Not Just Explainer Videos, But Video That Explain Things Spectacularly

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
I’m sure you have experienced as I have
the opinions of people who aren’t in the
business they’re not performers they’re
not actors they’re not voice-over talent
wanting to tell you how to do your job
better I read articles all the time
especially from people who are business
advisors on how to use video or how to
be on camera or how to talk on a podcast
or how to be authoritative and some of
the advice is suspect some of it is
downright wrong but in this case the
article that I read is a profile of a
guy by the name of Adam Lissa Gore who
has a company here in Los Angeles I
think it’s called Sandwich video and
they make really high-end explainer
videos and you know we think of
explainer videos as here how do here’s
how to bold in Microsoft Word or
whatever you know this is our company
you know this is what we do well that’s
the kind of thing that he does but he
doesn’t for really big brands like
stitch fix and Etsy and lyft and Airbnb
and Square and slack and Facebook and
Apple I mean he does high-end
crowdsourcing videos crowdfunding videos
for clients on IndieGoGo and and on
Kickstarter and he does a lot of the
work himself and this reminds me of a
couple of people in history who have
been really good you know
man-on-the-street kind of people they
didn’t have big careers as actors or as
performers but they just had this kind
of charm about them that really played
well on camera or on mic and they were
able to build a business about it and I
read through the article thinking oh
this is gonna be another series of tips
that really don’t make sense but they
make sense for him you know the fallacy
if it works for me it works for
everybody and it turns out he he knows a
thing or two about making an effective
video and he starts with three
questions and then he has five tips I’m
gonna share them with you the three
questions is figure out what your
ultimate goal is and that’s okay you
don’t have to figure it out because
here’s the ultimate goal with any video
it’s to explain why something exists why
a product or service exists and why it’s
useful to a client now that sounds
pretty straightforward but a lot of
people miss that they want to talk about
you know how cool it is or how cheap it
is or how well-designed it is now why it
exists is to solve a problem always we
talk about that in the commercials class
your number one job is to help the the
listener or viewer solve a problem right
people try to be funny this is the
second tip he says people try to be
funny
not everybody’s funny and it’s hard to
tell the CEO of a company who’s paying
your bill you’re not really that funny I
mean you’re okay and it’s nice to have a
conversation with you but you’re not a
funny guy so don’t don’t write a script
to be funny if you’re not funny if you
can’t pull it off and speaking of
founders and CEOs you always have to ask
yourself why are they on camera what is
it about them that they should be on
camera versus somebody else who could
tell the story better and often it’s
just prerogative it’s just privilege
it’s like I started this company I’m
gonna do these videos right so those are
three things to look at but here are the
five things that he talks about that I
think really do make sense the first one
is kind of counterintuitive but it’s
don’t be an actor first one is don’t be
an actor he says authenticity is rarely
the result of acting so we’re all actors
so it’s kind of hard for us not to be
actors but when doing an explainer video
if you go into actor mode or announcer
mode or a presentation mode or talk show
host mode or I’m going to show you how
to do this mode that’s a patina that you
don’t need don’t be an actor it’s not
reading words well from the prompter
it’s being able to tell an awesome story
that you don’t have to memorize you
don’t have to regurgitate it it’s that
reality that you just simply can’t get
if you go into actor mode so that’s the
first one for more
speak as if you’re sharing an idea with
friends when we do our workouts I talk
about this all the time don’t don’t do
anything but pretend as though you’re
talking across the table at dinner with
somebody or you’re talking to somebody
you’re both out shopping or you’ve
stopped for a drink or so you just
having a conversation that is so much
more realistic and so much more
accessible to the listener or to the
viewer then if you have a very loud
quick fast like we tend to speak very
quickly very fast because we want to get
that that energy going right I’m hoping
that when you watch these videos you get
the idea that this is how I would talk
to you if we were sitting in my favorite
restaurant having having a snack you
know we do wild things with our hands in
the air or we we think about how we
should put our hands and you know I
teach people what to do with their hands
when they’re on camera when you’re
presenting something there are some
things that you can do but for the most
part you don’t want to go crazy and and
speak with your hands right it
undermines your authenticity number
three after you record your video watch
yourself and really be honest do you
like you do you like what you see not in
terms of your performance but in terms
of you as a human being and don’t just
stop with you looking at you and saying
yeah I like me go to people that you
trust that aren’t gonna you know you
give you BS and just be a yes person and
ask them is this person is am I in this
video likable am i believable right it’s
it’s you want to make sure you go to
people that won’t that won’t just like
say yes because they want to be friendly
but that will call you on your BS
they’ll say what are you doing what are
you talking about I don’t get what this
is right
number four is also something this is
why this article appealed to me because
it’s a lot of what we’ve talked about in
these videos number four is get started
don’t worry about setup and equipment
just find a video style that speaks to
you don’t worry about having the best
camera or having great production value
just get your your persona established
what’s comfortable and what’s effective
for you get started that’s it and the
final one he says is nobody gets the
words right the first time and not to
beat yourself up it says he says here’s
a quote from him only the SuperDuper
pros in the entertainment industry
can nail a performance that’s looking at
you not not me can nail a performance
the first time most of us will get our
words wrong at the beginning right so
what he’s saying is don’t beat yourself
up you get it wrong it’s okay it’s gonna
end up on the cutting room floor just
take take seven whatever it is you’ll
get it right it’ll be fine
not to worry don’t don’t be so hard on
yourself and here’s a bonus in the
course of the article where they
profiled him they asked the question
what’s the perfect length for an
explainer video and you know it depends
obviously but what he really likes is 90
seconds and he kind of talked about a
different version of what I said when I
talked about podcasting episode length
like don’t make it so long that it’s
almost unattainable in terms of people’s
minds share in the amount of time that
they can spend with things make him
shorter and more often so instead of a
60 minute interview do 6 10 minute
interviews part 1 through part 6 he says
explainer videos for him the best length
is 90 seconds which you can’t tell the
company’s whole story in 90 seconds or
show how to use a product in 90 seconds
the whole thing but you can show a part
of it in fact I’m doing those things
right now with rehearsal Pro instead of
showing you the whole process of
recording and rehearsing with a script
I’m showing you how to highlight with a
script and then how to record the scene
with the script and then how to use the
adjustable timeline with the script in
chunks small chunks they’re very
digestible so lots of great stuff there
I hope that’s helpful anything anything
you’d like to add to that anything that
when you’re doing your explainer videos
when you’re the voice of an explainer
video you found works really well for
you or do you disagree with what he said
I mean you know it’s kind of hard to
argue with success but maybe it doesn’t
work for you let me know in the comments
below let me know what you think and
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for you I’m David H Lawrence xvii thank
you so much for watching and I’ll talk
to you tomorrow.