In this episode, Deven Gillen, the Head of Business Development at Storyy, a dynamic platform designed to empower businesses and individuals to thrive on social media and YouTube. Deven and Kerry dive into the rapidly evolving world of short-form video content, emphasizing the need for high-quality, authentic videos that engage audiences.
Deven sheds light on the significance of effective video editing and scripting, emphasizing the delicate balance between polished and overproduced content.
The discussion extends to the impact of YouTube Shorts and other short-form video platforms on audience discovery and nurturing leads. Tune in to gain valuable insights into the world of social media, video content, and how they can work together to supercharge your business growth.
Transcript
[00:00:16] Kerry Barrett: Thank you for joining us for this episode. It is a pleasure to introduce you to one of the coolest people I’ve met over the last couple of months. This is Deven Gillen. He is in charge of business development at a company called Story, company I happen to be a big fan of.
[00:00:32] Kerry Barrett: We’re going to talk a little bit about what they do and why it’s important in a moment, but basically in a nutshell, Deven, Storyy’s a company, a platform that helps business owners, companies, et cetera, succeed on social media and on YouTube. And it is fantastic to have you
[00:00:49] Kerry Barrett: with us.
[00:00:50] Deven: Oh, I’m excited to be here. Kerry, we’ve been working with for a couple of months. I actually learned that Kerry was a news anchor here in Utah.
[00:00:58] Deven: What was, the distinction?
[00:00:59] Kerry Barrett: I was at KSL, which is the NBC affiliate in Salt lake City.
[00:01:04] Deven: Okay. And I’m in Eagle Mountain, Utah. So that’s cool. And then how long did you live here? Again, it
[00:01:08] Deven: was
[00:01:08] Kerry Barrett: like
[00:01:09] Kerry Barrett: I lived there from, oh my gosh, you’re testing my memory. It was a long time ago. 2003 to 2008, and then I headed back to the East coast.
[00:01:17] Deven: Cool. So it’s just cool how it worked out, but Kerry is a video coach. We help with video editing, social media, YouTube, the whole thing. So yeah, no, I’m excited to dive into it. See how we can give some knowledge and some value to your audience.
[00:01:30] Kerry Barrett: Absolutely. And I’ll encourage the audience to stick around until the end, because we do have a discount code that we’re going to share for listeners or viewers of this podcast that can help them get access to what Storyy does and how Storyy can help ’em. So all of that in just a second.
[00:01:46] Kerry Barrett: I want to talk to you before we jump into anything else about short form video, which holy cow. I would say, tell me if you agree, even if just the past couple of weeks that the desire for it or the social media beast, if you will, is calling for more short form video. It seems like, is that accurate or am I just exhausted?
[00:02:10] Deven: Yeah, and not only that so what I’ve seen is not only short form content, but high quality short form content. ’cause when ChatGPT came out three to five months ago, there were apps and different software where you could throw in short form content.
[00:02:27] Deven: It would spit out a video and give you subtitles, like a little bit of editing, but it just wasn’t good content, you could tell it was done by AI. And then you had AI writing posts on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on Facebook, and you could tell it was AI. So there’s been a lot of people interested in getting high quality video content because these algorithms are getting smarter, where if they just see poor content, going to grow your business. But if they see high quality, good, valuable content, what’s going to grow your business.
[00:02:57] Deven: A lot of business owners are realizing that you don’t have to spend ads to grow on social media because of how the algorithm works, where it’s based off of likes and interests and not who, you know. So it’s an interesting time right now that we’re seeing.
[00:03:10] Kerry Barrett: It is. And I think too, you mentioned something that’s really important. Yes. AI can shave a lot of time off of certain elements, of your content creation or at least your ideation, certain topics. They can maybe help you figure out what some of the key words are. But at the end of the day, my thought is, yes, it’s helpful, but it’s a double-edged sword because as it continues to compile information, and I don’t to go down a huge AI rabbit hole here but it’s relevant to the video.
[00:03:40] Kerry Barrett: As it begins to compile and educate itself on what people are saying and what they’re searching for and how they’re talking about it. It’s going to become more generic and the content is going to become more diluted because there’s so many inputs that it’s eventually just going to like background noise, at least that’s my guess.
[00:04:03] Kerry Barrett: And so having that real authentic connection is going to be something that’s going to have to be delivered by somebody with a face, somebody with a voice, and an actual person like a warm person with a beating heart inside. And that’s where video, I think is just, we think it’s growing like gangbusters now. My guess is that we haven’t even really scratched the surface.
[00:04:29] Deven: Yeah, and I think what’s interesting about video too, like the reason why people started recording videos ’cause they could grow their following, they could share their stories. When ChatGPT really exploded, it does, it gives you scripts, but you can tell it’s written by ChatGPT and we have to leverage your stories.
[00:04:45] Deven: What’s the experience that you’ve had in the past that you can leverage to tell your followers and establish that authentic message? Because, when you post a video on social media, your audience is going to have this idea in their mind of who they think you are as a person. So either that’s high energy or low energy, and then they’re going to meet you in person.
[00:05:04] Deven: And if you’re not the same as you are in person. They’re going to think you’re a lie, right? You’re a fraud. So if you’re someone on social media that records super engaging, like you’re just over the top excited and then they meet you in person and you’re super monotone and just like doesn’t have an exciting voice, they’re going to see two different personalities.
[00:05:23] Deven: So ChatGPT can help you enhance your video scripts, give you an outline, but don’t use it for the full script. Use it for more to enhance your bullet points of what you want to talk about in your videos, ’cause you have to leverage your own stories and experience to differentiate yourself from other creators and businesses.
[00:05:39] Kerry Barrett: You make such a good point about the authenticity and there’s probably some people who are listening or watching who are like, listen, I see what’s on TikTok and I see what’s on shorts. I’m not going to, dance in a bikini or whatever the case may be. And my thought is always, if you’re a bikini designer, maybe, but you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to be a great actor, or actress. Nobody expects you to be Meryl Streep or Daniel Day Lewis, or look like a model or any of that other stuff. It’s really just understanding how to deliver on video and then taking your story and what makes you authentic. Which I realize is a word that is also somewhat diluted at this point and putting it out there.
[00:06:21] Kerry Barrett: And I always say to people who are hesitant, because like me, maybe they’re shy, maybe they’re introverted. I’m both of those things, but creating video and using it on social media is basically one-to-one communication, but at scale. It’s a way you can accommodate and scale your message and your network without having to go through all of that stuff that you hate because you are shy and you are introverted. Would you agree with me?
[00:06:54] Deven: Yeah, totally. And I think too, just a few stories of my own experience. Going back to like your first sentence where you need to dance and do the trends. It’s funny ’cause this is my own personal story. I was doing an event, I was speaking an event a couple months ago and it was a real estate agent. One of the real estate agents said, the only videos I see is girls dancing. And it was funny because he didn’t understand how the algorithm works, so it was kind of awkward, right? Because I’m like, well this is how the algorithm works. It’s based off your likes and interests.
[00:07:23] Deven: So if that’s what you’re watching, that’s what you’re going to see. But my feed is more like podcasts, business owners, entrepreneurship so that’s the content that I see. So a lot of business owners are afraid ’cause they’re like I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to dance. You don’t want to hit that audience anyways. You need to hit the right audience that wants to be educated, wants to grow their business. So think of it as like a wavelength. What wavelength are you on? Are you the one that’s trying to create dancing toss and that’s the audience you want to grow? Or Are you actually trying to grow your business?
[00:07:52] Deven: And then, what was your question, Kerry? I wanted to touch on that. ’cause I thought that was important.
[00:07:56] Kerry Barrett: I think, it’s, I’m shy, I am introverted and I think video is a great place for people like me because it allows you to scale your message because it is basically one-on-one and the Dms and in the comments without having to, you know, I’m great in front of a camera.
[00:08:11] Kerry Barrett: Put me in front of a room full of people that I don’t know, and I have to give a 30 second elevator pitch and I want to just die. It’s a great way to do
[00:08:21] Deven: that.
[00:08:21] Deven: Totally. And it is not only like an easier way to show who you are as a person and your knowledge, but also
[00:08:27] Deven: it’s a great marking tactic. You can call a hundred people or you can get in front of a hundred people with the push of a button. Same with postcards, right? You’re going to send a hundred postcards, spend a few hundred bucks. Or you could post that on social media, boost that content to a specific audience so they see your content, which is going to be more valuable.
[00:08:45] Deven: And it’s always going to be social just because it’s a video of who you are. You’re explaining where a postcard people just throw that straight in the trash. So it’s just an easier way to bring out like the shyness. And also if you are struggling with that, a tip that I’ve seen help in the past is get someone to ask you questions, more of that podcast style, just answer the questions and that’s great content. Another thing, if you’re a business owner or someone that owns a business or an entrepreneur. Bring it on a notebook, write down every single question you get, even if you think it’s dumb because that’s what your audience is asking, and that’s the content you need to record So now you feel good because you’re recording content that people need to know about and not just recording content to record content.
[00:09:28] Kerry Barrett: 100%. It’s the difference between doing it with intention as a goal to bring more people into your circle, if you will, versus I’m supposed to do this, so I’ll do it.
[00:09:39] Kerry Barrett: It doesn’t really do anything for me. And then you get frustrated and you give up if you do social media right. I mean, listen, I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about that dude from however many years ago.
[00:09:53] Kerry Barrett: We all still remember it, who was drinking ocean spray cranberry juice on the back of hanging onto a pickup truck on a skateboard. I forget what he was listening to, but three days later, you couldn’t find a bottle of ocean sprayed cranberry juice, in any store all across the country. Social media does work if you create the funnel correctly, if you use it properly for discoverability and visibility and awareness.
[00:10:22] Kerry Barrett: I think that’s really where that short form comes in. There’s a lot of platforms out there that are beginning to push it. Certainly Instagram reels. TikTok was really the inspiration I think for all of this. But now YouTube shorts.
[00:10:36] Kerry Barrett: So tell me before we dive into social media more broadly. YouTube shorts are where people find you, right? That’s how they discover you. Longer form content is where you nurture and build trust. Is that generally the YouTube funnel?
[00:10:53] Deven: Totally, so not just YouTube shorts. So YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, Facebook reels, TikTok, they all work the same. It’s based off of likes and interests.
[00:11:01] Deven: So the cool thing about YouTube is you can monetize it first, but secondly, you can dive into a specific subject where you can nurture your leads and your clients even more. With the short form content you just used for is to get them inside of that funnel. If you can give them a taste of what’s going to be in these videos, they’re going to be more likely to watch your 10 to 15 minute video that really dives into it because you’ve given them a taste of what they’re going to see.
[00:11:25] Deven: So YouTube Shorts, if you’re not on it, there’s not enough creators. I would say because TikTok is getting oversaturated. YouTube Shorts is a great way for another platform to grow through video.
[00:11:36] Kerry Barrett: Does it matter? It, used to be and there’s very different vibes on all of these different platforms Instagram tends to be a little more curated. TikTok tends to be a little more scrappy. But I do feel like I notice there is beginning to become a push toward more produced videos, and I don’t mean like full scale video productions, I just mean adding some production elements that are engaging, that are interesting, that sort of hold your audience by the hand from beginning to end.
[00:12:09] Kerry Barrett: Is that true?
[00:12:10] Deven: Yeah. So, I talked to a business owner a few months ago and he said, hey, I don’t want to spend tens of thousands of grants to set up my studio. I just can’t afford them. You don’t need to do that. You just need to record the video on your phone and then have someone edit that video where they can remove the awkward pauses, remove the filler words, add the subtitles, those trending subtitles you see, add the B-roll footage, add the popups, the animations.
[00:12:36] Deven: So there’s a sort a certain layer where you just have an unpolished video and You can tell like, this does not look well, people aren’t going to watch this. And then you have overproduced where it kind of looks like a commercial.
[00:12:46] Deven: There’s a happy medium. And that’s what our team does is focuses on like just good content. And that’s really what you want to focus on. You just want to have good editing so people can see you as an authoritative figure and take you serious.
[00:12:59] Kerry Barrett: Always tell people like whenever you have a little bit of extra money editing is the very first thing you should outsource because doing it well takes some time to learn. You don’t have to get too fancy, but it does take time to learn and outsourcing it to a person or a team or a group that like knows what they’re doing and understands what the algorithms are looking for and understands the SEO, which Instagram and YouTube, et cetera, are very driven by SEO, more so now than I think ever before.
[00:13:28] Kerry Barrett: So in terms of short form content, and then let’s move into Social media. On a larger sense, what are the mistakes you see people making with their short form content? It’s the right hook, not the right audience. I mean, is it a plethora of things If people are like, all right, I gotta get on this YouTube shorts bandwagon, Where do I begin? What are the things they’re doing wrong? and then what should they be doing instead?
[00:13:56] Deven: Yeah, great question. So the first thing is I see a lot of, especially business owners because we didn’t start the business and then one day think like we were going to have to record video. It kind of just started happening over time.
[00:14:09] Deven: And what the business owner will do is they’ll introduce their name, they’ll introduce who they are, what they’re doing, and you’re already taking 15 seconds to get someone to watch your video. And just to dive a little bit higher into social media, how it works is, again, it’s based off of likes and interests.
[00:14:26] Deven: These guys don’t care who you are. We got on social media and if we see content we like, we’re going to watch it. But once someone starts to introduce themselves, we don’t care. We honestly do not care who you are, we just care that you can bring us value. So if you start off your video with an actual hook, two to three seconds. Asking a question, stating a fact, having a big number of data also works as well. That’s, what’s
[00:14:49] Deven: get people to watch your video.
[00:14:51] Deven: Once you have them inside of the video, there was a study that came out of why cocoa melon was so addicting. And bear with me, why this relates, the reason why it was so addicting is ’cause every two to three seconds, the scene was changing or something was happening. Once you get them into the video, you’re going to want every two to three second something happening. So either that’s chaining your voice to go higher or lower, or having editing with B-roll footage and popups, getting them stuck inside of that video is going to really get them to the end.
[00:15:19] Deven: But I see a lot of business owners that will talk in circles. Something that will help with that is have three bullet points you want to talk about on the that video. We have an app where you can use our teleprompter, but if you don’t want to use our app, no worries. Grab a sticky note, write out three bullet points, put it on your phone, hold your phone up like this.
[00:15:36] Deven: Will still look like you’re looking at the camera, but that way you keep your video in sync. And then the last thing you need to do is just your call to action. Where do they need to go from here? Cause great. They got all this knowledge, but you need to tell them exactly where to go. So making sure you have that call to action at the very end is going to help quite a bit.
[00:15:53] Kerry Barrett: Oh my gosh. We are speaking the same language because the beginning of your video. Is not an elevator pitch. That is not how you are discovered. It’s not going around a networking meeting and saying, hi, I’m Kerry Barrettt. I’m the owner founder of Kerry Barrettt incorporated. I teach blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Thanks for listening. I’m Kerry Barrettt.
[00:16:14] Kerry Barrett: Here’s what we’re talking about today. That’s not how it works. By the way, they’ve already found you. Don’t tell them what you’re good at. Show them what you’re good at by delivering in value and then if they want more and if your content’s good enough, they should, they can go click on your profile.
[00:16:31] Kerry Barrett: If you have that set up correctly, which we’re going to talk about in a moment and find everything that they need to know about getting in touch with you, what your products, what your services are, et cetera. So, thank you so much for mentioning that. And you mentioned the editing thing as well. If you look at movies edited today, like movies that are coming out now, versus movies that even 10, 15 years ago, you’ll notice the same thing.
[00:16:54] Kerry Barrett: The shots used to be much longer. Now they’re shorter because they realize the average consumer or viewer needs those dynamic scenes or those dynamic cuts in order to maintain their attention. It’s not as simple as getting up in front of a camera and spitting out some stuff and hoping that somebody’s going to stick around and watch it.
[00:17:14] Kerry Barrett: I think that’s so important that you mention that. And in terms of the scripting, 100%, because when you have 15 seconds, there’s no room for deviation. If you have 30 minutes, or you’re doing a live stream or a sales webinar or something, there’s room for some riffing, but if you have 15 seconds, you better stay on your mark and not deviate. So thank you for mentioning that cause you’re preaching to the choir.
[00:17:42] Kerry Barrett: Alright, so now that we see what people are doing in terms of their mistakes with their short form content, let’s talk about social media as a whole. And I want to start with your thoughts on where it is going, like the trends that you’re seeing, what you expect to pop up on the horizon when it comes to video content specifically.
[00:18:05] Deven: Yeah, no, great question. So, if you’re a business owner, an entrepreneur, I feel like that’s the main audience that Kerry, you help with. There’s a statistic that came out from HubSpot and it was 83%. So four out of the five people you talk to on a sales call, networking event are going to go check you out online.
[00:18:24] Deven: Most of our demographics for business owners are going to be on Instagram, it’s your digital business card. So just know that of why social media is so important is because if you don’t have a digital presence, you’re not providing value, they’re going to go to the other person. With that note, why video’s so important is because compare the two profiles.
[00:18:42] Deven: So think about this. Just Imagine this in your mind. You have Deven who has video on his profile. He’s providing value. He’s telling you how to do certain things for your business without charging a thing. you have the other guy or girl they’re on social media, but they’re not doing video. They’re just posting.
[00:18:58] Deven: So imagine ’em as a real estate agent. They’re just posting just listed, new listing. Hey, I got a great review. What does that do for their audience? You’re just talking about yourself and not about your, audience. So that’s why video’s so important It’s ’cause we want to provide value when people come check out your profile because they will, just a tip that will help you, if If you’re going to take anything from this podcast is do this, write down three common questions you get asked, record those videos. Post those videos on your profile and you can pin posts on Instagram and TikTok, pin those to the top of your profile and in your thumbnail, have that be the question. So for an example, why should you be on social media?
[00:19:36] Deven: If they click on that video, they’re already going to know why, now they’re going to figure out why they need to be on social media because that was on the thumbnail. Does that help Kerry?
[00:19:43] Kerry Barrett: Absolutely. And it makes it really easy for them to understand what you’re helping with. Oh, why should I be on social media? Oh, all of these reasons, maybe I should talk to Deven or I should talk to so and so about how they can help me facilitate all this.
[00:19:58] Kerry Barrett: What are the mistakes that you see people making across social media as whole? I feel like I see a lot of mistakes in terms of profile optimization. It’s not throwing up a blue banner behind you or red banner.
[00:20:15] Kerry Barrett: Like that’s real estate and you need to be using that spot as minimal as it may be almost as a landing page, really do you have suggestions for how people should optimize that are perhaps applicable across all of the platforms or at least a number of the big ones?
[00:20:33] Deven: Totally. And I think too, the number one mistake, even just higher level than that is why you got on social media in the first place.
[00:20:40] Deven: So 9 times out of 10, as a business owner, it’s to grow your business. You can’t solely rely on social media. It’s going to enhance your business. It’s going to amplify your message, but you still gotta go to the networking events. You still gotta show up to the webinars. You still gotta do the sales calls.
[00:20:55] Deven: This just makes it a way easier conversation. So they already know who you are. They see you as an authoritative figure, so they’re going to more likely to do business with you. So I will say that’s the number one mistake. Someone’s like, I’ll just post on social media, get 10 clients out of this, especially with high ticket.
[00:21:10] Deven: I assume that’s what you’re going to have or a product you still gotta do those things. That’s the number one mistake. With profile optimization make sure you have a clean headshot. So don’t have you on the beach with your spouse zoomed 100 feet back where they can’t even see your face. Kerry does a great job of this.
[00:21:27] Deven: Have it zoomed in on your face so they can see who you are. Make sure it’s up to date. Not something from 30 years ago when you’re in high school. Make sure you’re profile pictures up to date ’cause they’re going to see you on that sales call. It’s going to be a little awkward when they’re like, who are you? And it’s the same person.
[00:21:42] Deven: Second to that, have a call to action. So with Instagram, I think it’s five links you can have now, if I remember five to six. So have links to different call to actions. Have it go to a funnel. Don’t just put your website in there ’cause your website is like everything that’s
[00:21:56] Deven: overwhelm people on your videos with your call to actions.
[00:22:00] Deven: Make sure they go to a specific funnel. So a good example of this like Kerry for you, if you’re holding a masterclass, the call to action at the end of the videos, click the link about my masterclass, it’ll be really easy for them to get to that link. So don’t just post your website, have specific links.
[00:22:14] Deven: To specific specific funnels, if you really want to grow your business. And then lastly, sorry, I’ll end with this. This is a lot with social media, don’t just post and hope everything will go well. Make sure you have funnels built. Make sure you have a game plan put together of how you’re going to get them to the next step ’cause social media will help you with the high level, getting them inside of your audience, inside of your network.
[00:22:35] Deven: But then you gotta have a plan for them to get them to the close or for them being a client of yours. But yeah, does that help Kerry?
[00:22:41] Kerry Barrett: Absolutely 100%. It’s nurturing them. Absolutely. And there’s a bunch of different ways you can do that. I want to talk about how to create a social media funnel in just a second, but you mentioned something that I want to under score. And you talked about the website, it’s overwhelming. It’s everything all in one place. And then a couple of minutes ago, you talked about realtors, like here’s a listing or here’s a review I got.
[00:23:09] Kerry Barrett: And it made me think about the difference between website content and social media content.
[00:23:15] Kerry Barrett: I sort of feel like website videos, brand stories, they generally don’t work real well as a post on Instagram or YouTube or wherever. And that’s because in my opinion, when somebody is on your website, it’s probably because they have searched you specifically out or they have searched out somebody who offers a service that that they need.
[00:23:42] Kerry Barrett: And so they’re already looking for features and benefits and how does this work and all that other good stuff. They’ve got solid questions ’cause there’s an interest. On social media, it’s like your first introduction. It’s your first date, right? And so they’re looking for Story.
[00:24:02] Kerry Barrett: They’re looking for connection. They’re looking for stuff that grabs attention and is discoverable because they’re not necessarily searching for you. Not you, Deven, but you know what I’m saying, specifically, is that a good comparison of the difference in style between those types of videos? Website versus social.
[00:24:19] Deven: 100%. And I know this podcast is about websites, but just like to help you with your website. It doesn’t have to be like 10 years ago, websites. It can be a funnel. You can have a funnel that goes to specific places. You don’t have to have schedule a demo buy my product.
[00:24:34] Deven: Here’s a testimonial, like all of these things. Just because people have done that in the past doesn’t mean it’s working now. So I just want to touch on that too. Cause I see a lot of people that they’re like, I have to have a website that has all of these things, but really the likelihood of it, they’re going to click on a couple tabs vet you out, make sure your product works for what they need, and then they’ll schedule a call with you.
[00:24:54] Deven: So I love how you talked about that too. And then one thing that you said, Carrie, that was really cool. Don’t tell them what you do, show them what you do. I thought that was like perfect for social media. Yeah. Don’t tell ’em that you’re a successful business owner and you’ve done these things. Show them how to become a successful business owner. That’s how you have raving fans.
[00:25:13] Kerry Barrett: Thank you for mentioning that. Go on. So let’s talk about, now that we’ve talked about profile, optimization, let’s talk about social media more broadly. How do you go about creating a funnel on social media, you know, bringing people into awareness and then nurturing them through purchase or conversion.
[00:25:37] Kerry Barrett: And I’m sure probably depends on the platforms. A lot of it happens in stories or DMs on Instagram. Maybe somebody signs up for a lead magnet that you gives some tutorial around on YouTube or whatever. But generally speaking, can you give us some details about what we should be thinking about when we’re setting up a social media funnel and then how to nurture somebody once they’re in there?
[00:25:57] Deven: Yeah, I can’t show you, but I’ll show you through audio, through voice, if that makes sense, what we do. So we have our top of funnel content, right? That’s going to be just educational content on social media. Our call to action goes to a specific funnel. Inside of our website we use this tool.
[00:26:14] Deven: I think it’s called Lead Posts if I remember correctly, if they don’t fill out their information, but they visited our website, we can still email them and grab their information, which is really cool. Cause now we have an email that goes out says, hey, I saw you visited our website, but you didn’t submit your information.
[00:26:29] Deven: What were you looking at? So it’s a little creepy, but it gets deals done. Just make sure you have your unsubscribed link. Make sure that like everything compliance related you have inside there. If they do fill out their information, however, that’s when we take ’em to the next step.
[00:26:43] Deven: We want to take them to a sales call or potentially close ’em on that call. And then afterwards. What social media is great for, they’re not going to know everything from that call, even after being of a client. So it’s just a full circle. We’re still going to educate on social media, how to be successful online.
[00:26:59] Deven: So you see social as like top of funnel, you have your middle of funnel and then your bottom of funnel. But then it also just goes back around ’cause they become a raving fan ’cause you’re still teaching them what to do on social. Does that help? Like a funnel?
[00:27:11] Deven: What that looks like.
[00:27:11] Kerry Barrett: Absolutely 100%. And I always hear people say, Oh, you give all the content away for free.
[00:27:17] Kerry Barrett: And I’m like, no, that’s just tactics. Where you’re walking your client through specific problems, that’s your service. So I always sort of say, give away your tactics because that’s what shows authority. And then you help them bring all those pieces together.
[00:27:34] Deven: And the successful business owners. They’re not going to have time to implement those tactics. So if they can see as an authoritative figure and you know what you’re doing, they’re going to sign up with you a lot easier than you not sharing those tactics.
[00:27:47] Kerry Barrett: Because they don’t want to do it themselves.
[00:27:49] Kerry Barrett: Yeah, exactly.
[00:27:52] Kerry Barrett: Because it’s a big pain in the rear. Trust me, I’ve been there. I’ve tried to do way too much on my own before and then I realized, I gotta outsource this. This is ridiculous.
[00:28:00] Kerry Barrett: So let me ask you this as we approach the end of the show. And I could talk to you forever. And I learned something new from you every time that I do. What do you think people should be aware of on the horizon in terms of trends?
[00:28:14] Kerry Barrett: Do you see short form content getting more popular? Do you see new platforms that are sort of percolating under the radar right now that we should be keeping our eye on? What trends do you think we need to be taking note of?
[00:28:27] Deven: So there was like this huge boom with AI, so AI is not going to go away.
[00:28:31] Deven: I just think the thing that you need to be most careful of is sharing your authentic message and not relying on AI a hundred percent. It should help you enhance your message and enhance your business, but it can’t replace you as a human being. It’s going to be really awkward if your posts and your videos sound very professional, like a professor, ’cause that’s how you want to sound out online and you’re using AI for it.
[00:28:54] Deven: And then they meet, not saying this, but they meet you in person and you’re not as smart as a professor, right? Someone that went to Harvard, you’re probably pretty smart. So just being careful of leveraging AI to do everything, because it can’t replace you as a human being.
[00:29:08] Deven: Remember. still gotta talk to these guys. You still gotta network, you still gotta close them. So that’s the thing to be the most careful of. And then we all know what threads is, or you should know what threads is. It’s still up and coming. We’ll see if it still continues to grow or if it drops off.
[00:29:21] Deven: I think it’s too early to tell right now, honestly, my opinion. But the funny thing is they said it was just a text-based app, like Twitter, but day one, you can still post video and post images. So it just shows I was like video’s not going away. LinkedIn, a couple months ago, they had this, I think they don’t have it anymore.
[00:29:38] Deven: So I don’t know what they’re going to do with it. They had this feature on your mobile phone called search and it would pull up trending videos, which was funny. So I don’t know if they’re going to continue to do it or what. It’s just something to keep the eye on that. We’re going to get more video focused, especially AI writing blogs now for you writing social posts.
[00:29:54] Deven: It’s really going to be hard for AI to create video for you ’cause that’s your knowledge and your experience inside of your head that you’re sharing.
[00:30:01] Kerry Barrett: I want to ask you something. You sparked a question in me. A little bit of intrigue when you talked about where social media platforms are going specifically threads, and there is a platform that’s actually been around for a couple of years now. Two or three years. And it had a huge surge in visibility couple of months back.
[00:30:21] Kerry Barrett: Clubhouse did and then it seems like it’s dropped off a bit and I’m talking about clapper and I have an account there Okay. and it’s short form video. It’s like the precursor to TikTok. It’s very basic right now. And who knows where that’s going to go? If it continues on its trajectory.
[00:30:37] Kerry Barrett: Maybe not that far, but how do you assess what platforms, new platforms you should be jumping on? What is the right platform for you? Whether it’s multiple platforms. Can you give us some guidance on that?
[00:30:50] Deven: Yeah I wouldn’t really think of it like what the platform does. What I would really look at is your ideal clients on that platform.
[00:30:58] Deven: So a good example of this, there’s less people like younger generations, younger than my generation, which is funny. Like they’re not on Facebook and Instagram. They’re on TikTok. They’re on Snapchat. Is that your ideal client? They’re on threads, right? Or is yours more well-known business owners. They’re the type of people that created a Facebook to stay in touch with their family.
[00:31:17] Deven: They’re going to be more likely to be on Facebook and Instagram. It’s older platforms. So when you’re looking about it, like what are you trying to accomplish? And is your clientele or your ideal clients on that platform? I wouldn’t necessarily care if the platform’s big ’cause what you said platter, right?
[00:31:32] Deven: If all of your clients were on platter? Would you rather be on platter or would you rather be on Instagram and Facebook where they’re not at? So that’s just really what I would look at. So test it, see if you’re getting the right engagement, people are messaging you, like you can test these things for a month or so and see if things are working out and if not, just back off.
[00:31:49] Deven: Snapchat isn’t an audience we want to be on for our company’s Storyy. It just wouldn’t make sense. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Works does that’s where we get our clients. So we’re going to stick on those ones. Does that help? I know like you want to be diagnosed?
[00:32:01] Kerry Barrett: No. 100%. You make such a good point.
[00:32:03] Kerry Barrett: I dumped a lot of time into clapper when it first started because the organic reach was great. Granted, there were some parameters that I had to articulate though we’re a little dicey. Do I want to see not see for work content? I’m like who was on this after all? But the growth was pretty quick.
[00:32:22] Kerry Barrett: I’ve dialed back because I don’t think the growth was the right audience. And again, the platform itself has seemed to dialed down in intensity, but I have a tendency to sort of dabble and then realize where I have to pull back for somebody who’s maybe just beginning this process. it’s Probably better for them to take a more strategic approach and pick a few platforms where they know their audiences and focus on those.
[00:32:47] Kerry Barrett: which brings me to what Storyy does, and I want to get a chance to talk about it very quickly before this show wraps up, because one of your employees reached out to me via LinkedIn, offered to shoot a quick interview with me, you mentioned the benefits of shooting an interview right off the top of this program and how it helps people loosen up and answer questions and be more conversational, that’s not my problem.
[00:33:10] Kerry Barrett: But I loved what you offered and the way you offered it and you sent the videos back and they were great. And I’m like, I need this because I can’t handle all of the editing and I’m paying way too much money for the amount of content that I put out. So tell me a little bit about and by the way, before I get ahead of myself.
[00:33:28] Kerry Barrett: It’s not all you guys do, you do keyword research and profile optimization, you put together the descriptions and the captions.
[00:33:37] Kerry Barrett: So it’s much more than just, here’s your video. But why don’t you dive into that a little bit, if you can, because I’m super impressed with what you do. I’m very happy with the product and the videos that I’ve gotten out of it. And if I can save somebody a little time and help them optimize their platforms for views, I want to it.
[00:33:57] Deven: I’ll just share my personal story. So it is, I think six, wow, six years ago, I was the social media, strategist. It’s funny. Cause I knew how social media worked, but I didn’t know how to edit videos. I didn’t know how to write copy. I wasn’t a graphic designer. I wasn’t an ad specialist.
[00:34:12] Deven: There were so many things I wasn’t. So they hired full-time people, or graphic designer, video editor, videographer, copywriter, and this probably for a very small company cost over like 300 grand a year just to get the people right. We call ourselves that Storyy as a content team in your pocket. We’re like one 30th of the cost, but we do a better job.
[00:34:32] Deven: So it’s funny. We’re cheaper, but we do better quality than anybody else out there you just hire full time. So if you think of yourself as a business owner, do you want to go and network and grow your business? Or do you want to do these following steps and Kerry I’m sorry, but I’m could explain every step real quick.
[00:34:46] Deven: Cause then you’ll start to understand why you need a content team. First you need somebody that’s going to help you come up with a strategy. What are the goals we need to go for social media? What platforms do you need to be on? So you have an account manager with our team, social media strategist.
[00:35:01] Deven: Second. And this is, I’ll talk about YouTube too. It’s related in the same. Second, now you need somebody to help you script your videos cause you’re not going to be able to come up with the content. I know there’s AI. But if you put in, create me a one minute video on how to talk about video, it’s going to do something like this.
[00:35:16] Deven: Opening scene, you’re walking into the living room. I have that script. So it does like this thing that’s not focused on social we actually will give you a script to record. It will give you a hook, bullet points and a call to action. So now you have someone that we’re helping script out in the videos.
[00:35:34] Deven: And then one of the biggest problems we had was helping business owners actually record the video ’cause they weren’t comfortable. So we have a teleprompter we give you, you just read off the bullet points with your experience. So now we’re giving you something, not a person, but a thing that will actually script out the videos for you.
[00:35:48] Deven: So now you have a script writer, personal script writer, which is cool. After that, you record the video, you upload it to us. Second issue we had, they would have to text it, email us, Dropbox. We have an app that only we’ve created, you’ll get live updates of where your video is. You submit it through your app on your phone, makes it really easy to get us the content.
[00:36:07] Deven: After we get the video. We have someone that watches the video timestamps, the video. So even for YouTube, they’ll timestamp it to be under 10 to 15 minutes. Get the most captivating content out of it. And then they’ll watch the video for short clips. So if it’s under a minute, we’re going to timestamp that if it makes sense.
[00:36:23] Deven: And that’s a position in its own. Video editors, that’s one of the hardest parts. If you didn’t know, becoming a video editor is actually finding what makes sense for their message and that person. So we have a specific position for that. Then it goes to the video editor, which edits the video. You know what an editor does.
[00:36:37] Deven: Popups. animations, B-roll footage. We’re not throwing it through Canva or like Descript, we’re actually editing these videos very high quality. And then it goes through two rounds of QA, one for quality, make sure it matches your brand, make sure it matches the trends. Then we have a second round where we look for grammar, right?
[00:36:54] Deven: Because there’s AI that will give you subtitles, but it’s not always a hundred percent correct, so we need a human element in there to make sure these subtitles are correct. So we’re already at a seven person team right now, and I’m going to keep going, so that’s just for the video editing. We deliver it back to you. You can post it product one, same for YouTube. We can give you the video, you can post it.
[00:37:13] Deven: For social media and YouTube, this is where we keep going. We have someone that will write the caption or write the description for social media, do the SEO research for social media, research the hashtags, research the trending song.
[00:37:25] Deven: So now we have someone that’s actually writing this stuff. We leverage AI, but we leverage it through your video. And then we have a human being that goes back through that content and makes sure it actually sounds like you and not AI. So that’s why we need this human element in the process. Once we have the captions, we’ll post it for you.
[00:37:40] Deven: So now we have a posting specialist that will go and post it on your accounts, take care of it from start to finish. And then you talk to your account manager once a month or as much as you need, and you can see the whole process. So I talk about 10 positions. Normally you’d spend like 300 grand.
[00:37:53] Deven: Our packages go from $267 for video editing, or you can go up to like with YouTube and a full social media team for 1600 bucks a month. Yeah. So we’re really affordable and that’s what we want to do.
[00:38:05] Kerry Barrett: I think too, like it’s really easy to get bogged down in the details. And this is not a paid advertisement, this is not right. but there are things that I learned in the process of working with you guys to set up my channel that I didn’t even realize that were critical or urgent at the very least. So for example, the naming of the files, the actual names of the thumbnails. So it’s not like xpsypd.jpg. Naming it social media trends, those meta tags for the thumbnails for the video files for all of it make a difference.
[00:38:42] Kerry Barrett: And it sounds like maybe it’s not a lot of work, but if you’re going to actually go in and do this, it’s worth doing it right. Because if you’re not doing it right, you’re wasting your time and likely your money anyway. So there’s a lot of strategy behind the scenes and knowledge that goes into this beyond just let’s slap some, simple clips together and call it a day.
[00:39:04] Kerry Barrett: And I have again, like I said, it is the first thing that anybody who’s serious about creating a decent amount of video should consider is how to outsource and not just how to outsource, but how to make sure that video is working for you in its fullest capacity, which I think is the next step that people often forget.
[00:39:27] Deven: Yeah, I love that. I’ll just end with this. If you’re going to get on social media, make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Don’t just post to post. If you outsource it, I will say this, set goals with that company so you guys can meet and hit those metrics. I see a lot of people they’ll work with a company they’ll like, edit my videos, post it, and then they’ll be upset.
[00:39:45] Deven: And the company’s like, why are you upset? They’re like, oh, cause we didn’t get 300 followers. I didn’t know you wanted 300 followers. The strategy changes based on your goals. Are you trying to get sales? Are you trying to get followers? Are you trying to get views?
[00:39:58] Deven: Are you trying to get engagement? Cause then we can tailor that to what you’re trying to get. So just keep in mind if you are outsourcing, making sure you have goals and setting those standards beforehand.
[00:40:07] Kerry Barrett: I love it. And if people are considering outsourcing to Storyy, to you, where should they go to get more information or to set up a call?
[00:40:15] Deven: Yeah. So, if you want to visit storyy.co with two Y’s and then you’re going to do slash Kerry, so forward slash Kerry dash Barrett, and we’re doing a special, we’re giving 10% off the first three months. Discount code is just Kerry 10. So if you watch the podcast to the very end, you’ll get 10% off those first three months.
[00:40:33] Deven: We’ll have like full on explanations through that landing page, but you can schedule a call with me as well, if need be.
[00:40:39] Kerry Barrett: Very good. And I will link if you’re watching this on YouTube in the comments below, or if you’re listening to this in the description your website, stories website, and also the discount code that people can use exclusively listeners to this podcast to sign up and get that discount.
[00:40:56] Kerry Barrett: Deven, it was awesome to talk to you. Thank you for your generosity of knowledge and time. I appreciate it. I know the audience does too.
[00:41:06] Kerry Barrett: Thanks, Kerry.
[00:41:07] Kerry Barrett: Thank you.
Resources mentioned
Discount code: Kerry10
Places to follow up with Deven:
- Instagram: @devengillen
- LinkedIn: Deven Gillen
