017 Answering Your Burning Questions
In this episode of Video Confidence Connect, we tackle burning questions about navigating networking challenges, building meaningful community connections, and juggling marketing efforts with practical strategies to elevate your brand.
Quirky Quiz Time 🥳
What is a key strategy for staying consistent with your marketing while managing other responsibilities?
A. Creating entirely new content every day.
B. Ignoring your audience's preferences to save time.
C. Setting a manageable "bare effing minimum" for output.
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Answer: C. Setting a manageable "bare effing minimum" for output.
Answering Your Burning Questions: From Networking Awkwardness to Community Curiosities
From awkward networking moments to staying consistent with your marketing while wearing a million hats, this episode of Video Confidence Connect is your go-to guide for handling it all with grace and efficiency. Tune in as we break down actionable insights and real-world tips to help you connect, stand out, and grow your brand authentically.
Marketing and personal branding can feel overwhelming, especially when you're juggling multiple responsibilities. This episode emphasises the importance of focusing on your ideal customer and tailoring your efforts to their preferences and habits. By narrowing down your target audience and marketing channels, you can save time and achieve a greater impact.
Repurposing content is a game-changer for saving time and maintaining a consistent presence. Whether it’s transforming long-form videos into short clips or reusing evergreen content, repurposing allows you to maximise your output while reducing the effort required to create new materials from scratch.
Consistency doesn’t mean perfection; it’s about showing up regularly in ways that work for you. The concept of a "bare effing minimum" (BFM) is introduced to help you set manageable goals that keep you visible without burning out. By building a habit around these simplified actions, you can grow your brand while staying true to your energy levels and commitments.
If you're ready to take the guesswork out of your marketing and branding strategy, consider working with Zoë Wood, the Video Confidence Coach, to build a personalised plan that empowers you to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
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00:00 – Introduction: Acknowledgment of Country, weekly updates, and setting the tone for answering community questions.
06:00 – Recap of recent activities: Supporting an Indigenous artist’s exhibition and exploring networking opportunities with BX and One Roof.
12:00 – Key focus areas: Streamlining marketing efforts for impact, the Glow and Grow branding session, and prioritizing tasks for 2025.
18:00 – Community Question #1: How to prioritize marketing efforts when feeling overwhelmed.
24:00 – Community Question #2: Tips for staying consistent with marketing amidst other responsibilities.
36:00 – Practical examples: Repurposing content effectively to save time and reach your audience.
48:00 – Community Question #3: Narrowing down weekly marketing activities for maximum ROI.
55:00 – Wrap-up: Encouragement to embrace simplicity in branding and final reflections.
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Zoë Wood 3:20
Zo, welcome to this week's video, confidence, connect with me. Your host. Zo the video, confidence coach, smashing your marketing goals. Sorry, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. Apologies for the slip up there. I've got a currently, a new tagline and new elevator pitches I'm working on, and I still haven't got it quite right, but thank you so much for everyone in the meantime, for sticking with me. So everything is working, everything is looking good. Background is doing its thing. I don't care. So welcome everyone to my weekly live stream where we do everything personal branding and video marketing strategies with me, your host, Zo the video confidence coach, where and I will do my elevator pitch that I probably should have rehearsed and know off my heart by now, but will digress. Um, feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads women and on women and non binary superstars deserve more than just cookie cutter, cookie cutter approaches to their worries that. Video confidence coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera. Craft killer video strategies and connect with your audience like never before. You'll leave the tools. You'll leave the tools you you will leave with the tools to show up, stand out and smash your goals. So I promise I will get that ready by next week so that we can start off perfectly. Starting off just boom, boom, boom. All done. So welcome everyone to this week's live stream where we host it every friday from 10am to 11pm Australian, sorry, not 10pm 10am to 11. Am Australian East is 10 times I might be a little bit tired, and I'll tell you why in a moment. First of all, I want to thank everyone who is watching us live or catching us on the hashtag or replay. Feel free to comment however you're watching us, either on LinkedIn or YouTube. We're currently looking at other methods to say, get back onto twitch and other live streaming platforms. So do let us know how you go with that and where you end up catching us from. If you have any questions or comments or thoughts or maybe even podcast topic ideas that you would love me to cover regarding anything, video marketing, personal branding, live streaming, podcasting, social media, whatever you would like to discuss. I am here for you to answer those questions, and you can find out more information about this live stream, about our weekly podcasts and other events and workshops, and also my services and products at Vcc dot training that, yes, that's the whole domain Vcc dot training. So you can check that out at your discretion, or usually in the description below. I like to kind of put those there, depending on which platform you're watching on, before I begin, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians on the land on which I conduct my business. I pay my respects to their elders past and present, and I stand with the traditional custodians on these lands in working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand with them in their fight against injustice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land, and especially at the time that this is going live and being recorded, it is currently the 24th of January, and on this weekend, we have survival Day coming up on the Sunday, and it showcases how divided we are as a country, but also just how divided we are as a people, that it is still that survival day is not being acknowledged as what it is, and just being taken as the possibility and propaganda to be able to play around with as they so fit. But I digress. It is not that time to get into that this morning, so but if you do have anything about if you are in Geelong, I will be at the survival day march on Sunday, so I will look forward to seeing you then, if you're in the zo long area, what I have accomplished? Well, we what we've accomplished over this past week. So as you can imagine, it is the second to last week, kind of last full week of January 2025 so everything is kicking off. Everyone's back at work for better or worse. No, no. Welcome back. Welcome back. It's just, everyone's just making all their problems my problems. But here we are. This is what happens when you run a small business. We've been gearing up for 2025 so our podcasts will be going live not just this Sunday and but the next Sunday, and it will be continually going from there onwards every week, both the unboring your brand podcast, which is my podcast, and then the Vic podcasters podcast. So you have the opportunity that, if you are a podcaster in the Victoria, state of Victoria, join our groups, either on Facebook or LinkedIn, or you can join our email newsletter for extra perks, and you can learn and grow with us. So I'll get more into that later. But yes, gearing up for 2025 with all the projects that we've got going on, and gearing up for the work that we do here at the video conference coach. We also went up to Melbourne. Even though Melbourne is realistically maybe hour, an hour and a half away from Geelong down where I am in the bottom of Australia. It is still a lot of attack. It is very taxing journey to get up there and back, and some people are able to do it non stop, like every weekday I am. Hats off to you. I used to be able to do that, and I just cannot do that anymore. So I think I caught two trains and two busses to get to where I needed to go for and I'll divulge that in a sec, and then the same back. So it was just love it. But the reason that I went up to Melbourne was to support one of my mentee clients, who is Nadine Riley, who's an indigenous artist based out in Fitzroy, and is from the Tasmanian clan, and she does beautiful work. So what I'll do is I'll grab some of the pieces that I got that I can have in my hands. So these are just some cards and some earrings she does. Of course, she does original prints of these in acrylics and canvas, and then also beautiful earrings. We've been working together for a while now, and she has come so far in such beautiful time and a beautiful short time. And it was beautiful to see and the space. That she's able to hold this exhibition is beautiful. It's got a beautiful garden out back. So I'm going to be sending her some images and video that we captured while we're up there. So I will make sure to do that and provide those on our social medias. So make sure you follow us on whichever platform you prefer. I'm usually on most of them, because, of course, we are. So hi Nadine, hope you had a beautiful time. And if you are interested in joining is in the Maribyrnong gallery in on in Glen Iris, on 100 High Street. So if you're out there and you're interested in checking out some beautiful indigenous art, make sure you check out that for the next two months, that'll be it'll be open, not full time, but it's an art it'll be open throughout those two months. There will be another launch on Sunday, though. So so not this Sunday, but February 2. So if you're there, you're there. Beautiful. We've also attended the BX networking group here in Geelong. So bx, I probably should show you, BX business networking reimagined. Is this flyer here to help me remember what it's called. So I was beautiful to meet everyone in the leadership team and meet everyone who was there from the zo long group. It was beautiful to meet everyone and get a sense of what the what BX can offer the Geelong region and also offer the international stage. So I look forward to seeing you more in the future. And thank you so much for having me there for networking. And of course, as we usually do, I am part of a networking group called one roof, which is Business Women's networking group, which is based all throughout Australia. And of course, we've got our Geelong event coming up soon. We'll find out. But I would also like to introduce myself to anyone who I've met through one roof who is checking out. Hi. And definitely, as we get started into this year, I will be a lot more involved in the online events, as well as other opportunities to network and reach out to fellow one roof members. So and as we finish off what we accomplished this week, we don't have anything currently in the pipeline that is concrete, as in any workshops or anything that is available for you to book. Of course, we have our services.
Zoë Wood 12:25
Yes, go to the right screen. Zo, I do have all of these available. I have all my products available on my website. As you can see here, we will be updating a few things as we go usually, as when it comes to website management, you always have to update things. But we will have some nice, streamlined products for you, for available. So if you're worried about marketing strategies, or if you're just completely overwhelmed on where to start, check out our website. And of course, we will have everything else everywhere else following that. And back to it. Of course we will be focusing on providing people. So our focus for this quarter not necessarily that we're pushing everything else to the site. This just allows me to be able to pinpoint what I'm doing. I'm making sure to showcase and offer my glow and grow branding session, which is an hour with me, and of course, being able to fix or come to a very clear step by step solution on any of your brand, of your branding or marketing issues. So make sure you take advantage of that before I put the price up and move and as I mentioned before, Vic part Vic podcasters, the group that I have rebranded from Geelong podcasters as of last year, I'll probably stop mentioning the rebrand as of this week. So we're Vic podcasters. Here we are making sure that you stay up to date with any news grants or any updates regarding podcasting and the state of Victoria. So make sure you check out our weekly podcast, which will not start next week, but the week after that, on Sunday, February 2, and that's when all that will begin to start again. So that will be a beautiful time to start. So I want to stress. So I want to say, before we officially kick off into our community, questions so on the video, confidence connect, we usually take the opportunity to do one or two things. We usually either we either record a podcast episode so or record a couple of podcast episodes so the unborn, your brand podcast episode. I take this as an opportunity to both answer people's questions as they come into the comments, while also being able to record the podcast that I can then release later on, on a Sunday in both a video and audio format. But today, and what I have started as of this year is answering community questions. So these are questions that I have been asked at my networking events or in emails or in texts or in DMS that require a more of a nuanced answer. I can't just like I can point you in a direction, but say, for example, I haven't created that content yet, which is what I'm working on, or i just i. There's nothing that is very concrete for their specific use case or scenario. So what I want to do is take this opportunity to so I've got four questions in front of me that I may not mean, that I may or may not be able to do and complete in this hour. Who knows I like to Yap. And I'll take my opportunity to answer these questions in Nice, bite sized formats that we can provide both on socials, being able to send these clipped up versions to the people that asked me, so then I actually have an answer for you, and not just here is my answer, and you're overwhelmed. And actually what what the answer is, because, of course, when I talking at networking events or when I'm talking via email, usually there's a bit of a dialog there. It's not just one simple question, and then I kind of let everything out at you. I need to understand context. I need to send nuance, and to be able to do that. I need to be able to ask you questions. I need to be able to listen to what you have to say. And I want to stress now to a couple of people that I've met over this week, but this is for everyone that I come in contact with, not just face to face, not just virtually, but whoever I help and serve in my business, I want to stress that you don't have to have the answer straight away. The reason that I ask these questions is to get you thinking about them, not necessarily that you have an answer straight away, but to get you started on thinking of that process. So then when hopefully we do get a chance to work together, you're able to have those answers for me. Next time I catch up, look forward to it. So we'll catch on to a break, and then I'm going to get a drink. Make sure I'm keeping on top of any comments, and we'll get to the community questions. Being confident in your product service skill and would definitely be a help, despite nerves and stage fright. I completely agree, because once say, for example, if you are new in your business, I completely understand you have both the nerves of, I'm new at this, I can make, like, there's so many mistakes I'm going to make, as well as being nervous of getting yourself out there in front of the camera or behind the camera to show your business to the world. There is a different, special type of fear involving that. But once you have a bit more confident in your own skills to be able to produce the product or service that you actually do in your business, then you can rest a little bit more on your laurels and give a little bit give yourself a little bit more of a hug going, Okay, this will be okay. I can do this. I can do this because you will have a bit more confidence in the work that you can produce and the clients that you can help. And hopefully if those clients that you've worked with or customers that you've sold to are able to give you good feedback, It'll even give you even more robustness to be able to be like, Okay, I know what I'm doing. I'm okay with this. And welcome everyone to our commonly asked questions, or community questions, as I like to call them. So let's start off with the first question. So these are just questions that have been asked from either networking events I've attended or at DMS, my emails, essentially everything just gets filtered into the one list. It gives me a bit of context of who asked the question, so I'm able to answer it better for you when I chop this up and be able to send you an answer, and also to be able to provide answers to people who come across these questions or want the answers to these questions in Nice, bite sized formats. So start off with Question one, I feel pulled in a million directions. How can I prioritize my marketing efforts to have the biggest impact. So thank you so much for asking this question. And I completely understand, because I was definitely when we met in person. So this is when I met in person. Was definitely feeling the aura of feeling overwhelmed. I completely and utterly understand when it comes to marketing your business, if that is not what you do, if you are not a marketer. Now, of course, you're talking to someone who does marketing for a living, who does it for other clients, but as soon as I'm doing it myself, it becomes overwhelming, because it is my brand on the line, it is my face on the line, and I understand being pulled in so many different directions, because there's so much opportunity and so much but let's bring it back and focus not necessarily what marketing efforts you can do, but focusing on being able to narrow down your scope, to be able to make those marketing decisions and you see where I'm going there. And for those who have watched my content before, you will definitely know my answer is to prioritize your marketing efforts. And what is the right decision for you and your business is to pull back to your customer, to your the type of people that you serve, the person that you serve, and what do they want to see? Now, of course, you can definitely go against the grain and stand out very much, like I do in the scent, not just, not necessarily, that you have to be exactly like me. I want to stress, but I wear bright colors because they compliment my skin tone when I'm not pale as hell, but they also allow people to notice me in a room of network. Individuals. I have been repeatedly. I go into a space, be it a virtual or an in person space, and people see me, and they immediately go, oh, it's Zo, not realizing that I had met them before, or we'd interact before that we didn't work before, because my personal brand and my confidence exudes out, and that is the intention, and that is the point. So in your situation, to be able to prioritize your marketing efforts, you need to know who you're prioritizing them for. Now, of course, it is your business. You are the one doing the work, but at the end of the day, it is also they are the ones who are paying you the money. They are the ones who are becoming raving fans. These are the people who are going to be putting in that leg work to refer you to other biz other business owners, other people like them because they know people like them, and they're going to refer you if you do the right if you take the right steps. Now, of course, I'm being very generalized here, because a lot of the people that I work with are very unique. And I'm not saying unique snowflakes. I'm saying unique in the sense of who you target is very
Zoë Wood 21:07
direct, is very consistent with who you who are targeting, so that, in turn, changes what your marketing efforts are doing. And the priority that I like to give people is knowing your customer, knowing quite clearly what they actually want out of you and what you can do to serve, and then from there, and then from there, being able to see how that fits into your schedule, your energy levels, and what ultimately you want to get out of it. So say, for example, a good example of this is a clientele. So a client that I have who is someone who focuses primarily on women experiencing dv, and dv, I'm not going to get too much into that, because, unfortunately, that can get penalized by the platforms. So she focuses on working with people who've experienced dv, and in that work that she does. Yes, the people that pay her may not necessarily be the people that she's ultimately helping. So when it comes to her marketing efforts, she can feel very overwhelmed, because like, well, then who am I talking to? Zoe. It's like, okay, well, let's think about it. The person who is ultimately making the decision is not the person that you should be marketing to, but in those instances of being able to advocate most people in a DV situation are not in a position where they're able to advocate for themselves in an effective way that would rely that would mean that they ultimately choose to work with you. So in those situations, you would put your focus on those decision makers. Those decision makers are your customer demographic. They may not be who ultimately serve, but they are the people who are making those decisions to hire you, hire your team. Hi, you know, choose you to work with. So with that knowledge in mind, so we know exactly the types of people who make the decisions. We know the types of people who ultimately choose for them, for her to do the work that she needs to do and advocate the way that she does so with her messaging and knowledge, she speaks with the authority of someone who has experienced it and also experienced how bad the lack of support can be and how Her entire life changed when she found that support. So she is both working and communicating with the people that she's ultimately serving, but everything that she is saying, all her messages, are resonating with those decision makers. Are resonating with those people who are ultimately going to shoot her over another opportunity or another provider of that service, not necessarily that they're a competitor, but because, again, they're trying to fill a need. So you as the person who is making this decision, this then works as well, not just with your business business decisions, but with your marketing efforts too. So now you know the type of person that you want to talk to. You know why you're talking to them, because you already have your motivations as to why you're doing the work that you do. And you've got a pretty, pretty clear process in mind of like, okay, we you talk to us. You sign the dotted line. We help who we need to help. Bing, bang, boom. So when it comes to your marketing efforts using that same logic of, okay, I know who I'm talking to. I know exactly who I help, but pulling it back to the person who's ultimately making that decision when it comes to your marketing efforts, you then dictate, okay, what does this person do when it comes to marketing? You need to be seen, you need to be liked, you need to be known, you need to be trusted. So in that what can you do? Are they the type of person to read their emails? I'm going to tell you now, probably not. So in that situation, how more likely are going to be seen? Does it make sense to run workshops within these institutions who are ultimately making that decision? Possibly you get to see them there. You get to do follow up emails, and you get to see them face to face to then make that just get them to remember your face, remember what you do and how you serve people. For them to make. The decision would providing a podcast or a live stream make sense, where you can have a much bigger piece of content that eventually trickles down to smaller pieces of content to help with the point of recognition. So what does that mean? Essentially, when you're marketing, you can't just see something once, as a bystander, as a citizen, as someone who is not marketing a business. You see something either in an ad, or you hear about something on the radio, or you hear something mentioned by someone else once, and you go, yeah, yeah, oh, oh, that seems like something that I need. Okay. And then we kind of brush it off, because as humans, we, at the moment, we are currently experiencing a minimum of 1800 ads per day, give or take so in to be able to stand out, especially again, for that decision maker, those person or persons who are ultimately deciding to work with you, you need to be able to stand out. So to do that, let's figure out exactly where they get their information, where they can see your face, your name, your colors, the other aspects of the branding and the work that you do, they also need to be honestly, constantly reminded that you exist. Because for a lot of people, and especially back to the example that I had before, a lot of people don't realize they need this fixed or this contingency plan until they desperately need it, and in those moments that they desperately needed. Where do they go? For a lot of people, they for a lot of decision makers. For this particular client, they usually either go to either a list that they created, like two or three years ago, of pre approved people, a pre approved companies and organizations, and they kind of choose one at random and just go with it, which, as you can imagine, during a time of stress, is not great. And sometimes these companies don't exist anymore, and it's a whole chuma zo. And of course, as the federal funding has kicked in, there has been some ways to streamline that. But of course, it's not perfect. I have my own gripes with it, but in those situations, where are you going to be seen, not necessarily at that point of pain and stress, but where are you going to be seen that people are going to be reminded of the help that you can provide, the service that you can do, the alleviation of overwhelm, of pain, of stress, of this, of these people that you work with, where are you going to be seen now, for example, with another clientele. That's a good example, and a way that I've broken this down when it comes to prioritizing your marketing efforts, because, again, we already know who we're talking to. We already know when it comes to, again, the people that you serve and the decision makers are you sometimes the same person. If like, for example, I'm a coach, usually the person that I work with, ultimately and in small businesses, the women and non binary superstars that I work with are usually the same person, the person who is deciding to work with me and the person who is benefiting from the work that I do are usually the same person. But in your case, in the business that you do, or the products that you sell, the services that you provide, that you provide that may not be the case, for example, if you work in, say, children's toys or manufacturing of gifts, gifts and play things for children, the ultimate person that you're serving is the child. The child gets a beautifully, like handcrafted toy that is safe, that is going to last a long time. For example, that's the ultimate, you know, use case, the ultimate beneficiary of the work that you do. But the person who is deciding to do that is the parent, is the grandparent, is the family member is, again, you can see how this is growing, and that's who you focus to. Yes, you showcase the smiles and the laughters of the you know, people who benefit from the work that you do. But when it comes to your marketing efforts, pinpointing to that decision maker is above all what you should be focusing on and trickle because trickle down economics doesn't exactly work in real life, and neither does it, though, in practice, but in this moment when it comes to your marketing efforts, so you can have the biggest impact figuring out where they're going, those decision makers are going to eventually see you and recognize you and remember you is where you put your efforts. So say, for example, I worked with a client who we needed to get the C suite of her company to see how useful she was and how beneficiary the work that she doing was. So then when she kept going for her promotions, they would just say yes, and they she would go up and up and up. So to do that, we found out the type of people that were these decisions. Figures. We made sure she appeared on all of the podcasts they listened to. We made sure that she appeared in all of the ads for that local area of Melbourne, and that she her face, her name and what she is able to do with the company is constantly reminded or possibly drilled into these people, why should she? Why she should go to that next level within the company, or realistically, the next two or three levels up? And it worked. She was able to secure that promotion. But instead, the competitors paid her double, so she technically was poached, which is good and bad depending but when it comes to working in a corporate system, you you go where the money is. You go with whoever is providing that.
Zoë Wood 30:56
You know, willingness to be like we need you. The work that you do is great. Here are some money, and that's what you need. So it was beautiful to be able to see that in practice. And the way that we did that was we had a very short run, but we were very targeted on who, exactly where we were talking to. So in that moment, we were able to get her on at least. I think it was like something like 12 podcasts within a three month span, which is a lot, I must stress. But in that moment, we were able to get her seen, her face, her name, and the fact that she worked for this company, that they are in the corporate suite of, oh, we already have this personal stuff, awesome again, promoting the work that she would do. So when it comes to how you can impact this in your business and in your personal brand, is figure out who those decision makers are being able to understand in the what I like to call output, because you can do all this work, and you can do all this theory and work, but you need to test it out. And when you test it out, testing it out in ways that they are going to like, see you, they're going to hear you. They're going to remember you. So to do that, yes, you can do that. Some people go straight to advertising, which I usually don't recommend, because if that's your first and only foray into consistency, it's, it's gonna, it's gonna backfire a bit, because when people go to research you, there's not a website to back you up. There's not blog posts, there's not podcast episodes, there's not there's nothing to really back you up as an authority figure, especially with the people that I work with, who are superstars, who are trying to shine a light on whatever their area of focus is, and to do that, you need to show consistency and proof that you are just not a guru or a hack who's going to move on to the next thing after AI, once that husk is dribbled, once that husk is completely evaporated, I digress. So, for the biggest impact, and also when I'm saying that in that moment, when it comes to those places where, yes, say, for example, the people who are making the decision to hire you are maybe, definitely on LinkedIn. And you end up going there, and you end up doing a lot of work on LinkedIn, and say, for example, it's not producing the impact that you would want it to. That's where the metrics comes in. That's where testing and refining comes in. And in those moments where say, for example, it's been three months, and you're like, I haven't gotten 100 clients yet. Then in those moments, we can look back on metrics, see what has worked and what hasn't worked, and if we need to pivot to a completely different person, completely different decision maker, completely different platform, whatever is needed at the time. Because marketing is an art more than a science. Yes, there is a lot of numbers, but marketing is ultimately the art of it, and I say that as an artist, but also marketing is hella annoying. So hopefully I've answered your question, and I will definitely be editing this down, because that was this is what I happened. This is what happens when I don't have notes in front of me to refer to and keep me on track? So I apologize, Lucy, if you were just kind of like overwhelmed by that answer, I will definitely pull in my reins next time I apologize, I apologize. Alright, I'll do this next question. I'll try it to be nice and quick for you. So then we can move on to the other questions, because I need to remember to keep this short. Zo, okay, so the question I have is, what is the best way to stay consistent with my marketing when I'm juggling so many other responsibilities? So as someone who is a small business owner or a personal brand builder, you are usually doing this, either by yourself or maybe with an assistant, or if you've been doing this for long enough, have a small enough team, and when it comes to being consistent with your marketing, it is what I like to say. It always comes back to the BFM, bare, essing, minimum, what? What is your bare effort in a minimum when it comes to consistency, staying consistent, and for some people, staying consistent is posting two times a week on social media, is giving, is sending an email newsletter. Once a fortnight, is putting a blog post up. Once a month is usually it goes straight to the outputs what I like to say, and that's not necessarily, not necessarily a bad thing. I don't want to stress when it comes to people actually seeing the work that you do, they need to have it in a form that they can digest, they can understand, and they can ultimately see the benefit of what you do. And especially when it comes to consistency, you're showing the work that you do, the knowledge that you have, the authority that you have in the industry over a long span of time. And to do that, you need to keep doing it. And that's where the consistency comes in. So for a lot of people that I work with, their BFM, their bare effing minimum, as I like to say, is usually set incredibly high. Why? Well, because they've seen what other people can do. They've seen what other people who are maybe role models they aspire to, or other people who are in the same area or parallel trajectory as they are, and they see what they've been able to do, and they go, Okay, I need to post five times a day. I need to have different content on different platforms. I need to make sure that I email at least three times a day, like all of these numbers that are being thrown out. I sit there and just I let them, let them talk, because I want to understand what their bfms are. And then we actually talk about what it takes to achieve that, and what it takes to actually produce that. It is a lot of work. It is a lot of effort, and that is coming from someone who does it for a living. It is a lot of effort and work for ultimately, something that, yes, can be tracked with engagement, eyeballs, insights, analytics, they can give you a lot of numbers. Sometimes it's very hard to decipher what those numbers actually mean. But when it comes to money, through the door leads people who are actually going to pay you money for your service or product, that's when it kind of gets a bit murky. That's when it kind of gets a bit weird, because a lot of people that I work with have a tendency of, again, setting that BFM way too high, and then thinking about the outputs, as opposed to Okay, let's scale back. Let's think about again, who we are talking about, why we are talking to them. Have a really clear idea of the activities that they're doing during a day, why they even should give a crap about you and your solution. Because, for example, with a lot of the people that I work with, there is a tendency of, Oh, it's good to know about that, but I won't worry about that just yet. Or maybe your life is a complete mess, but you have no interest in getting it sorted or finding any any way to fix yourself, because you don't know what you don't know. You don't know that there is a way to help sort out your life. There is you don't know there's a way. For example, when it comes to marketing, people don't know that there is the video confidence coach that can help them streamline this marketing side of their business and make it less overwhelming. Maybe because maybe they don't have the time, maybe they don't have the money, or maybe it's just a case that seeking someone's help outside of where they are now, they would have to admit that they're doing something wrong, and that is okay. Admitting that you're not doing it perfectly, or you're not doing it right, is the biggest kick in the guts. I completely empathize and understand where you're coming from, but if it's not working now, what makes you think the same effort and time and trajectory is going to make it work in the future? And I do mean that with all sincerity. So that's why, for example, with my business I saw a business coach. I regularly check in with people and business mentors. I sort these people out because I wanted to make this work for me. I need this to make this work for me, because I'm not going to be hired in the normal employee way. So in the I'm not going to become a straight employee, is what I mean to say. So in those moments, I need to make this work for me. So to do that, I need to find ways of staying consistent and reaching that threshold to a way that it can stay consistent. So say, for example, with clients that I've worked with. For example, one client that I'm working with now, who is a coach, they initially came to me with a lot of the numbers that I just checked out. Yeah, they saw these other coaches who are honestly five years ahead, trust fund babies who have a lot of money and a lot of time, a lot of capital, and essentially a entire marketing team behind them to pump out this type of work and content.
Zoë Wood 39:58
They are a small. Independent coach working out in regional New South Wales, the work that they do is important. It is valuable. They do not have time to spend their entire lives marketing. So to do that way that we are able to juggle their responsibilities and keep consistent was lowering that BFM, lowering that bare F and minimum to what is going to make sure that they are seen, that they are known, lack and trusted in the space that they want to be in without burning themselves out. We created at least six months worth of weeks. We created at least three months worth of content. And for the past three years, we've just had that on repeat, the same posts on social media, little bit of tweaking here and there, depending on the climate. Or when I say climate, I don't mean temperature climate or the lack the one that ours is burning. I mean climate, as in the culture of what is happening, either on the platform or what is most, most pressing to her customers, her avatars, the decision makers of the work that she does. We have honestly been using that same content, that three months worth of content, for two to three years as that bare effing minimum, as just that thing that is that you know that two posts a week, she continues to post above and beyond that on say, for example, social media, she takes that opportunity to rework all the content so she can repurpose. Do not be afraid of repurposing. I want to stress that do not be afraid of repurposing content because not everyone has seen it and not everyone will see it. So to be for her to be able to can say, stay consistent, she creates that minimum for herself that she can comfortably cover and change, and then using that time that she would have spent stressing and making sure that she was everywhere at once. She has templates that she can change and update. She has a library of content that, yes, we invested a fair bit of money at the start, but she is uses that same piece of content over and over again on her website, on her emails, on her, I think she did a billboard recently on like stuff that we've done in the past. And that's why I recommend for a lot of my personal branding clients to have photo shoots at least once or every two years to make sure that you can use that content throughout the next year or two as a way of, again, getting your face and name and your brilliance in front of the people that need to see it. So when you're juggling other responsibilities in your business, having that's the ability to stay consistent, to be able to lower that threshold for yourself to something that is, I want to say, less than manageable. I don't want to I don't want anything that's just barely manageable. I want it to be less than manageable for you and say, for example, if it is something like you only post once a week, awesome. That's better than nothing and for myself. Or for example, when it comes to my social media, I'm very stop start, because I have a love, hate relationship with social media. I am very consistent with my website. I'm very consistent with my email list. I am very consistent with other aspects of my marketing that I put a lot more stake in than my social media, which is usually very low on the list. Why? Because it's way below my minimum threshold of BFM. So when it comes to the work that you do and staying consistent, being able to reduce that workload to an hour a week, two hours a week, giving yourself templates to work off, and even though they may not be the prettiest, they may not be the coolest, they may not look completely in date, the point is that you're there. The point is that you're serving your customers. The point is that you're standing in front of them, giving them the answers that they need, and being able to serve them long term, and not just in that brief moment of 30 seconds on a Tiktok video, you are there to help them and to serve them. So to do that, you should spend your time doing that, and not just marketing yourself. Marketing is something that is supposed to help you bring in new customers and reminder and remind all the customers of the experience they had with you, so that they can do the word of mouth, which is the best type of marketing to help promote you and the work that you do, because you've done a really good job so far, and you will continue to do that more. So you need to make sure that you show people that. Yeah, that was a terrible week. Terry says, I'm not a camera person. I like voiceovers, and that's alright, and that's okay too. You've still got your energy, and your voice is still a personality of you, and when people are calling you. Who are messaging you, are reaching out to you, to work with you. They're going to hear your voice. So a voiceover is usually okay for most instances, especially for example, like cherry, who works in graphic design, where most of her services of graphic design, which is the output, usually speaks for itself. Most of the time you Zo,
Zoë Wood 45:26
and welcome back now. We've got two more questions before we finish up today. So the first question I have, and I haven't told Zo, you said to yourself, so I was using this as more of a proof of concept, so that's why it's still got the watermark back there for anyone who's interested. I'm just like testing out this process to begin with. So I didn't really want to pay for backgrounds if I wasn't using them just yet. So that's why that is there. Focus, sorry, stay stay put. So the question that I have that I received via email in a longer list of questions. So if you do have any questions for me regarding video marketing or personal branding, and you just have wait. You have a couple too many questions. Feel free to email me. Email us, me, the bit, email me. Eli, emailing me is the best method, because I see my emails, I inbox zero them, and I actually do something about it. So check those out. So question I have. One of the questions that I had was, what are some practical tips for repurposing content so I can save time while reaching my audience? So as I mentioned in previous questions that I answered here, when it comes to repurposing content, it is easy enough to do with these rules in mind. Repurposing your content is essentially using content that you have either used in the past or content that you have expressly created for the purpose of reusing it again multiple times in the future. This isn't the this in the marketing industry is what we like to call evergreen content. Content, very much like a pine tree is something that's going to last all year round. It doesn't relate to the season or a recent event or some major news or changes, because that can be come dated with time. So the ways that you repurpose this content is a couple fold. You can use the same either image, video or GIF, and then just change the description to relate to a recent event or maybe an update for you and your business, whatever that may be. You can use the same, say, video. But then, for example, maybe take some sections out, move some like B roll, which is the video that rolls on top that is usually not someone talking, but the atmospheric video, as I like to call it. So for example, people doing the actions that they may be talking about, or vice versa, or maybe some stock video. Again, when it comes to video, the repurposing capabilities is actually quite massive, mainly because you have so much time to play with, you can move people's, you know, talking or some sentences around within a 32nd video, within a 10 second video as long. And I want to stress this, not just for your repurposing content, but for any content that you do. The first three seconds need to be engaging. They need to be using what is known as a hook, essentially something, to grab people's attention and bring them in. Not necessarily. You don't have to go full YouTuber, Mr. Beast mode in this I'm not saying that, but for example, especially what I like to call the millennial pause, is when people set up a camera, and they click the button, and then they start talking. When you can cut out the first three seconds of that and go straight into here we are. This is what we're talking about, for example. And being able to make sure that if you're not there to watch the if you're not going to sit down and watch the content, there's a good chance that your audience isn't to isn't going to either. So when it comes to repurposing, making sure that that shorter, shorter, sharper is better. Repurposing longer form content into shorter form is always going to be better than none, because the longer form content you have spent probably a lot more time on, or it is easier for you to do to get an idea and just keep going at it rather than thinking of short, sharp, 10, 15/32, clips, AI and other assistance. And people can do that for you. So if you need to feel free to reach out to me, and I'll definitely do our podcast about that for you. And then when it comes to repurposing and reaching an audience, it is okay to repurpose things wholesale as long as they are over 72 days old, is usually my rule of thumb. Now, of course, it can be less. It can be more. What I mean by this is that a lot of people especially for social media contacts, but this can be email marketing. This can be on your website. This can be content that people say have paid for in a. Sort of organization, or maybe even with in groups, be them forums or on social media platforms. What have you being able to share the same content from say, just over two months ago gives you enough time, because not everyone would have seen it the first time. People are not necessarily always checking in and keeping engaged when they're scrolling on social media. So if they see something again, humans like to remember patterns. So in those moments, you can use that opportunity to be able to be like, it's the same video, but it's coming up again on your feed, because I've posted again recently, and that allows people to be like, Oh, I remember this. Oh yeah, I was gonna follow this up, or, Oh, what did she say last time? That gets them thinking not just about you and the message that you are providing, but also allows them to actually remember to take action if they were going to or be able to take that opportunity to actually, like, either research or further in depth into you and your personal brand. And of course, I do have a little bit of backlash regarding that. Some people feel like, Oh, if people are gonna see the same thing over again, they're gonna think that I'm old, that I'm stale, that I'm just that I'm just using all the content the royal family uses repurposed content every single social media platform at in the world has repurposed content because it is easier to use something that you've already created than trying to create something afresh. And that is okay, especially when you are a sole trader, when you are a solo business owner trying to grow your personal brand while either working a nine to five or maybe you're trying to build your personal brand, while running your small business, you do not have the time or the luxury to be able to create new content every single week. So in those opportunities, having what I like to use for my clients, a content library of posts and subsequent like descriptions, to be able to use that content that is was either very popular in the past or very relevant in the past, or something that I was just personally proud of, to use that opportunity to share again in the feed, to again remind people get up to that 17 touch points, touch points of your brand being those people reminding of what you do and what you can do for them to engage with you and follow you. You can do that by repurposing all the content and in those moments with say, for example, maybe a video was talking about a recent event for when that happened. You can just cut out the context and then leave with the message. You can cut out that context. Maybe it was talking about such and such that it happened recently, and say, for example, that a news event or that cultural change for your customer was six months ago. You can cut out the context, but leave the message that allowed people to get engaged and keep engaging with you and your content, because you are just one person, you don't have the marketing team of Coca Cola. Coca Cola doesn't have the marketing team of Coca Cola. So for those opportunities, especially for messages that really resonate with the people that you want to serve and you want to help, being able to stand there and repeat it a couple of times, use it to your advantage, and in some cases, use it for years on end. Because if people are going to have a problem with you repurposing content, then that means they've been paying so heavily, they've been paying attention to you so heavily that they're able to notice when you reuse content again, maybe reach out to them in a DM or an email or maybe even a phone call if you're inclined, and ask them, like, what can I do to improve? What can I do to change? Seek some feedback, or if you're a bit too afraid to do so, just keep them in your notice or bit in the mind's eye of your business. Because maybe this someone who is maybe complaining that you're reusing content may not necessarily be your a fan of yours, or someone who is going to work with you, but there's a good chance that they do, or they may, you know, remember the work that you do, and mention that in a family or friend conversation, just saying, marketing is marketing, no matter how it is, and PR is PR no matter how bad it is. And we've got five more minutes before the end of today's session. So let's take this opportunity to answer this last question that I received via DM a week ago. I apologize for the delay. I promise I'm good, and I want to stress I did answer this question when it came in. I'm just doing a longer version of it to be able to help you out.
Zoë Wood 54:58
So the question that we had was. If I could only focus on one or two marketing activities each week, what would they be? So something as simple as that, you are incredibly overwhelmed when it comes to marketing. And the activities that you would do are usually revolving something around, like, you know, posting on, you know, social media can be considered an activity. There's a lot of small actions within them that activity. But for people, they usually just want a quick fix, and usually, and I hate to say this, this does involve thinking a lot more about your customer and a lot more about where they like to spend their time online, or where they like to spend their time in person, and the activities that you do, and you repeatedly do, is where you spend that time. So say, for example, if you have a email marketing list, and a lot of the people that you are getting leads from, so these are people who are, know, like and trust you and eventually pay you money. You're getting a lot of that interest, and those people who are actually eventually paying you through that email list that is one of your activities, that is where you are guaranteed to get leads over time. Of course, metrics vary, but you can use that opportunity, because, yes, I've gotten consistent leads from this type of activity to send a email newsletter, a well crafted email newsletter that relates to my customers, needs, wants, and what I provide the solution to. So do that. You do that by email marketing once a week. That is one of your activities, and to enable that. And so extrapolate that a little bit more. Say, for example, you don't have an email list. Highly recommend you have an email list, by the way, in those moments that maybe you don't have an email list. Where do you get the most traction? And I'm using the money symbol here, that using your fingers together to mean money. And when I say traction, I'm not talking about where you have the most followers or subscribers or the most eyeballs, because, to be honest, as things are ramping up in regarding AI and when it comes to social media and the interesting prediction that that's going in, followers and subscribers don't really mean as much anymore when it comes to numbers and actually getting leads, getting the sale, wherever you need to go. So when it comes to where to focus your activities, something that is easy enough for you to do repeatedly and easily and simply on a weekly basis that can lead to the best return on investment. So say, for example, the weekly activities that I do is email newsletter, because all these people have signed up to me on purpose, and I get most of my lead returns because I'm reminding people that, hey, we count. We caught up a year ago, two years ago, what have you? Hey, I actually need your services now. Zo your email came at a great time for me. I have heard that verbatim so many times. So that's where I spend my energy and time, because that's where I have gotten the most leads from. And then the second marketing activity that I do each week is this live stream. This live stream I use as an opportunity to distill parts of these sections into podcasts, into social media platforms, into answers that I give my clients. So I take this opportunity to you know, my apologies. I take this opportunity to put on makeup, to put on my lights, to set up the background that is not playing nice to put all these things into effect so I can record for an hour or two, get at all the answers and provide the value that I need for the shortest amount of time. And then from there, hand it over to AI, hand it over to Eddie, my editor, hand it over to wherever it needs to go to delegate the other marketing activities. And then the machine gets going. The machine gets started because there's something there. I've already done the pre work of figuring out who I want to talk to, why I'm talking to them, and all the other work that comes into both scripting, which I, of course, I'm great at, no mainly dot points at this point, but I can take that opportunity to do all that pre work so that I'm here with you today every single week, taking this opportunity to make this happen every week, and even if I don't use the content for, say, three six months, the content is still useful and very beneficial to my brand, because it helps people see me, helps people remember me, helps people Trust my authority in the space and my knowledge. I may not feel or have that trust with me wholeheartedly, but the fact is, my clients trust me. My potential clients trust me. People who want to hire me are usually waiting for something to spur them on, which is not always in my control. But I need to know that I am going to be in that phone book that I'm going to be on that speed dial or I'm going to be in their DMS for whenever they need me and whenever I can serve them. And to do that, you need to make it a habit. You need to make it a consistent habit, that it is an activity that you both enjoy doing. In but also can see yourself doing long term. I enjoy standing in front of this camera. Yap. I enjoy taking this opportunity to record videos to you and to help you and serve you. If you like writing, definitely go with an email newsletter. If you enjoy talking, pursuing a podcast, if you don't like doing any of those things, I would implore you to figure out, how do you communicate with your friends, how do you communicate with your family members, and if you don't do any of that, I congratulate you on not doing the things, on not doing a lot of things, I congratulate you for. I hope you have a whole bunch of peace, like a whole bunch of relaxation. Nothing stresses you out because you don't you don't communicate, you don't form community, you don't do you don't seek out news, you don't seek out information. I heavily implore you congratulations. But in those moments of not being able to create, not being able to communicate with others, I want to ask what you're missing being able to create is human, and to have that opportunity to do something that you both enjoy, while also building your personal brand and building your business, is marrying the two things to make it a consistent practice for you. So when it comes to your marketing activities that you're doing each week each month, what is something that you can enjoy doing, that you don't get tired of, that you won't get bored of, that you won't get angry and flip a table over. What is something that you can do really consistently, and then from there, make it a habit. Make it consistent. It may not have a whole lot of traction within the first week or two, or maybe even months that you're doing it, because there's nothing to back up what you're doing. But six months in, I'm going to tell you now, it's definitely going to turn heads. It's going to keep people's interest, and when people research you and find out more about your personal brand and your business and what you can do for them, they're going to be on board. Why? Because you are there, you are consistent, and you're showing up and showing off in a good way. Thank you for joining us. Let's go to the closing when, when I work with clients, my goal is to get them to their desired outcome. Yes, if I need to be a little bit harsh and a little bit mean, which is probably me just messaging them and just being like, hi, you said we were going to do this, let's do this like that's my mean face. But when it comes to helping people achieve what they need to achieve. That's what I'm here for. That's what you've hired me for. To get to where you need to go, to use the expertise, and hopefully to use the knowledge that you have as an expert in your field. Because ultimately, if you are running a small business, if you are working with clients and helping them achieve what they want to achieve, you are an expert. You don't need a degree for that. You don't need some fancy piece of paper if you are helping people and you're doing it right, you're an expert. If you're constantly growing and involving your education on your particular subject, you're an expert. If you're growing your knowledge and can admit, more importantly, you can admit when you're wrong about something, you're an expert, you're a thought leader in your space.
Zoë Wood 1:03:33
And welcome everyone to the end of the session today, my watch was saying, hey, good workout. That was not a workout, but thank you everyone for sticking with us during this live stream, and thank you for all your comments and questions and thoughts, or make sure that you have the opportunity, if you haven't yet, to put any comments in the description below, hashtag, replay squad. Or you can email me or DM me, which people kind of prefer to do at the moment, which is totally fine, where I can answer your questions right here on the live stream. If you've missed any part of today, maybe you went to have a cuppa and then came back and then you missed some bits. Do not worry. This live stream will be available in perpetuity, until we all crumble into dust for your enjoyment on YouTube and LinkedIn. So if you find, Oh also, you will find the show notes in the description. Will give you a nice, big rundown. If you prefer to read, you're not much of a yapper and you're not much of a listener, you can definitely read the information and the transcript down in our show notes, down in the description below at VCC, dot training slash video, confidence, connect, because that's where you are smashing your mate marketing mayhem with killer video strategies, the video confidence coach, that's me, emboldens women and non binary superstars with killer video marketing strategies, empowering them to show up, stand out and smash their goals. So I'm gonna stop moving around because my watch is still thinking that I'm in a workout I want. To thank everyone for joining us today. And like I said, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I do my best to answer all of my questions that get posed to me, and I am probably going to turn on my air con and I'm going to have a nap because it has been a long couple of days. I apologize for not being centered in this one. Yet I'm still figuring out the new layout, and I'm playing around a little bit with the TV that I was just gifted to play around a little bit with the moving or still image, and having a bit of fun with what I can do with that opportunity. So apologies for moving a little bit. Today, I've been trying to make sure that I was centered for you and your enjoyment. I will give you a beautiful kiss and hope you enjoy the rest of your week.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
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Who is your host?
Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach connects the dots between personal branding and video marketing. Helping women and non-binary folk in small business, find their way in the world of marketing their passion without the energy drain.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
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