 Okay, so today we're gonna talk about how you can do video production from your phone Like the most basic thing you guys all watch my videos So well some of you do and obviously you're watching this one So you know that video works and wouldn't it be great to have you do video in your business? I'm here with Sarah Fisher. Sarah. Hi Hello George. Yeah doing this. So Sarah's the expert on making videos We're gonna talk about video production Basic stuff. We're not talking about high-tech, you know, like having a team No, we're talking about solopreneurs like like you and me and We're gonna talk about YouTube channel We're gonna talk about making videos on your phone, etc But let me first start with Sarah's background just briefly and then we'll get into these topics Okay, so Sarah has 20 years of working in video production and in her career She has worked at MTV news at the U.S. Information Agency at C-SPAN CBS News A&E television and now at her I mean she was inspired Recently to really just past the years to work With business owners particularly people who you know don't have a team They're just kind of wanting to do it to make sure that they can do it themselves But she also works with people that are our larger businesses to but She specifically loves working with heart-centered entrepreneurs, that's why She's having a conversation with me today. So Sarah, let's start with this topic of why Video production literacy so when when when I hear video production and I don't know those of you watching this What do you what do you think of when you think of video production? What does that bring to mind like feel free to comment below with I'm genuinely interested and I'm sure Sarah would love your answers So pause this right now comment What does video production mean for you? All right, ready I'm gonna start sharing what that means to me, but I don't want to bias your thoughts of comment below Okay, so Sarah, I'll share with you what I think and I'd love to To kind of know what you're what you take on this so what I think video production what immediately comes to mind is the kind of work that that you have done and the kind of work that my My niece does she she's you know works with large companies. She's actually a Budding director, you know video director in a marketing agency and she works with large companies like One minute of video production costs something like tens of thousands of dollars For like one minute something like that. I forget the exact number, but it was like an astronomical Maybe even hundreds of thousands. I don't know but it was like so much money that I couldn't even imagine Really? So it's course it involves teams and all so that's what I think of when I think of video production But of course you're talking to me and to other heart-centered entrepreneurs. Many of us are solar printers so Tell us how we can how we can learn video production from our You know not a high company budget, but from our tiny tiny budgets here Yeah, thank you I'm really excited to be talking to george and to your audience because the video landscape has changed so much in the past like 10 15 years You know ever since youtube and lots of other social media channels have come about and facebook has been pushing Videos so big in the past five years Um and they've released, you know technology tools which you use like facebook live and other tools to help Entrepreneurs and small business owners get the word out through video and that's because they know that video is effective but um prior to that prior to the landscape really being changed with social media Traditionally video production has been super expensive And so I think some people still do have that in their mind And as I've gone through my journey Running my company I would go out to networking events and I would meet You know lots of entrepreneurs and business owners, you know traditionally like The cmo's and you know, uh the marketing directors of large companies They aren't necessarily going to your local Networking event So I just meet a lot of people who run small businesses like me And they would say oh, I would love to do videos with you But I just can't afford it and then they would start to ask, you know Some questions about how they can get started with video and it took a while for me to kind of you know come around to to um offer the services that I am now But um, you know, I really just felt compelled that you know, the landscape is going to continue To be democratized that it's going to be easier and easier You know and we can see the evidence right now with like so many social video apps So many ways that you can easily edit and that you can edit for free And I think it does intimidate honestly like a lot of my colleagues and um a lot of the people I know that do run video production companies, you know We start to wonder like when are we going to go out of business? There still are going to be like corporations and bigger companies that are always going to have a marketing budget And they're always going to want to pay, you know top dollar for for uh professional videos Um, but I just felt really compelled to bring, you know, the tools And and help people kind of get over that fear of being on video as well Because I just see that the landscape really is is going to continue to change And it's just going to be more and more necessary for everyone to have some kind of video literacy So let's talk about what you consider to be the basic Video production skills that all of us watching this should should have Um, it's kind of like all of us have word processing skills You know, we all know how to create a document and to send documents to other people And and many of us have blogging skills We know how to put a put a post a written post on our website or on medium.com or posting something on facebook But of course now like you said the the technology has been so democratized that many of us can post videos So what do you consider to be the basic video production skills? Yeah, so you definitely don't know have to know everything about professional video production I see it, you know, it's the same as like graphic design Um, you you most everyone needs like some basic skills and photoshop Or you need to know how to resize photos and you need to know, you know Just a little little bit of things that you can do in canva to make your your designs look better That's what I was going to say like I don't know photoshop I don't have photoshop So when I think photoshop that scares that that scares me because that sounds really complicated But canva. Yeah, it's canva.com, you know, for those of you don't know Hopefully many of you know, but canva.com is like a a free well They have paid features, but most of us use it for free free like graphic design stuff But but yeah, so what would be like? Yes, like great great analogy like resizing and you know basic design stuff So what about video? How what can we do with video? Yeah, absolutely. So the skills that you need I would say they're equivalent to like basic photoshop skills because If you're going to start You know really making an impact with video You you certainly can do facebook live and you can do zoom and all that But then if you want to start editing so many people get stuck and they go, what do I do? You know and and it's going to be too time consuming to edit So there's some basic editing tools that you can use of course everyone knows like iMovie There's also adobe premiere rush and there's many many other Video apps that you can use just on your phone like for example apple clips is one of them So kind of you know getting those basic editing skills under your belt is really essential But I also teach the skills we use in Video production which is pre-production. So knowing how to write a script A lot of times what holds people back and they feel so scared of being on videos because they think You know, they're probably just going to turn on the camera and they need to know what to say And you know and they need and and that does come naturally, you know, I think you're a great example of that Um, but although I think I do some pre-production too. I just I imagine you I just didn't call it that but but yes Go ahead. Go ahead. Yeah Absolutely, and and so if you're going to be you know editing videos together like really building up your youtube channel for example You're going to want to have scripts Because you're going to want to make your videos look really polished make them stand out above the masses You know, that's the thing when it's democratized everybody can do it Then like how many facebook lives do you see in your feed every day or you know, when you go on youtube You have so many choices And so it's not only like the thumbnail That that's you know, entirely different topic about seo and youtube But just in terms of the pre-production when people land on your video and they start watching your video When you've prepared a script and when you've prepared your entire production You know making sure your location is right and that um, you have the right people if you want other people working On your video and just making sure the entire production is set up There's so many ways you can set up set yourself up for success through pre-production And then the production of course is what a lot of people want to know when they get started Which is what microphones do I use and what lighting equipment? so Yeah, as you start making your videos I think it's great if people just get started no matter what you know using the tools that are available the free tools facebook live zoom etc But as you go along which you've probably seen george, you know, you want to make sure that your lighting is right And you your audio is a little bit better than it was when you first started out doing videos So so those are the kind of basic skills you need to get under your belt. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I totally I totally agree Yeah, I mean it's a lot of people don't realize like we we have to set these things up Like you have a nice back or back backdrop these plants that I have next to me It took it took some effort to like figure out how to place them so that they're actually in the frame Because if I if we do it normally and you wouldn't be able to see either playing all any of these plants And I would have other things that were in the view So yeah, it's like things like that that a lot of people don't think about but it does make Make a difference because especially you keep making more and more videos. So Let's talk about a couple things I want to end with Our conversation later with talking about making videos on our on our own phones, right? But before we get there, I want to talk to you about youtube Right, so well to actually maybe we can give people contact Some of you are watching this video right now on youtube. Some of you are watching this on facebook What do you think is the difference between Putting videos on facebook versus youtube. What's your perspective about that? Yeah, yeah, I'm also instagram if we want to say I know a lot of people probably aren't watching this instagram But but youtube facebook instagram like they can all do videos. How should we be thinking about these these these three? Yeah, I think it's a great question I think well as of now, you know, we should say this is all in the context of now because the social media landscape changes so quickly So what I see with facebook it's really about capturing people's attention in the feed So facebook lives are really effective and with with both with Actually any of the social media networks, of course the consistency is important But you're really trying to capture attention in the feed in facebook with youtube you're capturing people's attention through search And that's what a lot of people don't understand when they start out on youtube They are just wanting to put out videos that are topics they feel are important or you know This is something I want my audience to know about But when people go to youtube you have to think about the user experience and youtube is the second largest search engine owned by google like most people know and um the experiences you go on there to search for videos And yeah, once you do get familiar with um some content creators and you start following them You might be willing to click on a video that um, you know just that content creator put out And it's not necessarily something you're searching for But um in order to build your youtube channel, you're really going to want to be focused on search And so it's all about keywords and what people are actually going to youtube to find out about Yeah, that's really helpful. Yeah, and um, so that how how does that affect how you plan your topics? So You have a obviously you have a youtube channel. How do you let's focus on youtube for now? How do you yeah, tell us kind of give us a sense of how you go about planning the topics for your youtube videos For youtube There are there are some software that you can use for keyword research. So there's Keyword planner, which is a plugin for chrome There's also vid iq and morning fame which you're familiar with and You want to you know, definitely at least use the free version of the software to get an understanding Of what your competitors are doing. So these these softwares, you know When you plug in your keywords, they're going to be able to tell you what other people are already doing And I think that um, it's it's really important to start using this type of software because We kind of get stuck You know, we we can't do exactly what our competitors are doing, but we want to be you know, right there um, you know With the keywords that aren't as competitive as the the people that have already built up their youtube channels So you're capturing, you know a a large enough search volume But where you're going to be appearing at the top of the logarithm And you know, these people that have built the software for seo like vid iq and morning fame and um, you know, there's a bunch of others then, you know, they just they've done all that Analyzing so you can go in there and you can do your research you have ideas for your videos But then you can see, you know, like for example, um My youtube channel is actually, you know Sort of in the beginning stages right now because I've been focused on just making videos, you know Just putting out videos for my clients, but um when I go in there I know that the the uh videos that are out there about video production That's a hugely competitive space because there's people who have been in there For years and years building their channels, but that doesn't mean that I can't build my channel It just means I have to be strategic and I have to understand if I go in there and I try to make a video For example about um, you know, what is the best lighting equipment? That's not the best video for someone who's just starting a channel on video production because there's too much competition And I will never appear, you know in the search results when someone goes to type that in Um, so yeah, I hope that answers your question. Yeah, it does. It's it's very helpful. Um, so Do you help your clients? With this kind of stuff so with them figuring out What kind of videos they should be making? Yes, okay. Yeah, we help them with the SEO and keyword research. Nice. Nice And okay, so let's talk about making videos on our phone. Um, you recently Just produced a an online course called Um iphone video mastery and I know the course is also applicable to people who don't You know most a lot of people have iphone's here But some of you have like android phones or other phones and then most of the course's material also also Applies but tell us um, you know, give us a I mean, we don't have a whole lot of time but give us in a few minutes like A few tips maybe that that all of us can use to to make better phone videos, I guess Yeah, absolutely. Um, well one of the best apps. I think out there right now for iphone's is apple clips And it does a couple well it does many things. It's a free app that just comes with the newer iphone's um, it might come on some of the older ones. I'm not sure but Um, you're going to be able to use that for editing But you're also going to be able to use it just for recording and capturing your videos So that's one of the trickiest things people Um, don't know people ask me all the time and how do I caption my videos and it can be multiple steps You know just to after you've recorded your video to get it caption But with apple clips you're pressing record and it's auto captioning your videos, which I just think is amazing And just to clarify for everybody the captions are the words that show up at the bottom and why why are captions important? Let's start there Yeah, the captions are really important because there's so many people that On any social media network are going to be listening watching your video with the sound off So they're not going to be listening. They're you know, just busy doing other things. It's not that they don't want to hear you but um It sort of gives people like cliff notes and it gives them an ability to kind of cheat You know that if they see a video coming in with captions they can say hey, is this is something I'm interested in Because everything's all about attention. You know people's attention span So short and then it also is just a really great thing to do for people who are disabled heart of hearing And there's a lot of people out there like that that you know that do need the captions You know, that's fine when I watch videos I actually prefer to have the captions on whenever possible And so I really yeah, even though I'm grateful not to be you know, hard of hearing or anything But I just it's just helpful for me to kind of see the words also It's and I'm always very grateful when uh, the video creator has gone through the trouble of actually Making the captions readable because captions aren't and I apologize to those who will watch my videos I only really edit the first two minutes or first minute and a minute and a half of captions And then I kind of leave leave leave the rest to gobbledygook But you know, most of the time youtube actually youtube has Auto captioning too, right like like most of the time the captioning is pretty good But sometimes I talk fast and then so it doesn't catch the right words or whatever But but you're telling us right now about this iPhone software called apple clips and the captioning feature there is really good. Yeah Yeah, absolutely and And so what what was the question you're wondering about other Tips for shooting with the iPhone or shooting with the smartphone Yeah, yeah any other tips you want to share with us for those of us, you know Who like to make videos on the phone or who who I thought about it I think it's really imperative to invest in some kind of stabilization equipment So like a mini tripod can be great Especially if you're not going to shoot in the same location every time But it can be helpful even if you're just shooting at home Because if you've ever tried to just shoot with your iPhone It can be hard to just keep it stable when you're you know sitting there holding Holding it in your hand Especially, you know after a minute two minutes You don't see it But when you go back and watch the video after you've shot it it can turn out shaky And you'll just you'll notice your videos just come out a lot smoother And then you just have more options for you know what locations you want to shoot in Because you'll just you'll know that you have that stabilization and you can set it up on you know set it up high To capture something You know on your desk or on the ground. There's many ways that the Stabilization mini tripods can work really well Cool. Cool. So what else do you cover in your iPhone video mastery course? Maybe give us a quick sense of what people will learn when they sign up Yeah, so there's four modules and it covers The first one is just all about getting over the fear of being on video So, you know, how can we really gain confidence to make videos consistently? And then the next three modules are just all about learning the skills of basic professional video production So we're not going to be you know shoot and feature films But it's just you know knowing how to write a script. We actually go through how to write your intro videos So when someone lands on your website, how do they you know? If you've ever tried to record that a lot of times people come up with these long videos And you really only want it to be 90 seconds So you learn how to write a 90 second script and then learn how to shoot and edit that video Great awesome. So, of course, there will be a link below to check out the course Any other kind of I guess parting tips as we end the conversation About about video that maybe there's is there like a common myth That people often have like something you you find yourself having to explain to your students or your clients something anything you want to share like that Sure Well, we talked about how there's a perception that video production is so expensive That definitely is changing with the cost of equipment and we go through that in my course But also people just perceive that video production is time consuming It is time consuming. I'm not going to lie about that when you get into editing and it's just but it's just like anything This is what I really want people to understand You're going to make something that's quality and that kind of stands out Above the masses that's different and you know really draws people attention You do have to put time into it and the editing can be time consuming Um, but once you have the skills under your belt You know, if you enjoy it if you do enjoy Making videos on your own Then um, it doesn't seem as time consuming. It only seems time consuming now Because you don't have those skills and it's the same thing like I've been learning facebook ads from you And I'm like man this is taking so much time But it's just because I don't have those skills and I need to kind of get um In the mind frame that it's just going to take a little bit of time To have those skills under my belt. Yeah, that's a really really good point Yeah, because I make time for the facebook ad stuff and then of course it works well for me But same thing with video editing I could see where it's like, yeah If you make and it's like you don't have to spend 10 hours for each video Even if you did some editing it probably improves the video Then then if you didn't right so uh, anyway, I look forward to people following up with you sarah I'll have the links to your the course but also to your website And if anybody has any questions kind of quick questions for sarah to answer You can go and comment below. Make sure she sees it Sarah thank you for the work that you do for people for you know now creating Courses that people can get so anything else before we go any other kind of encouraging words for folks I would say just do it. You know just just get started. I mean that's the main thing. Yeah, great great All right. Thank you so much sarah. Thank you, george