Episode 132: Go video or go home with George Thomas

It started with the cats. Who knew cats were trend setters but when it comes to video they were on board long before we were! One of the biggest trends I’ve seen over the last five years is the proliferation of video. You can’t go anywhere (Online, mass transit, Times Square or your home security system) without seeing a video these days. And these are not the videos of old. When I started in the business, we make gorgeous videos, shot on film and painstakingly edited for days. Today’s videos can certainly be that but more often than not – they’re run and gun videos that are often shot, edited and posted the same day, if not in real time.

To think any agency can avoid getting proficient at video is a fool’s folly these days and I don’t want ignorance, fear or the “I hate the way I look on video” worry to keep you from evolving your agency’s skills in this area. You simply can’t afford not to be good at video, not to understand how to leverage video and most important – how to create videos for yourself and your clients in a cost effective, profitable way.

That is why I invited George B. Thomas onto the Build A Better Agency podcast. This guy gets video and has a passion around it that is infectious.

George has an interesting past – he’s a recovering youth pastor, a former pub bouncer, but no matter what his title was, he's always been about helping people at different points in their journey. Now he is the Resident Nerd at the Sales Lion, an inbound and content marketing agency helping businesses become rock stars in their markets.

George believes that video is the next step of the inbound marketing evolution. He loves helping businesses wrap their heads around video. As he is quick to tell you – he’s a branding guru, a video marketing ninja, and an inbound Jedi. A little peek into George right there!

When he's not running video workshops or speaking around the world, he's hanging out with his family enjoying the beautiful world that is North Carolina. What I love about George is that he's got an energy and a passion for this, which you will feel in this episode, but he also brings the goods in terms of expertise and he's going to get down to the really needy gritty of telling us not only what to do, but how to do it.

I want you to listen to this conversation through parallel tracks. First, I want you to listen to it while thinking, “how can video help our clients grow their business and improve their customer’s experience?”

But the other lens I want you to be using is, “how do I use video better for the agency and our biz dev efforts?” Some of you are already swimming in these waters but many of you are not. Time to get to it!

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• Why George believes that getting great at video is the difference between having a successful agency and closing your doors
• The difference between creative, big budget video that dominated agencies of the past and the much cheaper, revenue-driving videos of today
• Making quick, easy videos that answer the questions your sales people get the most
• How to sell clients on making these quick videos
• The kind of equipment you need to own to make video for yourself and your clients that looks great
• Everything you need to know to pick the right editing software
• The skills needed to be great behind the camera and in the editing room
• The kinds of videos your agency should be producing
• Why every person in your agency needs a video of themselves in their email signature
• The danger of being too salesy in your videos
• How to become more comfortable on camera
• Why you don’t have to be afraid of live video
• Misassumptions agencies and other businesses make about video that consumers don’t make
• Matching the right video to the right platform/audience

Ways to contact George Thomas:

• Free video assessment: thesaleslion.com/assessment
• Content video workshop: thesaleslion.com/video
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Mr.GeorgeBThomas
• Twitter: @GeorgeBThomas

We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!