Making decisions as a client can be a daunting task. With numerous options available, it can be challenging to choose the right one. But it’s precisely what makes the market dynamic and diverse.

For most people, recommendations from trusted friends hold weight, and research plays a crucial role in the decision-making process. My personal approach to decision-making is unique, as I trust my gut and pursue experiences rather than relying solely on recommendations or research. While I do conduct research when necessary, especially for larger investments, I prioritize my own personal experience and intuition. This has served me well and I believe is what sets me apart from many others who might take a more cautious approach. However, as someone who has helped professionals develop many of the foundational components their audiences seek out, I know there are many great service providers that aren’t truly connecting in the marketplace.

To appeal to a variety of audience types within their market, organizations need to show their human side. That’s why we’ve been showcasing real people for a long time. It gives clients a true feel for the business and the individuals they’re considering working with. This approach allows clients to be themselves and fosters an authentic conversation.

Our content and communication strategies aim to be genuine, not manipulative. By staying true to ourselves, we aim to create familiarity in the world of professional services. Let’s seize the momentum and bring authenticity to the forefront.

If you’re like me then you’ve been enjoying the minimally edited, longer form conversational style videos that have taken over the attention economy these last few years. I not only consume this type of content, I really enjoying bringing it to life.

I want to share why I think it’s important we pay closer attention to this as it pertains to communicating with our respective audiences.

I find that people overthink the video production process more often than not. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still very much a thing. I am just referring to the simplest approach of pressing record and going with it.

Many people are really good at doing this on their own. They have found a healthy way to show who they are and who they want the “world” to see. This persona can be a lot for people to maintain as they sometimes become an entirely different person in the process.

A personal example:

When my mother was battling cancer, the last 5 months were really the most difficult to experience. My mother didn’t have a lot of energy at that time, but whenever she was on the phone, you would think she was doing really great. I unfortunately had a backstage pass to that show. She was always good when the “lights were on” and throughout my life she would rarely leave the house not looking her best. My mother cared and I always admired her for that. She didn’t seem to be pretending, and I don’t believe she ever was. It was just at the end when I knew she clearly wasn’t doing well but still never let the person on the other end really know it.

I have always been fascinated with the outward expression of others and I think social media allowed us to discover just how creative we all can be. Unfortunately, some of the personas that have been created, have been nearly impossible to maintain in real life. We all see this. This is nothing knew for anyone with an interest in psychology, but it is important to understand because it does create a remarkable opportunity in marketing.

Let me give another example:

A few years back, I met a guy who I happened to enjoy talking to. He was also a father and naturally we connected. I later found out that he was this very well known person in his field (that I am purposefully leaving out.) He had his face everywhere, especially outdoor advertising. Anyone with a car couldn’t miss him, although I clearly did for nearly 3 years. His social media persona was very different than the person I had began the friendship with. Either way, I understood why he did what he did, but the version of him most didn’t get to see was the version I actually really liked. As our relationship developed, I began hearing chatter about what people didn’t like about him and they were really just judging the persona. They didn’t really know him. But they were also a part of the audience and he knew how to get people talking, which is why he gets to be successful in this domain. Because I was always more interested in who people really are, as opposed to who they want you to see them as, I filmed an interview with him on location of one of his production shoots.

During this conversation, he showed the side of him that I knew. There was no facade. For the most part, he kept his ego in check and got into it. This was a crucial experience because at that time, we didn’t use that to market him directly. If we had, it would have disrupted the strategy that was working really well. It also wasn’t the reason I was filming it to begin with. I was filming it to see if he could show me what my mother showed me when she wasn’t on the phone. And he did.

One day, he was dealing with “drama” as a local competitor was trolling him. He immediately wanted to go on the defensive, but how we would do that was a very important factor to consider. I went through our long conversation and found a piece where he specifically addressed the situation currently at play. So to be clear, I asked a question based on my observations that would allow him to speak about the very thing he was likely going to come into contact with at some point in the future. That’s called foresight and I’m really fucking good at it. (Ego much?)

So we pulled the piece together and shipped it. It was a move that hadn’t been made by him ever before and people took notice.

So back to why I began writing this in the first place. Some of us are good at recording ourselves, but most aren’t. We already discussed the challenges for those that do record themselves. It can be a tedious process, although I would argue that it is worth spending the time getting good at. For everyone else, it’s important that you have someone with a camera that knows how to ask the right questions. That’s the pathway toward better, more engaging and authentic content.

In the movie “Along Came Polly” (Thank you Stan) Philip C Hoffman’s character has a team following him for an E! True Hollywood story. It was later revealed that he was actually the one investing in it so he can later sell it to them. As an audience, we were led to feel sorry for him, as if he was somehow a fraud.

But what if he actually was making the smartest business decision he could. What if at that point in which it was revealed, the idea was celebrated. We likely wouldn’t have that same movie, but at least you can see the angle I always saw being played.

So the key takeaways:
1. Understand your strengths and weaknesses on camera
2. Decide if you have the discipline to find the balance of who you are and who you want others to see
3. Recognize the opportunities for you to evolve your marketing strategies for longer term thinking
4. Seek individuals that align with your vision who understand these things and can articulate the message you’ve always wanted to deliver

We can’t help everyone, but if this article helps others like me PRESS RECORD in a similar way, I’ve done my job. Thank you for your attention.

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