 Is video really necessary, if you're trying to build a business these days? If your business is already doing very well, you have all the clients and customers you ever need, and word of mouth is spreading just naturally, then no, you don't have to do video. But, if you would like to have more people know about your business, and start to believe in your business's brand and mission and products and services, then I highly recommend that you put video as part of your marketing as soon as possible. The reason is because more and more consumers are getting used to seeing some video before they decide to work with a particular company or person. In the past couple of years, just about all of my clients, before they started working with me, or in the discussion about working with me, almost all of my clients said they first had watched a couple or a bunch of my videos and then decided, yes, George is going to be my marketing mentor, etc. And I've seen as a dramatic growth in my business over the past couple of years because of my doing videos. Another interesting tidbit is a vice president at Facebook was quoted as saying that she would not be surprised if in just a few years Facebook could be all video, literally she said all video. Now, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but if you look at Facebook already, if you scroll through Facebook, you already see a lot of video these days, and if you use Facebook on the mobile phone, you'll notice that video is one of the tabs at the bottom of the mobile app, very prominently right next to newsfeed. So it's that important already to Facebook. And because Facebook is in touch with the mindset of everyday internet users and know that internet users really appreciate being able to see video. So here's the thing about video. It takes practice. It takes getting used to. Don't expect that you're going to make your first video or first five or first 10 videos and have it go viral and have it be amazing. If you think that way, it's kind of like you telling yourself, well, I've never done any public speaking before, but my first public speech is going to be a TED talk. You can't expect that. That's putting too much pressure on yourself. And I hope that from my example, you know, my humble and casual example of doing video, that I could be an encouragement to you to start getting used to seeing yourself on video. And I'll tell you this, the first dozen times you see yourself on video and hear yourself, it's probably not going to be a pleasant experience for you because that's normal for everybody to criticize themselves. My first online video was in 2009, okay? And after I watched that video, I couldn't stand to see myself on video. And I said, I'm not a, I'm not a, I don't look like a movie star and I'm not particularly amazingly eloquent or whatever it is, you know, why should I be on video? And so I quit doing video, after that first video in 2009, I quit video until 2013. It took me four years to get over myself, to finally start doing video again. I hope, I hope that I can save you four years. I hope that you won't take that long to get over yourself and realize that your ideal clients, your ideal audience, the people that are most meant to work with you really actually enjoy seeing you on video. By definition, your ideal clients like your personality. They like your style. And of course, they would be so grateful to be able to see you on video. So just know that when you first do video, it's natural to not like to see yourself on video, to keep criticizing yourself, to think, oh, that's not good enough. But remember that good enough for content is not for you to judge. It's for you to simply put out into the world and let the ones who are meant to find you, find it and appreciate your content. Now, when you first start doing video, you probably don't want to just publish your first video or two right onto Facebook and YouTube, first send it mail. You can publish on YouTube as an unlisted, unlisted video, meaning only people who have the link that you give to them will be able to see it. So send that link to just a few of your most supportive and kind friends and say that you would love some encouragement to do more video and that you know that you're going to you're going to have to get a lot better over time, but that this is your first couple of tries, you know, and don't expect that to watch all of your initial videos. Just even if they watch the first, you know, 30 seconds, it's fine. And just let them encourage you. And then over time, you're going to get better at it. You're going to get better as you get more used to doing it. You will first have to get used to doing it, that it becomes normal for you to do video. And then you can start gradually improving upon it as you watch your videos back and say, oh, I can improve on this or I can improve on that. I hope this is encouraging for you. I'll put a link in the notes of this video to more tips for you that I've learned from doing a bunch of videos. But know that it's going to be beneficial for your business and for your marketing for you to show up as yourself. You don't have to try to be like me or don't try to be like anybody else. Be your most be the maximum form of who you truly are as you can on video. Because that's what your ideal clients and your ideal audience wants to see.