ‘ah’ because we feel like we need to fill the space with words. You don’t. The best speakers will allow space for the audience to ponder what you just said.
Pause to think about your next sentence rather than blurt out something. You will look wise and thoughtful, even if you just lost your train of thought!
Practice Practice Practice.
Just Do It! Simply be your Authentic Self, as that is all you really need to communicate your story. People simply want to get to know you.
Here are some places where you can post your Personal Business Story:
Your website. Perhaps as an intro for your visitors.
Social media, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Virtual presentations.
Master marketers such as Dave Dee, Kim Walsh Phillips, Amy Porterfield, Jeff Walker, and Russell Brunson often tell a personal business story as part of their introduction on webinars and sales presentations.
You can too.
Practice and hone your Personal Business Story so it is simply part of who you present to the people you want to serve.
Want Help? Contact Us gregdixon@sharedvisions.com 604-762-6410
Breakthrough Coach Tina Brigley spoke with Greg Dixon of Tell Your Story Productions about the importance of storytelling and getting past the stories in your own head holding you back.
Tina is the head of Social Media Influence and Business Story Marketing at HighPerformance.Coach
Some great tips on getting over stage fright. Think of one person that needs to hear your story. It is about serving them, not about you.
A fun and inspiring interview. Thanks Tina.
Tina Brigley TEDx Talk ~ The Power of Childhood Stories
Jessica is a business consultant a speaker as well as being a mother of a large family.
Bonnie interviewed Entrepreneur Jessica Koch about balancing family and business.
Now is Later, SOONER, So do it NOW!
Jessica Koch
What started as something Jessica said to her children when they wanted to procrastinate has become a business mantra: “Now is Later, SOONER, So do it NOW!”
Do What You Do Best, Hire Out The Rest
Jessica advocates building a team to do the tasks you don’t love to focus on the tasks that you excel at.
People Matter Most
Jessica Koch
Jessica believes that the road to success in your family and your business lies in valuing the relationships with people first.
Always give value and respect and it will return ten fold.
Do you want to use video to market your business? Photo by FotographieLink
Need To Boost Your Business Profile?
Well designed video clips integrated into a business marketing plan can help attract great clients to you and your business.
What Is Your Business Story?
Why did you start your business?
What need to you want to fill?
Who do you serve?
How did you get from zero to today?
What is your passionate mission?
Videos To Help Your Business Grow
Video is key to many marketing campaigns and the trend is towards more video in the future. Here is an except from the AWAI ‘s 2019 Copywriting Pricing Guide:
Here are some of kinds of video that can help your business:
Your Business Story Video
Business Mission Video
Product and Service Overview Video
Individual Product and Service Videos
Client Testimonials
Video Sales Letters
Training Videos (have you considered creating an online course?)
We will discuss your goals and suggest videos that would help your business the most.
Marketing Plan
Videos alone will not grow your business. The clips need to be deployed and promoted within a marketing strategy and plan.
Some of the marketing and copywriting elements that will maximize your business reach include:
Placement on your website and blog posts.
Placing on YouTube with optimized keywords and descriptions.
Posting on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social media.
Crafting landing pages with a combination of video, images, persuasive and engaging text, testimonials, and calls to action.
Tracking results to see what is working.
Use on Webinars.
Free Discovery Session and Video and Marketing Roadmap
Book a one-hour discovery session (in person or zoom) with us and we will prepare a Video and Marketing Roadmap to help you plan your strategy going forward.
Contact Greg Dixon at gregdixon@tellyourstory.productions to book your free discovery session.
In person or zoom discovery and planning sessions.
Detailed Video and Marketing Roadmap (strategy and project outline)
One or more video shoots. Clips could include:
Business Story
Video of you speaking about your business and the services you offer.
One or more product or service features.
Information or Training Video related to the business.
Customer testimonials.
Case Study.
Other things of interest to potential clients.
Rollout of the video and marketing components over time.
Analysis report including analytics to determine effectiveness.
Proposed future activities based on results. Perhaps the recommendation will be to do more video or increase the production level. Build an online course? Let’s explore the possibilities.
Starter Package Special Price ~ $2,997
Just to be clear, there are times when you want to spend thousands of dollars a finished minute.
With the Video and Marketing Starter Package, we suggest 4 clips.
For example:
1 Cornerstone Video to feature on your website that is 5 – 10 minutes long.
A series of 3 clips that are 2 – 5 minutes long.
We can determine the ideal clip mix during discussions and shooting.
Production Process for Shooting and Editing
Here is the process we go through for each video clip.
Plan the shoot, including location. Often your place of business is the best location, or an outdoor or indoor location with good natural lighting. We do have a green screen and lighting for special cases.
Script and use a teleprompter if needed. Some people like to read from a teleprompter, others are comfortable talking to an outline.
In either case it is worth writing out the presentation in advance to help structure the story presentation.
One or more professional video cameras.
Professional lighting. We have lighting kits to augment natural lighting if needed.
Multiple takes. We can shoot the same clip a few times and start and stop when stumbles occur. We can edit together in post production.
Professional audio recordings. We have a selection of professional lapel and shotgun microphones to capture great audio. We will record audio on multiple devices to make sure we get the best audio.
Video Editing:
Edit together the best takes to create a compelling video.
Create a branded intro and outro for use in each clip.
Overlay titles, transitions, presentation slides, and available images and infographics.
Add music as appropriate.
Audio Editing:
Optimize the audio for levels and clarity using audio tools such as limiters, compression, EQ, and noise gates. The better we record the sound, the less tweaking required.
Render for Review.
Make adjustments from the Review process.
Publish.
Deployment and Marketing
We then help you roll out your video clips according to the marketing plan.
Depending on the plan we agreed on, the actions could include:
Uploading to YouTube, Vimeo, or other video hosting service.
Placement on existing pages on your website.
Creating new pages and posts with the video clips and supporting text.
Creating social media posts that feature the clips with supporting text.
There could be a budget for paid Facebook Marketing,
Tracking and Recommendations
Let’s track to see if the video and marketing actions worked.
From there we can build on what worked and possibl do more of the same or more elaborate productions and campaigns.
Return On Investment (ROI)
For a business, the number one indication of success is the result you got from your investment in video and marketing.
Did you build your mailing list?
Did you have sales?
In simple sales terms, you want to have more revenue from your campaign than it costs.
If you spend $5 to make $10, great! Keep bumping up the investment until you stop getting a positive return.
$1,000 nets you $2,000, then try $10,000.
That worked, try even more.
However, if $1,000 nets you less than $1,000, then you did not get a good return.
It is possible to spend a lot of money and get a very poor return.
So there are some tough questions you need to answer for yourself.
Do You Have A Market?
Are there enough people out there who desire and need your product and service with the means to pay enough for it to make your business proposition viable?
If you are not sure, this Video and Marketing Starter Package is priced low enough to test your market.
If you have a truly powerful offer that’s matched to your prospects’ wants, needs, and desires, then you could actually do a mediocre sales presentation and still get pretty darn good results. On the other hand, if you have an offer that is weak, is not perfectly matched to what your prospects want, then even a perfect sales presentation won’t get good results.
Dave Dee. Sales Stampede: How To Sell More Of Your Products Or Services In 75 Minutes Than You Now Do All Year
Still, you probably will want to research your market BEFORE taking us up on this offer.
There is an adage in the music industry that a mediocre singer can have a hit with a great song, but a great singer won’t have a hit song with a poor song.
Here is a video I created for The Authentics for less than $1,000.
The Authentics Featuring Al Harlow, Rocket Norton, John Hall, Ab Bryant, and Ray Ayotte
You are an established business and you know who your ideal clients are and what they will pay for your products services.
You just need to get in front of more of them to make your irresistible offer.
Then you may want to invest more in video and marketing from the start.
The following package is what we consider to be the Sweet Spot of Video and Marketing.
Golden Video and Marketing Package ~ $9,997
What more do you get for that, you may be asking?
The answer may be surprising. You might actually get shorter video clips than with the Starter Video and Marketing Package.
What you get is something of a different animal with much more careful scripting, location shooting, motion graphics, and more television ad level production.
A fifteen or thirty second TV ad is much more difficult to craft and produce than a talking head presentation.
One person in the music industry said that is much more difficult to write a hit song than to write a Shakespeare play.
I am not sure I would go that far as few writers have hit the genius of a King Lear, but there is some truth to it.
Pop Video Samples
Our partners Jerry and Tammy Smith have been creating high end advertising videos for the natural products industry for a long time.
The Golden Video and Marketing Package could include clips along the style of Pop Videos, plus a more intense marketing rollout and strategy.
By the way, many of the Pop Video clips are designed to play in video players mounted on retail shelves. The players detect when someone passes and starts playing a video to attract attention to the product. We can tell your more if interested.
Free Discovery Session and Business Video and Marketing Roadmap
Contact Greg Dixon at gregdixon@tellyourstory.productions to book your free discovery session.
