Attracting Dream Clients with Video; strategies for Linkedin and YouTube - Teacher: Alex B Sheridan

every time I review a video, it's literally comes down to is this good enough for my audience? Like, are they gonna get something from this? There's never been a time in my career. As a video marketer or social media marketer where I've sat and said, I've got this figured out. 

This is Alex B Sheridan, the video creator that gets millions of views on his LinkedIn content every year. And if you know LinkedIn, you'll know that's not an easy thing to do.

Over the past three years, Alex has become synonymous with video edutainment on the platform. And specifically his brand of creative education that leans heavily on humor. Slick editing, excellent video scripting, and deeply educational content. In this lesson we talk with Alex about some of the little known details about his video creation. 

You have to treat every day. Like you're starting from zero. 

He'll teach us how to create a high performing video on LinkedIn. 

Yeah It's about results and inbound leads and clients and, and all that happens. But it's also about, I'm excited for the thrill of getting better. 

We learn what it takes to transition from LinkedIn to YouTube. 

And even though I had, I'd done well on LinkedIn, I'd done well on TikTok, I hadn't done well on YouTube. And that was like, I had to look myself in the mirror and go, dude, you're the, you're a video person. You do video marketing, social media marketing. You're not doing YouTube, like you haven't even tried to figure it out. 

How to overcome your biggest video fears. 

but the mindset shouldn't be, what if I post this and it fails? What if I post this and I get rejected? What if I post this and it performs terribly? If we flip the mindset and say, 

what it takes to stick with video, even when it's challenging, 

I realize that this is not a one month game. Six month game, one year game. 

and we discuss a touchy topic that makes Alex say this. 

That was a big mistake. 

Let's make useful content. 

Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast, and today we have a brand new hold on, a returning teacher in the useful content classroom. Alex b Sheridan. Hi Alex.

Glad to be here Juma. Thanks for having me, man.

Yeah, it's, it's great to have you back. I mean, uh, I, I am constantly amazed by your consistency in putting out video content and the quality of it. And, every time I think about video marketing, especially in the entertainment space, I. Your name is synonymous with that. And your LinkedIn journey has, in my mind, observing it externally has been tremendous.

could you, could you tell the people what you do and how you help your clients create useful content?

Well, the one-liners that we help B2B service-based companies, turn their video content into a 24 7 sales rep for their business. That's kind of the philosophy, but really what we do, if you break it down practically and just the easiest way to explain it is we do video content and social media strategy training and coaching.

Right. And so over the years that you've been doing this now, uh, what has been the thing, the biggest lesson that you've learned with video marketing, 

man. I'll tell you one of the biggest things on video content, and I think that most people may, may not expect me to go here, but I think if you wanna get great on video, one of the most underrated aspects is you have to treat every day. Like you're starting from zero. Like there has never been a time juma, and you followed my journey pretty again, pretty closely, and I've followed yours to pretty closely too. There's never been a time in my career. As a video marketer or social media marketer where I've sat and said, I've got this figured out. I, I know, I know what I'm doing now. Like I've, I've, I've finished, I'm, I've made it. I've accomplished what I wanna accomplish. I am the go-to person. I am actually the complete opposite where every day I wake up and I'm like, I have so much to learn.

I haven't done anything yet, even though I'm proud of what I've accomplished. Right. I'm not taken away from that. I am proud of my. Consistency my results, results for clients, our company, the videos that we've made. I'm very proud of that. The progress. 'cause there is ginormous progress. You know this from the first few videos that I've done, um, to where we're at now.

But at the same time, it's the humbleness to say, I don't care what anyone says. If they say, you're the best at this, you're good at this, you're great. You know, or if I think that I don't care. It all goes back to I've got so much to learn. I'm new at this. This is day one. We're starting from the bottom, trying to work our way up, make a name for ourselves, and I think that level of humbleness, but that level of. Light the fire underneath you to get more creative to, how do I make that next video better? Yeah, this one performed well, but we could do something better. We could try a new format or a new concept. We could hone our skills with better hooks in the beginning, or we embed mini hooks throughout the videos now to micro retain people, right, to retain them throughout the entire video. There's so many things. You know, I'm excited about trying new platforms. Like 20, 23 was the year for YouTube for us, right? Where we made a splash on YouTube that was new and it humbles you and it punches you in the face 'cause you don't know what you don't know. But for me, man, coming from that mindset when it comes to video content, it's the number one thing from a baseline standpoint.

Like you gotta be there first.

I think one of the questions I actually wanted to ask you would've been something, it, it seems like a simple question, but you kind of answered it there, is that, is video content creation hard? It's, um, it's a very basic question, but it's something that people always ask, is this thing difficult? 

Yeah. Well I think, you Know, I would, I like to use the word challenging, but yeah, I mean, I think, look, creating video content versus text or picture post or graphics video is much more challenging and there's no if and or buts about it for even if you're good on video and you've got natural, I. Video presence that you know, maybe can't be taught.

You've just got it still. It's tricky because there's so many moving parts. There's so many elements, right? Like you have to physically speak in front of a camera, which can be challenging. You have to worry about the lighting, the audio, the focus where you're filming, right? And background noises. Then you've got the post-production, you've got editing and the captions and this. So it's a very. It's simple, but it's also complex in a lot of ways, especially when you haven't done it before. But Juma, I can't tell you how many times I've made mistakes on videos. I mean, just man, I, I mean just almost every single video, to be honest, dude, is like there's some level of mistakes or something we could have done better.

It's just, it is what it is. And I think that's what stops people from doing video because they start making it with good intent. I wanna do video, I should be doing video for my business. I should be. You know, emotionally connecting with my audience and attracting dream clients, but then they start creating it.

It's like, oh, but I missed this one part, or I forgot to say this. If you forgot to say something in a text post, you can just edit it in, like it's not that big of a deal, you know? You can even post it and then edit it after you post it. It, but with video it's different. Like there's more layers to it, and that's why it's, there's more earnings, there's more potential, right?

Because not everyone's gonna do it because it does, because it's layered and it's more complex. It adds a certain level of value that you cannot get with text or picture.

So I think it's kind of like, Hey, do you wanna start a business? Yeah. Is it gonna be challenging? Yeah. Like that's why it's gonna pay off if you actually stick with it and succeed.

Right? You're gonna have financial freedom, make your own schedule, you're gonna be able to do what you love versus maybe sticking in a situation that you're not happy in. So I think there's trade-offs with everything, but yeah, it's freaking challenging, man. And if you're not up for the challenge, like you're, you're going into it with a losing mentality.

What's the required character that allows you to stick with it even when it's massively challenging?

I think two core things, the reasons I've stuck with video. Number one, I always try to think about am I making an

impact on the people that I wanna reach, right? So my audience, my dream clients, obviously, but even there's a broader picture than that where it's your impacting people that maybe are not your specific target customers. But they dmm you and say, Hey, thanks so much for that video. Like you, you changed the way I look at content. Or you helped me get outside of my comfort zone. You helped me quit my job and, and pursue my dream two years ago with the post that you made. I mean, those are, that's awesome, man. Like, to be able to make that kind of impact, like you can't get that from money, like that just feels fricking good in your soul. So I think for me, I always think about every time I review a video, it's literally comes down to is this good enough for my audience? Like, are they gonna get something from this? Like, and I know it's simple to say, but. That's how I evaluate. And there's certain video clips where I'm like, not good enough.

Like it's not good enough for my standard. Right? I don't think they're gonna get enough from this clip. And then there's certain times where I wanna show that vulnerability. Where I recently on my a YouTube video, I messed up and I forgot to add a really big part of the video. So I

I saw that, 

I saw that you had to, you had to put it back in. 

I had to go put it back in and I was like, you know, and I mentioned right away I go, I changed. You'll notice I changed environments. And I'm like,

I did that strategically. No, I didn't like, look, I messed up, man. I freaking messed up. And that wasn't even the part of the video. I just wanted to add that in there to let people know this is real, right?

If you want to commit, you want to do this. Like you're gonna have these things happen. So I think that leads me to my next point. The second reason that I'm able to stick with video, even though it is very challenging, is because I realize that this is not a one month game. Six month game, one year game.

Like this is a skillset that I am building over the course of five years, a decade, 20 years. So I go back that to that mentality. Like I don't care if my last, I could look at my last month worth of videos, and there's been times where I'm like, man, I could have upped my game, man. These aren't as good as they should be.

Then the next, next month I'll come back better than ever. So for me it's like. Yeah It's about results and inbound leads and clients and, and all that happens. But it's also about, I'm excited for the thrill of getting better. And when you're in it because of that and you wanna really provide value and make an impact, and you're really excited about growing your business and growing your skillsets as growing your skillset as a creator, I think you're gonna win long term.

Yeah. That's, that's so good.

I, you know, as you were talking there, I had a few thoughts. I don't want to get into the YouTube as yet because there's some questions I want to ask you about YouTube, but let's talk about when you were talking there, I had, um, an idea my head about the two major categories of fears that people have when they are approaching video.

Right. And I know there are lots of subcategories, but let's just. Put them into two massive categories for now.

So one category is the, I'm not gonna get return for doing this. It's not gonna make me money. I'm gonna invest a lot of resource and I'm not gonna get the money back. Right. So that's like a fear of losing revenue or losing that the, the investment you put into creating video.

And the second one is like the, a bunch of personal fears. Like, I'm gonna sound stupid. I don't want, dunno what to say. I, you know, I'm uncomfortable on video and I, if you, if you take those two fears and you add them together, it's just a storm for people not wanting to get 

on video and do it. How do you deal with both those things when people come to you?

So let's tackle the first one. So you know, if you want to create video content and you're worried, what if I don't get an ROI or what if I dump all this time, money, resources, effort, energy into it, and. I don't win any clients. It doesn't help build my brand. I don't really see a return on it. If that's your mindset coming into it, then I would just say then don't do video. I mean like honestly like it is, and I'll, I'll elaborate a little bit here, but it's like if that is your mindset coming into it, I think you're already broken. I. The whole thing's destined to fail. It's like if you're going into, you know, building a business and saying, well, what if it doesn't work? What if I don't build a business?

What if I waste a year of my time and then I'm back at my full-time job? 'cause I couldn't leave, I didn't make the money. Well, shit man, what if you die today? Like, there's a lot of things that can happen, right? Like a, a meteor or can fricking strike earth today, but I'm not worried about that, right? So it starts with that undeniable mindset of like, I will not be stopped. I will work my butt off. I will either make this work or I die. Right? Like, and I'm pretty, I'm an extreme person. I'm an obsessive extreme person. That's just how I am. But I think it takes a certain level of like, I'm not gonna go in. I refuse to believe that this doesn't work. Now, if you don't think it works or you're really doubting if, man, I don't know if this video thing is gonna work, then do your homework.

Do your research, right? Get educated. Talk to people you trust and know. Hire a co, like whatever you need to do to, to build that. I believe in this now and this is worth me pursuing. Maybe I need some help pursuing it and actually executing it. 'cause a lot of times it's not that video didn't work, it's that you didn't execute the video strategy well enough for it to work. So that's the first one. The second one is, if you're insecure about getting on video because you're worried about what will, what will, Susan say or what will Roger say at work? Or what will my coworker right next to me in the same. You know, office. Say if I post a video and they're, it doesn't do well, it, what if it doesn't perform?

What if I look like an idiot? What if I post something and it turns out I should have said something else? I was kind of wrong with my take. To me, I think the flip in the mindset shift here, and it's a big one, is to stop and say. Stop thinking about everything that that could go wrong. And this is all insecurities and ego of course talking and typically there's some things going on internally that you need to work through and deal with.

We all have those. I had those for sure, but the mindset shouldn't be, what if I post this and it fails? What if I post this and I get rejected? What if I post this and it performs terribly? If we flip the mindset and say, what does it say about me as a person, as my character? What does it say about my character?

If I post video content? It says that I'm being selfless, that I want to help people. It says that I'm willing to get outside of my comfort zone and do something that is kind of making me a little nervous. It says that I'm bold. It says that I look fear in the face and say I'm gonna do it anyways. It says that I like to inspire other people. It says that I've got a message and a story to share with the world that I really want to get out there. Like that's how we gotta think about it. Like imagine how powerful that is as a move, as a person, as your character to go out there and do something like this good for you, clap it up for those people versus being like, well, what if I post it and everything terrible goes wrong? On the flip side, I'd say, what if you post it and everything went right?

What if that one 

post did well? What if you won that client and now you're sitting back and saying, oh my gosh, all because I started this video journey.

Hmm. Right. I'm sure you had a lot of, I told you some moments when with your clients, um, regarding that it's like.

Of course. Of course. Yeah. And they're like, ah, it worked. I'm like, of course it did. Yeah. Those are cool though. Those are fun.

Yeah, that's, that's good. That's good. So that's a good introduction to you and, uh, just how you treat with video, your thoughts towards it, the mentality surrounding it. And let's get a little more into making this, the video, a 24 7 sales rep and get into some of the details of that. I actually wanna start with YouTube.

Because I know YouTube is probably your most recent foray and, before this, you were, you were testing it out and I was clear that you were testing things out with shorter form, and then it got longer and longer and longer, and now you, you're putting out some really long YouTube videos.

Uh, so what was the strategy change that made you get into YouTube after being on LinkedIn and TikTok? 

My YouTube channel was like most B2B companies where it was just a ghost talent, right. For many years. And I treated it that as my fault, right? I didn't, I just dumped, you know, long form podcasts webinar. Like I just would make a edutainment video and dump it there and, you know, there was no results because of that.

Of course, right now, I, I, I took ownership. I realized that was, that was on me. I just didn't have a clear strategy. I didn't put time and effort and, and focus on it to be honest. I was focused on LinkedIn and TikTok that were doing quite well

for me. 

I just believed in my heart that there was an opportunity for me to make a bigger impact at a deeper level. And I also, so I think that's one opportunity, right? Like from a business standpoint, from an impact standpoint. I was like, man, if I could get

on here and really go deep with people, I think it'd have a pretty tremendous impact. I really do. I've got some things I can share that I just can't pack into a 62nd video. Um, so that was one thing and I saw it as a business opportunity. Um, and I think secondly, I. I think it's the most underrated social media platform for B2B companies. And I think I saw that as a exciting challenge for me to be able to go there and learn kind of that new skillset. And even though I had, I'd done well on LinkedIn, I'd done well on TikTok, I hadn't done well on YouTube. And that was like, I had to look myself in the mirror and go, dude, you're the, you're a video person. You do video marketing, social media marketing. You're not doing YouTube, like you haven't even tried to figure it out. So it was that challenge that I was excited about. I was like, man, I know I can make the impact.

I know the values there long term, and I kind of am excited about this challenge. And I knew it wasn't gonna be easy. I knew I was gonna have to learn titles, thumbnails, descriptions, a little SEO in there, how to craft a great YouTube video, how to do research on what to create in the first place. Like there was a big learning curve for that. But I also saw it as, Hey, if I can figure this out and I did, then I can implement this for my customers. And to me, that's always a big one. And that's part of the reason I want to continue to learn is 'cause I'm excited to take it, learn it, do it, apply it, get results, and then pass it on to my clients. So they're constantly getting a value add for me because I'm always learning too. So if you worked with me six months ago and then you worked with me, now there's a whole new skill. There's a whole new. Plethora of skills and tools and resources and knowledge that we can give to you. So that's, that's what got me into it in the first place.

Yeah, talking about six months ago, six months ago, I was looking at a YouTube feed, and it is interesting to see even that has evolved from a visual point of view.

There's a certain point in which your thumbnails really did match your brand colors, and then at some point they got a lot more colorful. The, the a change, identity change.

Why? Why did you make that choice to change what the thumbnails look like?

Well, I think it's a combination of, I felt like it was stale. Like I felt like it was just like kind of businessy ad kind of looking in terms of what the thumbnails were when they were like, I was trying to like be on brand with my colors. I think that's a big mistake in a lot of cases. The other thing I was just learning, you know, I was just learning, man.

I was like looking at what other people are doing. I was looking at thumbnails that caught my eye and attention. I was looking at when I, and this is funny to say, but I would literally pay attention, man, when I was in YouTube and I would open up the app and I would click on a video, what, whatever the subject was. I would say, where did my eyes go first? Did I go to the thumbnail and then the title, or did I go to the title? Then the thumbnail was there a, an emotional interaction I had between the thumbnail and the title together. And I found that like subconsciously you look at like either the thumbnail first, then you, and then boom, you're right to the title. Or for some people they look at the title and then right to the thumbnail. So I noticed like some correlations there and I was like, we gotta get more creative with, we gotta have some more emotion in the, in the thumbnails, the titles can be more logical and what's in it for the, the audience member or the listener or the value. I think you gotta get creative there too. But the thumbnails really need to be more emotional. And if I'm like trying to stick on the same. You know, format in me and the same colors, like it's hard to bring out the emotion. So I think what I was doing before is I was saying, here's a thumbnail template that you can use,

and then 

the mindset shift I made to where my video started performing better on YouTube, and specifically the thumbnails and titles, as I said, no, let's not think like that.

Let's think. Here's the video that we're gonna create. What is an engaging. Way to tell the story of the video in just one picture thumbnail. So I started thinking about, and I still do now, I started thinking about the thumbnail before I even make the video. And so I've got kind of this mindset of going into it that if there was a trailer of the movie or if there was a picture poster of the movie, what would that be like?

And then when I make the video, I try to kind of keep that in mind. And so that, that was the big shift in like a template. Versus No, let's customize to the actual video and really make this work for the person that's searching or scrolling through their YouTube feed.

Yeah, that's a great shift. That's a great, that's a great shift. And that's a great explanation because it means that you're thinking about, and as you're saying, you're, you're testing out, you're seeing 

what works. And you know, sometimes we come into the creative process with, of a, a kind of a fixed mind about what's gonna happen and what 

works. Then we realize, well, that's not actually the case. Uh, it it has to be different. And I love too, I looked, I noticed that you, in your thumbnails, some of them don't even have text. It's just, it's just images.

that's more testing and trying, Hey, would this work? Would that work? You know, what if we don't have any text? What if we have a couple words versus three or four or five words? Right? So, you know, I think it's a general rule of thumb. You don't wanna have too much text. You know, probably three to five words would be, you'd try to keep it there or below, but some thumbnails when the title is good and it makes sense and it aligns. Don't really need text at all.

So, 

yeah, man, to your point, so it's learning, it's, yeah, it's being very intentional about what you're doing versus just saying, I'm gonna get a video on YouTube because that's not gonna work.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Lovely. That's good. Um, let me ask you one more thing about YouTube, which I, I also noticed I've been kind of scouring your YouTube, seeing, seeing what's up with it. Um, I. So your most viewed video is, is an interesting one. Uh, it's a 48 k. Now, thereabouts is the one where you said, uh, if I had to start LinkedIn from zero today, uh, this is what I would do.

So I clicked into the video. I looked at it. And in the first minute and 34 seconds of the video, that video did not stay still for more than three seconds. It just didn't stay still. And I said, hold on. And then you come to a point where the title where your face on LinkedIn comes up, it breeds, it takes a deep breath, and then it goes back into not staying still for three seconds.

Uh uh, and I know that's a thing that you do. Tell me how doing that type of editing has impacted the way people receive your videos.

That was a big mistake. So that was not, when you say that in my mind, and the reason I was kind of like this is because I realize it, it pains me a little bit. Even though we've learned from it, we've moved on, it pains me a little bit because I know how good that video could have been had we not edited the way we edited. Now, I don't blame my editor. He's a great, really talented editor. I was just experimenting. He was experimenting. We just didn't know. We were testing and trying different things, which is what you have to do. The reason we found out that that is, you don't want too much editing in your videos in general, but definitely not on YouTube, where every three seconds you're zooming in out and everything's changing.

But what happened was I got feedback through the comments

Hmm. 

people would say, Hey man, great video. I loved your video. This is one of the most in-depth LinkedIn videos I've ever seen on YouTube, but. If you didn't do so much movement in the editing like it, it just would've been so much better. Or I had some people say great video, but the editing kind of turned me off.

Mm.

And as a creator, it's like it sucks to hear that, especially when it's one of your highest performing videos. Right. You know, it's gonna live on for years probably. Right. So I'm not gonna delete it or anything, but I think the value in the substance is really, really great. And that's the feedback that we got.

I had some people say. I've paid for courses on LinkedIn. I've bought coaching programs in this video. I learned more here in 12 minutes than I did in, you know, that, that experience there. So the, the value standpoint, the feedback was positive from that standpoint. But the editing was, yeah, it was a harsh slap in the face. So, you know, that was something where again, you, you know, that's going back to doing video, right? It's challenging. Like you're gonna have these types of things come up. Did I quit? No. Did I take down the video? No. Did I get discouraged? No. I talked to my editor, I said, Hey man, we gotta fix some things with the editing and, you know, the next videos.

I think we had still little of the same issues, but it was much better. And now I think the ones coming out moving forward are gonna be a hundred percent corrected, but we'll have other challenges come up. So, you know, I think to your point though, the editing and, and mixing it up and giving people, you know, a different scenery so you're not just in one place, one angle the entire time. As you're delivering a message. Yeah. I think edited creative editing absolutely can help retain a viewer, but if it becomes too much, it becomes a distraction and that's a problem.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad you shared that. I'm so, so glad. I didn't know what way it would go. I didn't know if you would've 

said, oh, it was ama 

to say that. Yeah.

a amazing three seconds.

Yeah. Yeah.

What? That's good. That's good to share with people because sometimes, you know, I. People take, um, this, this advice wholesale, 

and they just imp it, just implement it.

And they don't think about, okay, how does this apply to me? Does it actually work for what I'm saying and what I'm 

doing? Does it, you know, they don't customize, they just take it wholesale and then they don't get the results they want. And they wonder why, because you didn't. Think about it. They didn't go through the process of testing and doing it thoroughly.

And that's good. And 

I, and 

I, and I suspect, I was thinking that you're becoming a better creative director as well in, in that regard. Are you gonna say something, Alex? Go ahead.

No, I was just gonna say, I mean, you're exactly right, the creative director aspect, but you know, it's also, it's so important to listen to your audience, to really understand, go through the comments, don't just post stuff and then disappear, like. Really pay attention to what people are saying and what they're experiencing from the content. There's no way you don't determine the quality of your videos, of your content. That is what the audience does. That is literally their job. So diving into the comments, and this is why I get people for, like, they don't wanna spend time on LinkedIn. They wanna have someone ghost write all their content or post content and then they just, they never show up.

And I'm like, guys, you're missing one of the most critical. Components of content, getting the feedback, like interacting with your audience, building relationships with them, taking the feedback, applying it to get better. If you don't have that, you're missing a really big component to the entire content creation equation. It's also being humble enough to know this is good feedback, and I've gotten this multiple times now, so whether it's positive or constructive, I can make some adjustments, improvements, things like that. There's other times when people are just hating and you gotta know just, okay, this person's like, you know. They're living in their parents' basement and then not much is going on in their life and they're hating on my video when they've posted zero videos themselves. You know, that's just a one-off hater, right? Like, let's disregard it and move on. Versus actual feedback. Actual feedback that's can help you get better.

Yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's good stuff. I like that you're sharing those little insights about all your processes going. It will help other people when they hear it 'cause people are going to encounter

similar things, you know? that's 

Well, it's the truth 

man. It's, it's the truth. And that's one of my core values is like open and honest communication. And I think the, if I get, if I got on here and just talked about all the wins and successes, and that may be true to an extent, but that's not the entire truth, right?

So when you ask me that question, it's like, I'm gonna tell you what really is not what I wanna share that will make me look good. I want to share the actual truth because I know that with the truth comes, the values comes, comes the insights, comes the things that people can extract and learn from.

Excellent. Wonderful. Alright, great. So we talked about YouTube. I did want to touch on that for a bit. Um, so let's get more into, I guess, a little bit of LinkedIn and then about the whole. Idea of having your video be a 24 7 sales rep for your business.

So we are recording this somewhere, the end of January in 2023 and you 

literally 2024.

My goodness.

Okay.

I've been caught by 

They're gonna be like, man, I'm 

watching an old episode.

Old episode. Yeah. 2024. Thank you so much, Alex. Uh, and so you just, uh, posted today about, um, and I looked at the, I looked at the video about the, uh, a series of videos about making your, uh, video 24 7 sales rep. Could you tell us what that is about and what, what that is intended to do?

Yeah, and it's a, it's a video series called the Video Sales Rep Series. It launches January 31st. It's free. Anyone can sign up. I'm sure we'll have the links. But you know, I was a sales rep. I was a B2B sales rep that literally turned myself, or I used video to replace myself. I. And video became the 24 7 sales rep for my business. So I slowly got into it. It didn't happen overnight, right? And I tried to extract all of the things that I've learned and all of the mistakes, and I've tried to put it into this video series so that people can learn and apply it themselves without having to go through all the stuff I went through. But you know, it started with LinkedIn.

I started posting videos there and. I slowly started to see after a couple of months, after a few months of people coming to me and saying, you know, it's interesting you brought up that, that that topic about social selling or using LinkedIn to connect with customers. I'd love to learn more about that.

Do you work with people like me in my industry or in my job title? And when that started to happen, it was really interesting to me. 'cause I went from always being the hunter. I mean, knocking on doors, cold calling, like I was just a sales grinder man for years. I went from that to being, all of a sudden the hunter or the hunt did, which was a different perspective.

I wasn't used to that at all. And so over time I said, well, if video's this powerful for LinkedIn, what if I kind of like built video across different platforms and different, uh. Aspects of the customer buyer journey, right? Different phases of the customer buyer journey, so that wherever they interacted with me, I didn't necessarily have to be in with, I didn't necessarily have to be with them in person to. Have a discovery call or go over objections or talk about pricing, or talk about my philosophy or share insights, educate them. I could be doing all of this through video. Meanwhile, I'm spending time with my kids or with clients or with my team, or just on vacation or eating dinner. So it started with LinkedIn and then it was TikTok and then it was YouTube.

'cause we needed the long form, kind of like in depth content where people, that was almost simulating a conversation that you would have with me, where if you said, Hey Alex, tell me about LinkedIn for 20 minutes. I, that's the video right? And then it. And then it also, now it's becoming nurture based content, which I teach this in the video series, which is videos or nurture based videos, which is using videos to nurture an audience, right?

And close them over time or build more trust and credibility at minimum. And then you've got buyer ready content or buyer ready videos, which is videos that go on the website that address things like pricing and overcoming objections, and commonly asked questions and explainer videos. So essentially, you can kind of package all this up. And again, you can focus on other things. I mean, you gotta create the content. It's not like it doesn't take any work at all, but once you get it into place, you really can. I just had a call came through today that they found me on TikTok, went to the website, I'm sure, went to the LinkedIn profile, I'm sure, and then booked the call.

They fill out the survey, they saw the videos, and boom. Now we're on a call next week. Meanwhile, I was getting ready to talk to you. So that's the power of kind of implementing something like that.

Oh, that's great. That's excellent. Most of your testing and figuring out how that may work was done on the LinkedIn platform.

Yeah, I mean, I've been on LinkedIn the longest, right? So LinkedIn, then TikTok. I've been on TikTok for a few years now. And then, um, you know, YouTube really the past, a little, little less than a year, I think April, 2023, May, 2023, we started getting really.

Serious about YouTube and now winning clients through YouTube.

So yeah, and then the website content has evolved over the years. But yeah, it's, it's kind of one of those things where you start on one place and then you look to evolve and you just think, again, if you think about not only like a social media platform, but think about a customer, the customer buyer journey. They're gonna probably discover you and you create some demand on the feed-based platforms, they may be searching for your expertise. They find you on YouTube, then they may sign up for an email, video series or a newsletter, whatever it is, and then you build more trust and credibility with them. And then maybe at some point, at any point in this time, they make their way to your website or your LinkedIn profile.

And what do they see there? They see more buyer ready content or testimonials or you answering questions, or are you talking about your pricing that most people are scared to talk about? So. It's just embedding it along the way. But yeah, I think, you know, LinkedIn was really, LinkedIn was fundamentally really important for my entire business career, video, all that stuff.

For sure.

So Alex, when you create videos, how much emphasis do you place on the copy that goes along with the video on LinkedIn and how do you come up with it? 

I think that's one of the most misunderstood things about video on LinkedIn. People discredit how important the copy or the text is even. And I'm gonna talk, I'm not talking about captions, of course, I'm talking about what you're talking about. The captions. They're the text above the video because here's what happens.

This is the mindset of someone scrolling through LinkedIn feed. Some people, yes, they may go straight to the video, press play, watch the video. But let's be real as it sits today, 2024. LinkedIn is not set up like TikTok. It is not set up like YouTube shorts. It is not set up like Instagram reels where you go through the videos.

It's just pretty much the videos, right? The the, definitely the text or the copy is secondary on those platforms. No question about it. If you even ever get to it on LinkedIn, that's not the case. I would argue that probably half of the people when they scroll through the feed are going to skimm the text, Skimm the text. Even probably read the whole thing if we're just being real, right? And we all do it, we're we're busy, right? We're trying to freaking skimm and get the value and then roll on, right? So for those people, if you don't have that text there that clearly outlines not, Hey, this video's about this, go watch it. That's not it. There's nothing for them to get extract value from. But if your text outlines the value and you extract the insights from the video, which you can easily do, just getting a transcription from the video. Putting it in there, maybe running it through AI chat, GBT, or just tweaking some things.

But it's basically the transcription. If that's in there, you're giving people an opportunity to read or skimm the text, and they don't actually have to watch the video if they don't want to. So by not doing that, you just eliminate it. 50% of the people that you could have had on your post, right. By, but that again, then there's some people, maybe 50 or 60% whatever it is that are gonna watch the video and maybe won't read the text.

Or there's another percentage of people that will watch the video and then also read the text. What I love about text on LinkedIn with your video content is I can elaborate on things that maybe I missed in the video. I can, maybe I add a call to action, maybe I add a bonus tip. Maybe I add something that. Hey, here's an example of what I was talking about in that video. Go check this out. So to me, the text isn't just like reciting what you say in the video. It certainly should be that. So they can extract the value, but it's also, what else can I add in this to provide another layer of value or insights or experience for the audience member.

Yeah. You know, it's, it's interesting. So someone pointed out, I, I know you know Alex Minor?

Yeah. Mm-Hmm.

Yeah. From Linked 

Right. He pointed something out that was, um, was very in interesting to me on one of my videos. Um, and this is a video I made a while ago. And he, like, he clearly, he read the. The copy first,

right? And he said to me in the comments, so you know that copy will be a good script for a video.

It'll be a good script for a video. And I began to think, hold on. And I began to go back and read all of the copy I'd put on all of the videos that I'd made. And I'm realizing now that these are all scripts,

have you found the same? Have you found the same thing?

so absolutely man. Like, I mean, I would say this like everyone should be storing. Copies of their text post for that exact reason, right? So in me, for me, it's my notes app, but there's a ton of way to organize it. But every post that I write, the text or the copy, of course I store the videos in G Drive and I got a, you know, folder system for that. But the copy I put in a drive and my notes drive. And so I can go through at any point and boom, it's typically good enough to your point, to be at minimum a video script at at maximum. Maybe I take that and that becomes another text post where I just tweak a couple things and it's almost written for me. So yeah, absolutely, man. And a lot of times, you know, again, I do take the transcription from the video. And I put that in as the text, but I adjust a few things or tweak a couple things. Maybe I redo the hook or whatever it might be. But if a lot of the work is done for you, if the video was executed properly, 'cause you probably have a video hook, you probably have a good succinct message, right?

You're probably providing value. So to me that can easily translate into the copy. But yeah, going through old post and. You know, extracting the, the copy, the video, whatever it is, and, and remixing that and getting that back out there, that is working smart. And it is something that you need to do when you're creating content for years because it just, anytime you can squeeze efficiencies out of the process, like I'm all about it.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. I work as efficiently as possible and has been my mantra, well, not the efficiency part, but reject single use content. So everything 

that you use, you have to find more than one way to use it. Otherwise, you're working backwards, Okay, great. So we, we have a few more minutes, so I'll just ask you a couple of, well let me ask you a final, some final things 'cause 

I think it's important for the people. So I know that there are some persons who may get into video for themselves. They may di y it, they may not need a you or me or someone else to help them.

And they may start doing videos, but they are not getting the results that they want. Or they might, they're not getting the kind of inbound or feedback. Maybe they're doing it for a year. You generally talk about things that may be the reason for that. Could you explain to the people like what could be the problem if someone is doing video for a long period of time and possibly not seeing the results that they want to?

Yeah, if you're doing video content and it's not performing, it's typically gonna come down to three things from a high level, right? So one would be you just haven't given it enough time, right? So one and that sometimes that's the case, usually not, but sometimes it's the case where it's like, Hey, you've made five to 10 videos.

Like it's just not enough, right? You need to keep going. The main two reasons though, that video content doesn't convert to business results, revenue, whatever you're trying to accomplish is one. The strategy's off. So it could be like, Hey, you're, yeah, you're making videos and you think it's good to, you know, get your face on camera and connect with your audience.

And it is, but the messaging is off. Who are you speaking to? And a lot of times when I ask that question, it's like a big broad topic. Well, I'm talking to people in B2B, it's like, okay, well that's, that's a trillion people, right? So like, how do we focus that audience into like. It's like you're penetrating through their hearts, minds and souls, right?

So sometimes it's just the messaging, right? Sometimes it's the, the type of videos that they're doing. It's not strategically aligned with the platform, right? So if you're posting webinar videos or just like reposting podcast episodes with no strategy and mind on YouTube, that's not gonna work, right? If you take a LinkedIn approach to TikTok, that's not gonna work, right?

So there usually there's some strategic things that are just misaligned that we need to come in and say, all right, we need to fix some things here. The other thing would be the execution, and that's, and I've been talking a lot about this recently. I'm harping on it, but content, fundamentals, video.

Content fundamentals. Do you know how to craft a great video? You may have, let's say you're patient. Let's say you've got a great strategy. It's super aligned. You show it to me, I'm like, whew, your money like this is gonna work so freaking well. And then you go to execute and the video suck. Because you didn't know how to craft, how to hook the audience's attention in the first couple seconds, you didn't know that a TikTok video is positioned differently than a LinkedIn video.

That copy matters more on LinkedIn, right? And you've got a little bit more time and you've got different ways to get people bought in. Where TikTok, it's pretty much all video. And the first one or two seconds are gonna make or break the video on YouTube. You've got a longer hook, but it depends more on the thumbnail and the title and how well did you execute that, even if you had the strategy. So then it becomes to how do you, you know, embed those mini hooks throughout the video to retain the audience even after they're watching the video, after they've committed to giving you the time. So at, at that point, it becomes much more of a tactical type thing, technique. Tactics, you know, the in the weeds type stuff.

And that's where a lot of people miss the mark too. But I would say usually when I'm coming into a company, man, and I'm gonna evaluate what's going on with the video content. If they're already putting out videos, there's usually a combination of the strategies not really quite aligned. And then tactically, they're just missing a lot of things that they can improve. Uh, you know, the, the watch time, the retention, you know, how they hook the audience in how they convert to all that good stuff.

Okay, great. Wonderful, wonderful. That that is so excellent. I know we are running outta time here, but is there any last nuggets of wisdom or things that you'd want to share with the audience with our useful content students concerning video that is a must know when they are venturing into their own video journey.

Man, I feel like we've, we've covered the enough for these folks to be able to go and just execute on a ton of great stuff. But, you know, if anyone wants additional knowledge, insights, information, um, I have the YouTube channel. I've got the video sales rep series, um, that we're launched on January 31st.

You can sign up for it now. So a, a ton of good content. I put out LinkedIn, obviously, TikTok I put out daily that you can learn from too.

Give the people some more details. What's your handles on social media?

Alex, B as in boy, Sheridan, um, are my handles. LinkedIn, TikTok, um, YouTube. Um, YouTube's great for the long form. Hey, I, I, I know I wanna know what the post on LinkedIn or how to develop a strategy video, content marketing strategies, whatever it might be. Long form, super in depth stuff there. Uh, LinkedIn, tiktoks a little bit more. Short form content. And then we've got the video sales rep series, um, which we'll have a, you should have the link by the time people see this on the website for them to go

sign up, and then also on my LinkedIn page. But that's a great video series. It's completely free. Um, we don't try to sell you a paid course in the middle or at the end of it.

It's just a free series. If you wanna work with us past that, great. If you don't, that's cool, but. I walk through the different types of content, so I walk through the overall strategy feed-based videos, search-based videos, nurture based videos, buyer ready videos, and we teach you how to put it all together to use video content as a 24 7 sales rep for your business.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Alex, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing all of your accumulated video expertise with us. And thank you students for joining us in the Useful Content Classroom. Useful content classroom. Dismissed. And we clear. All right, 

wonderful. 

I know you've been told this before, man, but I'll say it again 'cause it's good to get the feedback and hear it. You're, you're a really, really great interviewer and I think I say that because you don't just ask the surface level. Questions you take at a layer or two deep, right? So it's like, there's just a couple times where I'm like, oh man, this is really good stuff.

Like you're, and, and as a guest and you know this man, you've been on podcasts, like that's what you want, right? I don't want the surface level stuff. And then we move on to the next thing. Like you take a moment to say, so tell me about that, or why did you make that change? Or, I noticed this on your YouTube. You did research, you did, you found some things out beforehand. So yeah, great job, man. I don't need, I know, I don't need to tell you that, but. It's good. It is good to hear that.

I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And, and let me tell you like, uh.

It's a skill. It's a skill. Absolutely. It's a skill.

Yeah, it's something that you hone is a lot of work.