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Live On Stage At The 7 Figure Formula Event

James — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:10:05 +0000

Back in September my business partner in Your Internet Buddies, Daniel Wagner, and I had the privilege of enjoying what we both agreed was possibly the most amazing weekend of both or business lives… that is, holding the 7 Figure Formula Event for 200 of our members and their guests on Sep 18/19 in London.

Now Daniel has a lot more experience of holding events and especially speaking at them than I do – and for good reason, the guy’s awesome… (as you can see in his introduction.)

But this was special… It was a ‘Customer Appreciation Event’ meaning it was totally free but as I say, exclusively for our members and their guests. Plus, none of the guest speakers were selling from the stage, and that meant the atmosphere was something special. In fact, it was amazing…

For me personally however, there were multiple reasons why it was so special, but there is one above all else. That was to have the luxury to share my journey of going from a 5-figure employee to becoming a 7-figure entrepreneur in less than 12 months.

Public speaking is not my strength, let me be clear, so first of all standing in front of an audience of 200 and feeling comfortable was already a victory, especially after not much sleep and being, erm, ‘over-prepared’…

Fortunately I was talking about a subject I feel passionately about, and it was all from personal experience. You see to me there is no doubt that the greatest challenge many people face in building a real business occurs when they’ve previously spent a considerable period of their life as an employee.

Why? Because the experience, training, habits, and lifestyle of an employee is normally 180 degrees opposite to that of a business owner. Even coming from a sales background as I did, the transition to running everything yourself in your business is a stiff challenge.

And the lessons I learned along the way in my journey from earning a comfortable salary to being my own ‘Alan Sugar’ (… perhaps not) were many and signficant.

So, in my presentation I explain what where the key learnings in that transition, as well as share some practical tips to help with personal development, time management and wealth creation. In fact, for once, marketing doesn’t feature too much at all… But not everything in business has to do with marketing. Again, I can talk from experience…

Being an expert on marketing means nothing until you have the right mindset, and personal effectiveness skills to cope with building and managing your own business.

So enjoy the presentation and best of luck in your journey in business. I’d love to hear about your experience along the way.

What are the best devices for recording videos?

James — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:05:58 +0000

Video is probably the highest-value and highest-impact content you can create. There are a number of different types of devices you can use to record your own video.

Here are the ones I use and recommend:

Webcams

Webcams are excellent, good-value devices for recording video via your PC or Mac. Most PCs nowadays have basic webcams built-in.

For example, this means you can login directly to YouTube and create videos using the ‘Quick Capture’ option

Logitech Pro 9000

If you want to record higher quality video via a webcam, however, you need to use a more sophisticated device. The most widely recommended ‘professional’ webcam I’ve seen recommended and used personally is the Logitech Pro 9000 (£50). This webcam records video at a resolution of 2MB so the quality of your ‘talking head’ video will be much higher than most basic laptop webcams.

Mobile Video

Webcams are fine if you’re sat in front of your computer, but obviously that format has some limitations. You can’t exactly record outside, for example, or when you’re networking at events.

The new kid on the block, however, for recording videos is undoubtedly the new generation of high quality mobile video recording devices. While many mobile phones can now record video, the quality is still generally poor, plus its generally not that easy to take the video that you’ve recorded on the phone and do something useful with it – like upload it to YouTube and put it on your website.

There are now a number of different mobile video cameras, but there is undoubtedly only one major player…

Flip Video Cameras

The Flip camera is probably the hottest gadget of the last 12 months (after the iphone). You know when something is a phenomenon when people refer to it to describe a category of product.

‘Flip’ video cameras are mobile-phone sized devices that are really simple to use. There are only a few buttons to press… record / stop /playback / delete is about all. Simplicity and ease-of-use is paramount, and much like the iphone, the combination of simplicity and quality output has created some raving fans – including me…

Its called ‘flip’ because when you’ve recorded a video and you want to upload it to your PC or Mac, you simply ‘flip’ open a little USB connector that simply connects to your computer.

What’s more, when you attach the Flip Video to your computer, the camera automatically starts up its own software that quickly and easily allows you to upload your videos to YouTube, or download them to your machine and edit them if you prefer.

There are three types of Flip Video, the Ultra (£80), the Mino (now reduced to £95) and the Mino HD (£170). The main difference between the first two and the last is that the Mino HD records video in amazing High Definition. You can now even watch videos on YouTube in HD mode, and the quality is amazing.

The non-HD Ultra, however, despite being half the price can still produce more than impressive results, and for just £80 its a great. If you’re on a budget, however, the new reduced price Mino (non-HD version) is probably the best deal, as its a smaller, sleeker version of the original Ultra.

I personally use the Mino HD, however, and if you’d like to see examples of my videos check out my YouTube Channel and or my blog.

There are other brands of ‘flip’ video from manufacturers like Kodak ZX1 (£136). However, from the reviews I’ve read the quality of these don’t quite match the original Flip Videos – hence I’d recommend sticking with the original Flip brand itself.

The lesson is this… creating video content has never been as simple or as cost-effective… and creating video products or even your own TV channel is now within reach of anyone. Are you going to take advantage of this opportunity for your internet business?

Want to Find Out More About How Technology Can Build Your Business?

James — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:11:52 +0000

On Sunday I’ll be speaking to an audience of Coaches and Entrepreneurs at the Coaches Top Gun Superconference in London.

As you can imagine I’m very excited at the prospect of being able to talk for over an hour about a subject very dear to my heart – namely the use of technology to build the businesses of Coaches, Therapists and other similar ‘Solopreneurs’.

I don’t quite know what to expect. But I also can’t wait…

There’ll even be a live blog update during the session – using my trusty Flip Video. So… watch this space!

Why the Flip Mino HD Is Every Marketer’s New Best Friend

James — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 13:08:45 +0000

Thanks to my brand new Flip Mino HD video camera this brief clip was filmed on location in London yesterday, while I was attending an event for 30+ internet marketers interested in building their business both online and offline.

I manage pretty-well to resist gadgets that aren’t genuinely useful, but this is one tool that has already become essential for my need to create and share easy-to-produce, valuable content for this blog and elsewhere.

If you’re a coach or consultant then just think how this could apply to you. You could interview other people, or get other people to interview you about your subject of expertise, ready to share with the world and immediately increase your perceived authority and status.

The software that comes with the camera makes it incredibly easy to both edit and add captions to your movie, then upload it instantly to YouTube.

Embed the video onto your blog and there you have it. High, quality engaging content that will only help build trust and rapport with your audience.

So, guys… what are you waiting for?

5 Tips for using video to market your online business

James — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:55:19 +0000

If 2008 has really been the year of the enormous rise in the use of social media and especially Twitter, then following close behind is the explosion of people using online video on their blogs and websites.

A quick search on Google reveals that in July 2008 “142 million, or 75%, of internet users watched online videos in July. The average number of videos watched per viewer is 80.”

In 2009, online advertising is set to overtake advertising spent on TV for the first time ever. One possible factor influencing this shift in advertising spend is that online video viewers are more active and engaged in their viewing compared to those watching television more ‘passively’.

Consequently more and more savvy internet marketers are using video as their primary means of communicating messages. Frank Kern’s InfoMillionaire Product during the pre-launch and actual launch basically only uses large-sized videos on a squeeze page in order to capture new leads and customers.

Even some of the very best direct marketers – who’ve built their reputations over the years with successful offline marketing – are now turning to video sales letters and video landing-pages for their online marketing. Bill Glazer from Glazer-Kennedy Marketing made it clear in the GKIC 2008 Info Summit Conference that video sales letters are the way they are going from now on – although often in conjunction with a normal long-copy sales letter as well.

Successful bloggers are also really starting to catch on to the increase in viral traffic and reader/viewer engagement they can get using online video. Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have even pioneered a how-to-start-a-blog membership site thanks to the massive viral traffic they got because of the high-quality videos they give away for free.

But here’s the good news…

Even if you’re just starting out on the road to building your business online, perhaps with a new brochure website or blog, then here are 5 ways you can use online video to get more viral traffic to your site and build your business.

1) Create your own 30-second ‘talking-head’ video commercial

This is a 30-second spot I recorded for a local Osteopath client of mine. It took about 5 minutes to prepare for and record, and about 10 minutes to upload to my Mac and quickly add a professional title graphic in iMovie. Uploading to the Viddler video-sharing site took about 2 minutes. Its then childs-play to take the embed code the video site produces for you and embed it into this post.

Note that this is not a ‘professional-quality’ production. It doesn’t need to be and there are even a few advantages to having a clearly ‘home-made’ look and feel. For one, it is more authentic and genuine than a traditional tv-commercial. Its unpretentious and non-salesy, which helps to establish rapport and trust, both vital in getting new patients to get in contact and book a treatment session.

2) Create a video testimonial from one of your clients

The best way to explain how you can help people is with the words of your current customers. And without doubt the video testimonial is the strongest form of endorsement you can get. The next time you’re in a coaching session with a client, or in a treatment session with a patient, keep a video camera handy, or even one of the new amazing-quality flip video cameras.

I created this before doing the ‘spot’ above for my client. If you’re afraid of asking for a testimonial (why??) then why not offer to make a quick commercial for your client in return? That seems like a great ‘win-win’ as they can then use it on their own website.

How grateful for this would your client be? How likely are they to refer new customers to you afterwards? Considering the extra 10 minutes it takes how much value will there be for you in return?

3) Create a video slideshow for your readers and viewers

This is an extremely powerful and increasingly widespread approach to online video. It’s very flexible as the audio file can be recorded by itself and then later matched to the images you’d like it to go with.

Possibly the simplest way of doing this is by using an online service called Animoto. This amazing software has been created by former TV and Film producers, the concept is very simple.

You upload some digital images and an audio mp3 file and the software automatically combines them together into a video. And that’s it – you literally do nothing else. If its not important how the images and audio go together, the results can be fantastic.

You can make under 30 second video clips completely free, or pay $3 for each unlimited length video you’d like to make. Finally, $30 per year allows you to make as many videos as you’d like and of whatever length. Here is an example clip I made for our Italian deli in Bath.

If you want to be able to adjust the order and duration of each image with the audio backing, then you can use a very simple and popular free program from Microsoft called Photo Story 3. This allows you to sequence the images precisely with the audio but without either the complexity or more advanced features of video editing software like Windows Movie Maker.

Windows Movie Maker is the free video-editing software that comes with your PC, but you might want to see the professional-looking results the more advanced editing functionality. The Mac alternative is the even easier-to-use iMovie, which makes basic video-editing very easy to pick-up.

Another way of making slideshow videos is by preparing some slides in something like Powerpoint and recording your computer’s screen as you talk through the slideshow. See Tip 5 for how to do this.

4) Start your own YouTube-style video blog

Tip 1 was to create a short ‘talking-head’ video recording with a video camera, ‘You-Tube’ style. But you could develop this concept much further by producing a series of video recordings of you talking to camera about subjects that would be of interest to your potential clients.

Don’t talk about what you had for breakfast, unless its relevant to your business, and keep the theme of the video on topic, as you should with any good blog or website. If you search for ‘life coach’ in YouTube you’ll find many examples, such as life-coach Alkistis Agiorgiti, who has even created her own YouTube TV Channel, called AlkistisTV, to demonstrate her coaching skills and thus promote her business.

Fortunately you don’t have to use a video camera to achieve this, however. A simple webcam would be enough to be able to record your headshot while you talk. You can use a higher-quality webcam if you want to record a bigger area or just have a higher quality recording.

Its easier if you’re Tony Robbins, of course, when someone can do the video-work for you, but the principal is the same. However, I suggest that, unlike Tony, you make sure you publish your video to a video-publishing service that people can then embed onto their blogs and websites.

You’re much more likely to watch embedded videos like the ones elsewhere on this post, rather than click on a link to watch Tony’s videos on his own site. Remember, you want your videos to get the widest possible audience.

5) Create a screen-capture video of your computer desktop.

This final tip for creating a screen-capture video is a great way of either recording an audio and video slideshow in one take, or else just a recording of you demonstrating how to do something on your computer or on the internet.

For example, I created a video slideshow and recorded my computer screen as I went through and discussed each slide, as well as quickly showing a couple of example webpages. The only preparation for this was to make the slides themselves in a great new online presentation tool called SlideRocket. The preparation of the slides took about 30m maximum.

I then used special screen recording software called Camtasia Studio. This software isn’t cheap but you can get a 30 day trial to at least try it out. It is probably only worth investing in, however, if you think you are going to use it fairly frequently to get good value. For Mac users, Screenflow is an excellent but cheaper alternative to Camtasia Studio that also comes recommended.

There are a number of free alternatives for screen-capture software if you’re on a budget. CamStudio is the most well-known free open-source screen-capture tool. If you’re needs are basic then check this out before buying Camtasia, it might do all you need to do perfectly well.

Another free alternative I’ve used is Jing by Techsmith, who are the same people that make Camtasia Studio. Jing is a very easy-to-use free tool that allows you to make up to 5 minute-long screen recordings and upload them either to your own website or else to your own hosting account that Techsmith will give you at screencast.com. The free account gives you up to 2GB of storage and bandwidth which is plenty!

One disadvantage with Jing is that the recordings can only be made in full-screen, which makes it difficult to play it on your blog. But you can certainly point people to the link for the full-screen version quite easily. All-in-all, Jing is a great tool which I recommend. I use it a lot when I want to make a very quick video to share with a client or partner.

So those are my five tips for introducing online video into your marketing plan.

Once you have produced your videos the next step is to promote them – but that’s for another article…

Are using video in your business already? Would you like to but don’t know where to start? If so, feel free to leave your comment or question below!