How to Create Effective Marketing Videos For Your Audience With Expert Tracy Phillips

Jeremy Deighan
Welcome everyone to the podcast today. We have Tracy Phillips from Video Script Success. How you doing today, Tracy?

Tracy Phillips
Great, thanks for having me.

Jeremy Deighan
Yes, definitely. We're happy to have you on the podcast and dive deep into video and live video and some of the marketing strategies that you've seen working with online courses. But before we get started, I always like to hear people's backgrounds and how they got started in the online business. Maybe what you were doing before you got started in online business. So why don't you just tell us a little bit about yourself?

Tracy Phillips
I'm glad you asked. I actually have almost two decades of video production background. I was nominated for an Emmy in 2013. So I had a lot of behind the camera experience.

And then about five years ago, I discovered online marketing. And I realized, oh, my gosh, there are so many people who don't understand how to do video well. So the name of my company, Video Script Success, is really my magic sauce comes from being able to really nail down the messaging behind the video and that type of thing.

So you're not doing what I call "video vomit". I always joke around that I'm ridding the world, or at least the internet, of video vomit. So I came from that background. And although, again, the scripting was great, I knew what I wanted to say, I was terrified to put myself out there.

And so many entrepreneurs, so many people launching courses, they're the face of their brand. I was the face of my brand. And I just realized, oh, my gosh, there's fear. There's nervousness. There's all of this other stuff that goes into it, where from behind the camera and directing, I was like, "Yeah, just do it." And it's not that easy with an entrepreneur.

So I translated all of my knowledge from offline to online, and then really came up with a strategy and a way to work with people so that they were comfy on camera, they were themselves on camera. The best part is that they were able to connect with their audience online. So that's my background.

Jeremy Deighan
Awesome. That's great. I definitely want to get into the video vomit, what it is, and how we can avoid it. But I just was curious, what kind of video were you doing before online business? What were you filming?

Tracy Phillips
Nothing sexy. We call it industrial video. I own another company. It's a video production company run out of San Diego. Industrial video is really just mid-sized companies doing marketing videos or educational videos. So we did a lot of doctors on green screens.

And boy, did I learn a lot about how to be and how not to be on camera, but also about one of the most important things. And that's being prepared and practicing. And I think that's where people forget that you don't start out good at video, you actually have to work at it.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, I realized that myself when I started doing online courses and started showing my face more. It does take practice. And it's crazy because it's almost like you have to trick yourself a little bit. I have to convince myself to be uplifting and smiling and joyful in front of the camera.

Tracy Phillips
Yeah, but I will tell you, you don't have to be... a lot of people see me they're like, "Oh, but you're an extrovert," or "You did video." And I don't really identify as an extrovert. I'm more of an omnivore where I can turn it on and that type of thing. But that's not what video is about.

The practicing helps. But it's really about becoming comfortable seeing yourself. And if there's a fear with video, it's about making your audience more important than that fear.

So many people hold back because they don't like how they look. They don't like how they sound. They don't really know what to do. But the truth is if your desire to reach your online audience is greater than your fear, you will succeed at video. You just have to practice and get good at it. Again, you have to be willing to be a beginner.

Jeremy Deighan
Right. That's some great advice. So when you came into online business and you started helping people with their video, what were you doing specifically? Were you coaching, consulting? Were you just throwing up some videos on YouTube? What did that look like?

Tracy Phillips
Not YouTube. I didn't actually get into YouTube until about a year ago. It's one of those things I keep going, "I really need to get better at YouTube." Because not a lot of people are searching for the structure of a script.

So I got into it because I realized everybody was putting the cart before the horse. Everybody kept asking me all these questions about equipment. I'm like, "Yeah, but what are you going to say?" "Yeah, but who's your audience?" "Yeah, but is that what they want?"

So I went around. And when I first got into this, I was introduced to the online marketing world through a friend of mine. And it was through PLF, if you're familiar with Jeff Walker and his Product Launch Formula.

I was invited. Now, I had never heard of Jeff Walker. I'd never heard of PLF. Like I said, I was brand new to online marketing. And my friend invited me to this event because I was in San Diego. It was an Arizona and he said, "Whatever, it's closed. I just speak on stage, but then we'll hang out."

And I thought, "Okay, whatever." So I showed up not doing any research or anything. And I am not kidding you. It was like the scene out of The Office, where Dwight and they go to the sales meeting. And it's like crazy lights and pumping music and people dancing.

And I thought, "Oh, my gosh, I'm in a multi-level marketing scheme." I really thought like, "Oh, my gosh, what has happened to my friend, John, who is an herbalist?" Then Jeff Walker walks out, and he's just this down, homie guy. And he starts talking about building a connection in a relationship. And I'm like, "Yes, yes!"

So what I started doing was, he has a very distinct marketing way. And that is with the four scripts. Well, it's three scripts and a sales script. But what I started doing with the PLF group, and I was even invited by Jeff Walker to speak to some of his masterminds, was on those four videos.

So what I started doing was private consulting and helping people craft their videos. And I was even approached by some people because it's such a personal thing. And where people were going wrong is they were trying to use script templates.

They didn't fit. It didn't sound like them. And they weren't reaching their audience. And again, this comes back to because they didn't quite know what the audience wanted. And so what I started doing are collaboration calls.

So we would write the scripts together on Zoom, and then either they would fly me out, and I could help them record them, or I would help them find a local crew, or they could record them themselves. So it really was a great jumping-off point for me because it's what I was really good at, which is, again, the structure of a script and reaching the audience.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, very good. So you're out there, you're doing trainings, helping people out, some type of consulting work, and then you got into online courses. How did...? Yeah, go ahead.

Tracy Phillips
Yes, because not everybody can afford their own private video coach.

Jeremy Deighan
Right.

Tracy Phillips
So I realized there was a whole group of people out there who I started with group online programs, live group. And then hybrid, and then just making an evergreen group because there's all different on-your-value ladder, right? You have to be able to reach a lot of different people at a lot of different places.

And especially with video, somebody brand new to video has very different needs as somebody who's writing PLF scripts. So that's how I got into the online courses is taking the knowledge that I had and putting it into digestible bites for people to be able to get at a lower price point.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, perfect. That sounds really good. And I'm just happy to hear about your success. It sounds like you've been doing some amazing things. So let's dive into some of the marketing strategies. And the first thing that you talked about was the video vomit. So I would love to hear, what is video vomit and how can we avoid it?

Tracy Phillips
Well, video vomit is not a great video strategy. I will say that, Jeremy. Well, video vomit, you've all seen it. Like everybody is watching a video for a minute and you're watching and you're like, "I have no idea what they're talking about." And then they click away.

So I always say like, "We want to create videos where people stay and not click away." And video vomit is just you not really thinking through the content. And you just talking to hear yourself talk. And that is where the structure and strategy of a script comes in.

And when I talk about scripting and video vomit, scripting doesn't mean word for word. Scripting means you are putting your thoughts into a nice little package with an intro, some teaching, and an outro, which, of course, is your call to action, right?

So all the videos strategy and structure is the same. Just the content changes. And so that's how we avoid video vomit is thinking through what we're actually going to talk about. I can wing a lot of things. But when I just make some little notes about where I want to start where I want to go and where I want to end, my videos do a lot better. That's what I mean by avoiding video vomit.

Jeremy Deighan
Perfect. I think that's a great description, and definitely something we don't want to do. So let's go a little deeper into the strategy of maybe coming up with a good script. Because I have a list of hundreds of ideas for videos. And I get kind of bogged down with trying to trying to organize them and figure out what to talk about in these different ideas.

So imagine you have an idea for a video and you want to put it on YouTube or create a video for your course. Can you give us just a quick rundown of how you take it from a concept to a final idea with the script?

Tracy Phillips
Yeah, and I will tell you, Jeremy, you're starting a little backwards and you're doing what everybody else is doing is, "I have an idea for a video." Instead, I actually start with the audience and research.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay.

Tracy Phillips
Because if you're making videos based on what's in your head, and that's your curse of knowledge, that's not really meeting your audience where they are. That's giving them information. And that's the misstep.

That's where people, they do have lists, I have an Evernote full of them. But the difference between my Evernote and your Evernote is I also have a group on Facebook, where people have to answer questions to get in. One of the questions is, "What is your biggest video struggle?"

So I have hundreds of topics I can talk about that I know my audience wants to hear about because I've asked them. So when we talk about the first step in the strategy, it's the difference between talking about what you know, and what your audience wants to know.

And that is probably the biggest disconnect I see is, especially I work with a lot of doctors, lawyers. These are people who are experts in their fields, and they're creating an online course, based on that expertise. And then they dive into the marketing. And they're still using that expertise, instead of using language.

So the first thing I would want you to do is either hop on some calls and interview people you think are your ideal clients, and use their language. Get a word bank because the difference between me saying, "I can help you with camera confidence," is very different than the language they use, which is, "I don't want to be awkward and sound like an idiot on camera." Very different though, right?

So my curse of knowledge is camera confidence. Nobody wants camera confidence. But when I say, "I'm going to do a video so that you don't feel awkward or sound like an idiot," yeah, I get a lot of people showing up for that. So the first part is really just what do they want you to talk about?

Jeremy Deighan
Okay. So how so how do we start that process? Because maybe some people who are listening don't have an audience. So what would you recommend is the best way to get out there and start asking these questions and finding out what people are interested in?

Tracy Phillips
So the first part is, I call it the audience of one. A lot of people call it your avatar work. You want to find who your ideal client is, make a list, be super specific. But then, hop on some calls with those people. And if you don't know where to find them, start going around other people's groups that are similar to yours.

And then reach out. Say, like, "Hey, I'd love to hop on a 10 minute Zoom with you." But you can't really just jump out into the internet world and online marketing if you do not have a really tight idea of who your audience is and what they want from you. So research is that first step.

So if you don't have an audience already, then you need to go find at least 10 people, interview them, and find out... And these quick little 10-minute interviews. What do they want? And then you can start building your videos.

And one of the myths of video, especially about live video is, "I'll start doing live video once I have an audience." And that's backwards. You can start once you do this research, then start making those videos, getting good at video so that you're not doing video vomit, getting good at it.

And then once you start building your list, and you start building your audience, you have a library of videos you know they want to watch. And so you can just direct them there, whether it's YouTube or live videos, or whatever it is.

So there's twofold there, where you're getting good at video, you're creating videos that people want to know, you know that this is something they want. And people see that as instant authority. So even if you don't have a list, you don't have an audience yet, and someone comes to you and you're sending them to this library. They're like, "Wow, she's already thought through what I need to know." Instant authority.

Jeremy Deighan
Awesome. That's some great, great tips there. So we go out, we find, an audience, we ask them the questions, and get there language that they're interested in learning instead of just trying to figure out what are language is. And then we get that information.

So now we have some ideas that they've told us, "I'm not confident on being... I don't like the way I look on camera." So what do you do with that idea? Now that I have that idea, how do I go about mapping that out into a video?

Tracy Phillips
That's great. From here, so you have one idea, right? You've asked them a question. So let's say I just got someone who came onto my list and said, "I don't like how I look on camera." That's exactly what she said, right?

So I'm actually going to do a live for her, her name is Sue. And what I'm going to do is talk about one thing. So take the idea, whatever it is you're going to talk about on your video, and it's the one thing you're going to talk about.

So first is the hook, you come into it. And this is another mistake. I see people say, "Hey, this is Tracy from Video Script Success." They don't know you, they don't care. I'd say, "Hi, today, we're going to talk about how you get on camera even if you don't like how you look?" You want to hook them immediately and say, "Here's what my video is about."

And then you talk about one thing. So when you're scripting it out and doing bullet points, "I'm going to talk about how to get on camera." And again, I mentioned it at the beginning of our interview. And that is you have to make your fear secondary to your desire to reaching your audience. That's all I would talk about in that short video.

And this is another thing, when you're just starting out, I know what a lot of the experts say that your videos, if you want to get them watched and ranked, they should be this length. No. Talk about one thing. Be succinct. Make sure you have a call to action.

So I hook them, I may then a little later tell them who I am. I always tell a story in there, my own or a client's. That's part of the teaching. And then a call to action. Like I said, the structure of a video never changes, just the content does.

Jeremy Deighan
Awesome, perfect. So we go in and we have the idea. We have the hook, we have the teaching, the story, and a call to action. And then how do you go about creating the lives? Do you do set these up as things in the future like events on Facebook? Or what does the process look like from there?

Tracy Phillips
For me, and this is getting it depending on where someone is, it's a little more advanced, or it's right where you are. But that's the other part of it is what is your goal of these videos? So if you're just starting out, the goal is to get some videos so you're creating a library.

But let's say you're a little more advanced and you know that you're launching your podcast. You know that you're launching a challenge. That's the goal. So you want a runway. So I'm going to do maybe four lives, so once every week, leading up to my challenge.

And I'm going to make sure that all four of those videos make sense. So that when I invite them at the end, my call to action is always going to be to the challenge. So you will have to think through what your goals of the videos are.

For me, I will plan out a couple months in advance. COVID kind of threw me off this year like everybody else. I had to pivot a little bit because I was going to do one thing. And then I realized everybody was looking on how to do live video and do it well. So I just kept offering my live video course over and over and over again.

In three months, I did four offers of that. So you pivot a little bit, but you want to make sure you know like these videos are leading up to this goal. And I want them to go here because that's the other part of the videos is where do they fit into your overall marketing plan?

So for me, I use live video a lot. I actually don't like pre-recording videos because I think it's a lot harder. Live video is so forgiving. Your audience doesn't want you to be perfect. They want you to be human. They're buying human to human. They're buying an emotion. And if you're perfect and poised, that's not very appealing because who was really perfect and poised?

So for me, my live videos, I do them on my laptop. I just scheduled them. I use something called StreamYard now because I'm not a huge fan of Facebook's new interface. But you can do it from your phone.

The other thing is when we talk about starting out new and, of course, because I've just told you this is the formula for your live video or for your videos. You could have notes off to the side. And it is perfectly acceptable for you to say, "Hold on, let me check my notes. I just want to make sure I didn't forget anything." And people love that.

No one's saying, "Oh, my gosh, she's so unprofessional. She has notes." They're thinking, "Well, she really thought this through. She has some notes for me. She really wants me to learn."

Jeremy Deighan
I know a lot of the people out there are course creators, and specifically, probably listening to this podcast, they might already have a course. Maybe someone out there is struggling to get people to their courses. And so they're listening to this and they're thinking, "Okay, I got to do more live videos."

Once you do the live video, what is a good call to action? Should we just be sending people directly to our course landing page? Or should we create lead magnets or a freebie? What does that look like on your end, typically?

Tracy Phillips
It's so interesting that you ask this, Jeremy, because had you asked me in January or February, I would have said, "You want a launch runway. You want to bring people in and you want to nurture them." And now, people want action. They need a solution a lot quicker, I think.

And so if you don't make an offer, you're not going to make any sales. Pretty much every live that I do, there is an offer. So it's perfectly acceptable on all of your lives. Again, if you're trying to drive people to your course, the people that aren't ready, yeah, maybe next time have a lead magnet or say like, "And if it's not for you," you can send them an email and send them a lead magnet or a little more nurture.

But every time you make that offer, if it's in alignment with whoever's watching you, you could be making a sale. And so if you don't make that offer, then you're not going to make a sale. I joke with my students and my clients, I say the only time I make money is when I make an offer.

So don't be afraid to, on your video, say like, "I'm so glad you're here. And here's your next step," because a lot of people—I'm going to say, especially women because 99% of the people I work with are women—they feel a little bit icky about sales. And I really want people to shift that because it's an invitation to go deeper.

And if you think about doing a live video, invite them to go deeper. "Okay, we've done this today," the call to action can be like, "I've developed this amazing course. It's eight modules. It'll get you from here to here." Have a very clear transformation, and invite them to go deeper.

That's your sale. It's not icky. It's not shamwow. It's just, "There you go." I always tell people, shamwow, no. That's not how we sell online.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, so that makes a lot of sense. And imagine I have a course and I'm trying to drive traffic to my course. So I go on live, I teach, and then I have a call to action to check out the offer of the course. What is the frequency of the live videos? Are you doing a live video every day or once a week? How often should we be doing these live videos and then offering at the end like this?

Tracy Phillips
That's a great question. And my answer is once a week because you do want your lives to be an event. You want people to tune in and show up. I go live every Wednesday at 4:00 PM PT inside of my private Facebook group.

Why do I do it inside of my private Facebook group? Because they have to have checked just one more thing where I want the information when I asked the questions, but they have raised their hand and said, "I'm really interested in learning video." So they're in there, and they're expecting me to be there every week.

If I go live every single day, that's not exciting. First of all, I don't know what I would talk about every single day. And I'm a loquacious person, but I feel like I don't have enough, like, really good stuff to talk about every single day. And then it doesn't become special. You want it to be special. And if you're going live every day and driving people every day to your course, it'll become redundant, and people will tune you out.

Jeremy Deighan
That's a good plan. See, another mistake I probably made in the past is thinking that you should be going live every day and constantly being in the group and there.

Tracy Phillips
And then actually, I have something called the five super short videos you must have for every launch. And that is something you would do every day because you're in launch. So that's the other thing. When you're talking about course creation, yes, there's evergreen. But I would hope that people would have an open cart/closed cart. That you're not offering it all the time.

Maybe they are, but that's not how I run my courses. Because again, it's not special. They can just get in. There's no sense of urgency. And those are the only times I will go live every day.

So I'll be doing a challenge. When I do a challenge, I go live every day because there I'm working them through to something. And, of course, on the last day, I'll pitch them into one of my courses.

The other time I go live every day again with these five super short scripts is I'm in open cart. So I want to remain top of mind. And I'm going to show up every day to remind them that I have this amazing course and I want them in it. So those are the only times I would go live every day. And again, it wouldn't be forever, it would just be for a short amount of time.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, perfect. So we talked about the frequency of the lives. Can you tell us about the length of the live? How long should these live videos be?

Tracy Phillips
There's no right answer for how long a video should be. And this is, again, when people are starting to listen to the online influencers who teach video, or they don't teach video, but they're just teaching this one thing and they say, "Your live should be 30 minutes long."

Now, my lives now are 30 minutes long. They started, when I was new at it, like five minutes, 10 minutes. Because the more interaction I have, the longer they become. People are asking me questions and I'm answering them. So it lends itself to being longer.

But I'd say if you're looking for a start out point, start with 5 or 10 minutes. Be helpful, right? Don't try and extend something just because you think it should be longer. And I have a YouTube story about this. Obviously, not a live video.

When I started out doing YouTube videos, I hired a "YouTube guy". You can't see me, but I just put that in air quotes. And he kept saying to me, "Your videos have to be 10 minutes. They have to be 10 minutes. They have to be 10 minutes."

I struggled in two places. One, he was giving me content that didn't quite fit with what I was teaching, that this is what people want. I'm like, "Yeah, but that's not what I really do." So that's the first disconnect. The second was to try and talk about something longer than was helpful is really awkward. And that's where you get into video vomit.

Now, I created my channel, I did try and stretch them out. And he came back to me, he goes, "You know what, your audience actually wants them to be five minutes." And I kind of did one of those Homer Simpson's, like, "Duh, I know." Because I know my audience.

I know that they want to digest this quickly. They want an answer, and they want to implement and move on. I would actually err on the side of shorter, in the beginning, because people are getting to know you. And what you want to do, again, when we talk about creating that library of videos, like they exist, right? People will binge-watch through them.

So many times I get people who come to my site or to my private group and they're like, "Oh, my gosh, I just watched through, like, 10 of your videos, and I can't believe how helpful they are." Those are just my free lives that I did probably years ago. But they all live in a little video tab.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You just got to kind of test and see what works. It's not something that works for one industry or one niche is going to work across the board for everyone. I found that out the hard way myself.

I know with StreamYard and some other applications, you can go live in multiple places like YouTube and Facebook at the same time. But do you repurpose these live videos? Do you take a live video, say from Facebook, and then put it on YouTube? And then cut it up and put it on Instagram? Are you doing any kind of that repurposing strategy?

Tracy Phillips
I don't. And here's why. You can but every platform is different. And this is, again, getting to know your audience and where you are and how you're interacting. The first part is find out where your audience is. And don't try and be on too many different platforms.

My audience is on Facebook, and they're on LinkedIn. And YouTube, although, again, I haven't done anything on my YouTube channel, I get new subscribers every single day. I haven't put a new video up there in two years. So it's an opportunity just sitting there, but I have to focus my attention on, "Okay, but what's the low hanging fruit? How am I helping people right now?"

So Facebook is a social platform. YouTube is a search engine. Instagram, I call it the Uber social platform. Like, it's so quick. And we haveLinkedIn, which is a business platform. These are different places. And the videos are different.

So the structure of a YouTube video is slightly different. And if you're doing a live and you're interacting with people, and then just uploading that to YouTube, the YouTube people don't want to hear you interacting with people.

It'd be like doing it'd be like taking a live video and turning it into a podcast, which used to be a thing too, that like, "Just turn your live video into a podcast." It's like, "No, why would someone want to listen to you saying hello to everybody coming in and answering their questions?"

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah.

Tracy Phillips
It doesn't make sense.

Jeremy Deighan
It bothers me when I listen to a podcast and they're talking about clicking things on the screen. And I'm like, "You realize I can't see this right now?"

Tracy Phillips
Again, that's not being kind to your audience. If you're listening to this, I want you to take this away, and it's so important with video, is to be kind to your audience. Again, when we were just talking, Jeremy, about the length of videos and that type of thing. It's what I love about video now versus, I've been in video for 20 years, is the analytics.

You can go into YouTube, you can go into Facebook, you can go into Vimeo, and you can see exactly where people are falling off. You can see where they're spiking. So start doing videos. And if all of your videos consistently are 10 minutes, and people are falling off at five minutes, make your videos five minutes.

So it's really tuning in and listening to your audience and what they want from you. And again, if you don't know at first, just start. And you can look at the analytics and say, "Oh, okay, this is what they want." Ask questions and then create the videos based on their answers.

Jeremy Deighan
You have to have some kind of data before you can start analyzing that data. And with platforms, it just takes a while to get going sometimes. YouTube can be slow in the beginning, but then it picks up and you start getting some of that data. And you can look at that and start using that.

That's really smart. I like that a lot. Other than the problem of people trying to create content before asking what the audience wants, what are some other major mistakes that you see people doing with either live video or just video in general, video for their online courses? What are some mistakes that people make a lot?

Tracy Phillips
So the first one would be no goal or plan or vision? They're not really thinking through, where does this video fit into a bigger plan? Then I would say it's, I call it "the expectation gap". And that is the perfectionist, where you think that you have to show up a certain way because you're professional, right? You're good at what you do. And you cannot wrap your head around being imperfect.

So the expectation gap is looking at other people's videos and saying, "I want to be that." And you can be but that's not where you start. Again, coming from a pro video world where we used to hire actors for some of the commercials and stuff like that. Even actors work at their craft. They don't just show up and know it. They have spent years getting good at that craft.

And suddenly you're thrown into this role of being on video. Give yourself a little leeway. I like to tell people, "Take imperfect action over perfect inaction." And that's what I see a mistake where people are waiting. In my world, they're waiting to be 10 pounds thinner. They're waiting for elasticity to come back to their face. Not gonna happen. They're waiting, waiting, waiting.

And in the COVID world, I'm glad we're not recording video because we all have COVID coughs now, which are not great for video, right? We haven't been able to go. But you can't wait. You have to take some imperfect action.

And then I'm going to say the last one would be over complicating things. You're not going to learn and you're not going to get good at it if you're not doing it. A lot of people will come to me with what I call a "video graveyard". Their garage or closet is filled with this three-point cowboy lighting system and a DSR and all this. And, "Can you make this?" I'm like, "Whoa, who's your audience and what do they want from you?"

Then start with your phone or your laptop. I like a ring light, simple, it's under $120. I like simplicity. And here's something your listeners wouldn't know, but I have access to some of the nicest equipment out there that I never use because it's hard. I don't like teleprompters. I don't like boom mics. I don't like it. It's a lot of setup.

But I can easily throw my ring light on and put a nice shirt on. I like to say I'm business on top and nap on the bottom. I'm always wearing my slippers. But I can just do that and record a video like that. Is it perfect? Nope. Does it need to be? Nope.

Jeremy Deighan
That is a great explanation. You said the three points were not having goals, being a perfectionist, and over thinking everything. So you describe me perfectly, just so you know. That is me to the tee. I just make random videos and I overcomplicate everything that I do.

But it's what we hear and what we repeat online or try to do. People are out there and saying, "Oh, you got to buy the three lighting setup and you got to have the DSR and the fancy microphones and the backdrop." And I felt trapped to that myself. It's funny because over time, as time goes on, you don't get better at that's the technical. You realize that the technical doesn't matter and you start shedding it.

Like, I do so much less now than I used to. I used to have the teleprompter for my courses. I used to have the fancy vinyl drops and all the lights in them. Now, you realize that it's not that, it's the message. It's what you're trying to get across or what you're trying to teach. That's more important than all that other fluffy stuff.

Tracy Phillips
Preach, Jeremy. And it's so true. I joke around because I say I'm the laziest video person out there. Your perfect lighting is not going to make your content better. Your perfect sound, your perfect camera, all of that is... And a lot of people I think they use it as an excuse. I really do. I think that they hide behind the tech because they're like, "But there's so much tech."

And I joke around, "You need your finger in your phone if you want to start doing live video." Yes, you can step it up from there, but you can get really good at video with your finger in your phone. That's all you need.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, that's right. And if you make mistakes, like you said, if you're looking at your notes or you make a mistake on live video, people don't care as much as we think they care. As much as we want to believe that they care, they don't care about that. I think back to how many hours I wasted probably standing in front of the teleprompter, reading it halfway through, making a mistake, and then starting all over. Not even like pausing, but being like, "Okay, I'm doing it all over again."

Tracy Phillips
No, and again, it's perfect inaction, right? You're trying to be perfect about something. And quite honestly, I really want your listeners to hear this is. People buy on feelings. This is why live video is amazing.

They don't buy your thing. They don't buy your product. They don't buy your course. They don't buy your coaching. They buy you. And so, if you are polished and quaffed, and perfect, and that is not very approachable. And so that's what I love about live video. It makes everybody much more approachable.

It's okay if you're an introvert. My introverts do the best videos. Show up and tell people, "I am super uncomfortable putting myself out there on camera, but my message is bigger than my fear. And I need you to hear this message." People will love you for that.

Jeremy Deighan
That is wonderful, wonderful advice. I really enjoy that. So we talked about what's not working. But what are some things that you're seeing out there today that are working really well, or something that you can recommend that could really give someone a little bit of a boost?

Tracy Phillips
I really think that live video, especially if you're not into video, again, we're not talking about recording your course, maybe that's already recorded. But if we're talking about showing up and getting a presence out there, pick one or two platforms. That is a must. Because you're going to spread yourself too thin trying to be on everything.

Find out where your folks are and pick one or two and do some short live videos. Think it through. And again, what works are small digestible bites. And make sure that every single video has some sort of I call it a "write downable". If you think about just listening to somebody's story or video, you're like, "That's nice."

But if they give you something to do, if they give you some sort of action, something that you can do right when you're done watching, fantastic. I even joke with my people, I'm like, "Hold on, I know you wrote that down, but just wait till I get through the rest of this," because you want people to take action. Because if they're growing, if they're transforming, if they're actually taking action, they're going to be like, "She really helped me. He really helped me. I'm going to keep watching them."

So I think the idea is to shed the perfectionism and get going, but make sure that you're just talking about one small thing that they can do in each of your videos.

Jeremy Deighan
That's perfect. And I just want to add to we've been talking about live video mostly on this interview. But this translates straight into online courses. Everything we're saying works for online courses, too. It doesn't have to be as perfect as you think.

Tracy Phillips
And webinars and anything like that. Those are all things I do with private clients as well. People hire me to help them write their webinars because it's really important. I can't stand—I don't know how you feel, Jeremy—when I show up at a webinar, and someone spends 20 minutes telling me about themselves. Like I am banging my head against it.

When I do a webinar, I'm like, "I'm going to spend the next 2.3 seconds telling you about me." And then we're moving on. It's not about me. It's them and then making a transformation. And that's the same with the course creation. Again, when I buy a course and I see that each of the modules are an hour, I'm like, "Oh." When I see that someone took the time to break it up into small digestible bites, "Yay."

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, I even realized with my courses that in the beginning, I was doing a lot of that. "This is who I am. This is what's in the course, this is da da da." And then I realized my better converting courses are the ones where I just jumped right into the action like, "Let's start learning right now."

Tracy Phillips
Yeah.

Jeremy Deighan
Well, Tracy, thank you so much for coming on. It's just been a pleasure. And you've given us some really great advice. And I just want to leave the floor open to you if you have anything else that you wanted to add. Or if you want to tell people where we can find more about you. Or if you have any goodies or anything out there for us to come get more information from you. Where could we find that?

Tracy Phillips
Yeah. My website is videowscriptsuccess.com. And if you're on Facebook, I highly recommend you join Video Playground, it's my free group. I will ask you three questions because then I'm going to add that to my notes on what you want to hear. But that is where I love to support people.

I go live every Wednesday. I upload tutorials, tech tutorials. I have been a part of over 50 online launches between my own and clients. And so that is where I really like to nurture folks. But I would say if you're starting out with video, or you're trying to attract an audience, grow an audience, start with live video on one platform and just get good at it.

Be a beginner, but you will very quickly realize, "Oh, this isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be." And then you'll just watch the people rolling into your course.

Jeremy Deighan
Awesome. Perfect. Tracy, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. And I just look forward to your success in the future.

Tracy Phillips
Thank you. It's my pleasure, Jeremy.