Creating Compelling Video Content With Stefan Zavalin

Creating Compelling Video Content With Stefan Zavalin

[00:00:00] Stefan Zavalin: And the reason I bring a personal brand is because. The more of yourself that you can put in there, the more people can connect to, the more that you want to be part of that personal brand, that's how far you take it

[00:00:09] Are you looking to improve your sales skills without compromising your values? Welcome to Sales Made Easy, a podcast or Business and Personal Growth.

[00:00:20] Now, here's your host, Harry.

[00:00:22] Harry: If you don't know Dr. Stephan Zavalin, you are in for a treat. He is a person that kind of dresses and looks like a unicorn at times because he is the professional unicorn. He's got a story to tell,. After losing his vision in graduate school, Stefan not only finished his degree, but went on to work in the clinic, start a business, write a book, and give a TEDx talk.

[00:00:49] Harry: Amazing! He now empowers entrepreneurs with creative communication in their business, which eliminates any chance of competition. And who likes competition [00:01:00] anyway? Stefan, welcome to the Sales Made Easy podcast. What's the good word?

[00:01:06] Stefan Zavalin: Thank you for that introduction. That was amazing energy and just fun. So yeah, that's, that's fantastic.

[00:01:13] Stefan Zavalin: And yes, I agree. Who likes competition? And sometimes we make our own competition a little too much.

[00:01:19] Harry: Yes, we do. It seems to be in our head. Years ago, I was in Washington, D. C. and something about the economy was changing in 08, 09. And there was someone that said about, painting your windows black.

[00:01:35] Harry: So you're only focused on what's in the room, what you can control, not what's outside of the room. And I've been using that expression ever since. So let's just chat a little bit about what you do, Stefan, and see how that can help us to paint the windows black, so to speak, or what's your thought on that?

[00:01:55] Stefan Zavalin: My immediate thought is Because I make a lot of videos with people is that's terrible lighting. [00:02:00] You need that natural light. You can't paint windows black. What are you doing? But from from the aspect of that I fight for this, this version of being authentic, as some people would say of, of being yourself and using that as the biggest differentiator for why your business is different from other businesses that do the same thing.

[00:02:18] Stefan Zavalin: It's incredibly powerful because I frequently say that if you're pointing at other businesses and say, I'm like that, I'm like that over there, then why would they come to you? They would go to that over there, they wouldn't come to you. So you need to really be more saying, no, I'm like this right here.

[00:02:32] Stefan Zavalin: This is really who I am. And painting the windows black helps you figure out what that really

[00:02:36] Harry: is. Oh, that's so good. That is the first time I've heard that spin on that expression. So brilliantly done, you know, so one of the things we were talking about is this, this authenticity and people who come from very competitive environments like I did.

[00:02:55] Harry: Which was hyper competition or back in the day. There were probably [00:03:00] 20 pages in the yellow book yeah, what do you call those things yellow pages and You know, it's all about the competition. Everything was about the competition and I just love what you said because really We're not the competition and we got a lot of business without even I mean the competition was never in play and This sometimes becomes all consuming But the spin you just gave was really about being authentic.

[00:03:29] Harry: And this gets a lot, this word gets a ton of attention. I sometimes like the word and I sometimes don't like the word. So let's talk about authenticity and your viewpoint of it.

[00:03:41] Stefan Zavalin: Stefan. Yes. I used to, when I was starting out, I used to use that word a lot. And I authenticity be authentically yourself.

[00:03:49] Stefan Zavalin: And then I watched, there was a video. Seth Godin, who, if you haven't heard big name in marketing and I'm surprised you haven't heard it because he's been around for a long time, but he said I [00:04:00] believe authenticity is a crock and I don't think Seth Godin says things without thinking them through.

[00:04:05] Stefan Zavalin: So I went, Oh no, wow. A role model in this field said authenticity is a crock. How could it be? And so I kept thinking more into it and why would he say that? And what does he mean? And I think that a lot of it is we're talking about extremes and that. Authenticity, for me, is a good starting point, but not a good ending point.

[00:04:25] Stefan Zavalin: And, Harry, you know this, but for the rest of you, I'm gonna tell you a Taylor Swift story. I use Taylor Swift as the example because my wife loves Taylor Swift. The idea goes basically like this. You got a ticket, I don't know how you could afford it with how much they cost these days, but you got a ticket, you go to the show, you're waiting, Taylor comes out on stage, and goes, I've had a hard day, my boyfriend said something mean to me, my throat kind of hurts, I really don't feel like doing this, goodnight.

[00:04:53] Stefan Zavalin: No show. That is pure authenticity. That is exactly how Taylor Swift feels in that exact moment. You, as the buyer of this, [00:05:00] go, I'm sorry, what? No, you're outraged, even if you're a fan. Flipside to what I propose. Taylor Swift goes out on stage, says, I've had a hard day. My boyfriend said something mean to me.

[00:05:13] Stefan Zavalin: My throat kind of hurts, but I'm gonna push through it. And I'm gonna give you the best show that I can tonight. I told this example to a Swiftie, that's by the way what Taylor Swift fans are called, and she said, you know, if I heard Taylor say that, I would sing louder to give her my energy at that concert.

[00:05:30] Stefan Zavalin: Imagine a potential customer doing that for you. Singing louder to give you energy to make you better? That's our ideal amazing customers all the way there. And the difference there wasn't that she was authentic, she was human. For a second, we connect it to humanity and humanity starts with some authenticity, but humanity is the final end goal.

[00:05:49] Stefan Zavalin: It's not to where we're just going, no, I want a burrito and watch Netflix. Why am I on the sales call? No, but you can be human. And I think that's helpful. I love it. And

[00:05:59] Harry: you know, it's [00:06:00] just it puts this word off in authentic and I mean, I use words like genuine. And it's just, it's, it's easier because I mean, like you mentioned in this example, if you feel like crap and you go around and tell everyone you feel like crap today, well, yeah, but who wants to be around you?

[00:06:20] Harry: Right. And especially if you're in business and you're talking to a prospect or a client and you say, well, I just feel like crap. So I'm a grouch. Okay. Well, that may be the case, but how does that help anybody? Right. So I love your approach. What any additional

[00:06:37] Stefan Zavalin: thoughts on that? I actually, I do. Because what I don't want people to misunderstand it is as, you're never allowed to be a grouch, and you're never allowed to be upset.

[00:06:47] Stefan Zavalin: Because if you're constantly the opposite, of which you're just positive all the time, and something that's even called toxic positivity, where you're like, oh come on, everything is great, everything is wonderful. No, some things are not. But because you have a good [00:07:00] balance of it, those times when you show up and you're going, I am having a bad day.

[00:07:04] Stefan Zavalin: You're received differently people go. Oh, what can I do to help? How can I support you as opposed to stop complaining? Stop whining? So it's not to say that you should swing completely in the other direction. It's a balance. It's well being human. Yeah

[00:07:17] Harry: And I what's your take on reading the room

[00:07:21] Stefan Zavalin: in that regard?

[00:07:23] Stefan Zavalin: Yeah, I would say that I immediately think of yin and yang of this idea of if you have a completely room of full of negativity, the one positive person immediately stands out and in today's society and culture, that's kind of what it feels like is most likely the positive person is the one that's going to stand out, that's going to support, put a spin on it help you out as opposed to only help themselves out.

[00:07:48] Stefan Zavalin: So I think the reading the room also helps contrast the room. At the same time, you have to read it to the point of if everybody is positive, that doesn't mean, oh, I'm going to be the negative [00:08:00] one. No, no, no, no, no. Read the room to that degree of where what is the right balance for you to be in? So I think it definitely plays into it.

[00:08:08] Harry: Yeah, in a sense, that way I'm envisioning is that you never want to be the extreme. And you fit in where you can and still hold on to your principles and values. But like you mentioned, it's like if you're the negative Nelly in a room of positive people, that's not reading the room well. And even though you might feel like crap, you might hide it a little bit.

[00:08:37] Harry: Just for the sake of the time in that room doesn't mean it's like that for the whole day, but it's, you know, you've got in the world of sales, the world of business, it's all about, in my opinion, not all about, but a lot about being reading the room or reading the people you're around and seeing what kind of mood they're in so that you [00:09:00] can You know, I guess the example is mirroring, which goes really against your authentic self at times, but it's what we're drawn to.

[00:09:12] Harry: We're drawn to people like us and reflecting. So if someone, if we're positive and someone else reflects back that it gives us more energy. And if we're negative and someone's trying to say, cheer up or it's not that bad. Or we're doing that to someone else. I think that's where your toxic positivity might step in.

[00:09:35] Harry: And I see you nodding approvingly. So I think I've got that right. So,

[00:09:41] Stefan Zavalin: Yeah. So I would, I would, the one thing that also here that I would add, because I, I also find this part and I like that you said the, the authenticity part of it like again, from my example of it, I don't think authenticity is a bad word.

[00:09:54] Stefan Zavalin: There is that piece. of where you go to networking events or you go to these masterminds and you go, how's everything [00:10:00] going? It was like, yeah, it's good. Business is good. Yeah. Business is great. How about you, Greg? Yeah. Yeah. Business is good. Why are you at a networking event if business is good and you've got no problems?

[00:10:09] Stefan Zavalin: Let's actually talk about the problems. It doesn't have to be, it could be a constructive thing. Me saying, Hey, I need more leads in my business. Hey, I'm not able to keep my clients for more than eight months. Let's talk about them. That's not a negative thing. That's a realistic thing. So sometimes, also, what things are you labeling negative that are actually just facts?

[00:10:28] Stefan Zavalin: It's things we have to deal with and actually obstacles for us to Yeah, really

[00:10:33] Harry: good. Yeah. And I think part of that is is the trust factor so that if you were to say something like, well, I could use some help or this is a challenge for me right now, if you don't trust who you're selling and saying that to, then you want to maybe reevaluate who you're networking with and, you know, see if you can develop a little more trust and confidence that the person can use their experience and [00:11:00] maybe help you out instead of, you know, potentially leave.

[00:11:04] Harry: You know, having an opportunity to help solve a problem, just go by the wayside because you're too embarrassed to talk about it or something, which happens, right? It's like this, our ego is getting away sometimes and yeah, we just don't want anyone else to think that we're having a challenge, but they've probably had it too.

[00:11:24] Stefan Zavalin: So I want to ask you I want to answer this for myself and then also ask you because I'm guessing we're gonna have the Same otherwise, I'm about to fall flat on my face audience. Get ready. This is gonna be fun Every time I have been vulnerable enough to say this is not working in my business to a group of people What has resulted is more help from those people and then immediately like introductions to potential clients and all that.

[00:11:46] Stefan Zavalin: I have never had to go. Oh, he sucks at stuff. We're not gonna help him out at all. I have yet to have that experience. I'm wondering if you've ever had that experience where you actually shared an obstacle and people just said you suck or were they trying to do something with you?

[00:11:58] Harry: Yeah, it's it's totally [00:12:00] what you just described, you know, so it's it's really great.

[00:12:02] Harry: It's it's the good side of Humanity if I can use that word, right? Yeah, and in fact in one network group I belong to We just started talking about instead of doing the pitch every week to each other, we just started looking at ways that how we can help, you know, what are you working on? You know, what's a challenge for you and going around the room saying, well, I've done this or this works for me.

[00:12:31] Harry: And getting, you know, the feedback of, even if it's a small group, a half dozen people, I mean, that's the value of the network group. Now it becomes like a mastermind, right? So you're pooling the resources to help each other. And interestingly enough, no matter how successful people are, they still have something that they're working on or some challenge, whether it be, I need to get on social media more, or, you know, I'm having trouble collecting [00:13:00] bill invoices.

[00:13:01] Harry: Right. And then you know, others might say, well, I really need to do more video. And, you know, I know a guy and that guy is you, Stefan Zeppelin. So talk to us a little bit about the video. And what got you started in that because I'm curious, but based on your background.

[00:13:22] Stefan Zavalin: Oh, yeah. So I started on video way long ago.

[00:13:26] Stefan Zavalin: I started doing video in middle school. And there was a whole time when I had to make a choice between music and video. And at that time I chose music. And, but video was always the underlying messaging throughout. So even when I went to grad school, I went to grad school or physical therapy.

[00:13:41] Stefan Zavalin: I was still doing videos. Anytime somebody went, Oh, we're doing a group project. I'm like, we're doing a video. And they go, we have no idea how to do a video. I'm like, that's fine. I do. We're doing a video. And it was always people preferred the video over the PowerPoint presentations. I tell you every single time.

[00:13:54] Stefan Zavalin: Yeah. When, when my group came up, they were like, Oh, we know something's going to be different. [00:14:00] Luckily the professors felt the same way. So good. I, I, I graduated. We did, we did it with that regard, but video has always kind of been there. And the big turning point for me, by the way, is my first business that I started.

[00:14:10] Stefan Zavalin: It wasn't video based. And this is a little bit of a lesson to potentially people starting out or thinking about different things. It was all about reducing how much we're sitting. So it was physical therapy based. I was using my degree and I was talking about all these things. I did the book. I did the TEDx talks.

[00:14:26] Stefan Zavalin: So book was called Sit Less. TEDx, move more, sit less. You're getting a theme. And then I created a show, and that was the catalyst. The show was called Scared Sitless. It was funny, and I don't care what anybody else says. And I call it a show because it was a, it was a virtual digital show, live every single time.

[00:14:44] Stefan Zavalin: There was, I had a green screen, there was stuff flying everywhere, there were jokes, I played a parody song, there was music, audience got to choose their own adventure, there was a lot. At the end of it, not a single person said, Wow, you've really changed my habits around how much I'm sitting throughout the [00:15:00] day.

[00:15:01] Stefan Zavalin: But many people said, how the hell did you do that? What was that show? What was, where was all that stuff? Where'd that come from? And I went, that's kind of a wake up call from a business side of things. It's like, why are you doing this thing that nobody recognized, yet you had so much fun doing, and people recognized this other aspect of it.

[00:15:16] Stefan Zavalin: And so I dived into video. And the issues that I really saw on social media with video for business owners is I go, they usually don't have a whole lot of time. They don't know what to talk about, and they just don't feel comfortable on camera. It's kind of those three big ones of them just going, what to do with all this?

[00:15:36] Stefan Zavalin: And so I said, okay, how can we overcome some of that? Most of the time now we're on Zoom. And when I see people having a conversation with me on Zoom, and they're being themselves, it's a good one on one call, and they're going, yeah, but I'm just bad on camera. You're on camera right now. What do you mean you're bad?

[00:15:50] Stefan Zavalin: You're not bad on camera. You're bad by yourself on camera. But right now you're on camera and so you're perfectly fine. So okay, so for pretty much everyone that [00:16:00] obstacle is overcome. Then it's, I don't know what to talk about. Okay, that just means I have to ask you questions. Because you're already an expert in your business.

[00:16:07] Stefan Zavalin: You know what you know. So we get to talk about that. And the last part is, I don't have time. And so I go, great. We do a one hour conversation. And then we chop that up into content that you can use for a whole month. So now for one hour, you get a month of content. And so that's where that whole thing kind of birthed itself out is taking, what are people really asking for and what's hard for them and putting them as this streamlined thing overall.

[00:16:29] Stefan Zavalin: And as I've done that, that's been fun, but other people have said, Hey, I like doing my videos, but you come up with some crazy ideas. So now I'm also branching off into. Where's the creativity? Where can we really add in that human side of the business owner to showcase it in all of your videos? So like we said at the beginning, you don't have competition.

[00:16:49] Stefan Zavalin: And that is the the kind of story of how it's been evolving.

[00:16:53] Harry: Yeah. I, and I love, I mean, you guys have to follow Stefan. His videos are hysterical.[00:17:00] So I'm playing the car, the guitar easy for me to say the other day. and saying something along the lines that it doesn't really matter what you say in a poetic form.

[00:17:13] Harry: There might've been a curse word or two in it, but it was just so well played. I kept watching the dang thing. So if you got like 500 views 347 of them were mine. And I couldn't get the thing out of my head. So it's just that type of quality. It's like, I want to work with this guy, right? I want to be around this guy because he's fun versus uptight.

[00:17:39] Harry: And this, for whatever reason, using video, a lot of people are just uptight about their, you know, you have to jump in the pool, right? It's like the pool is really icy cold at times. And you know, you got to get in for whatever you're doing treatment and work with me on this. Standing around looking at the pool, [00:18:00] imagining yourself in the pool, wishing you were in the pool, talking about someday you'll be in the pool when you get all your scripting down, does not get you in the pool.

[00:18:11] Harry: And sometimes that first jump and you just went in that last video, it's like you took away, you literally took away all fear from me. It's like, never again will I watch my video 17 times. Before I post it because I go back and forth in my head saying is this good enough? Oh that line there was stupid or that one's really good.

[00:18:33] Harry: I'm trying to be funny It's not funny and you just said look it doesn't matter post it. So I did So what's your thought on this?

[00:18:43] Stefan Zavalin: First of all, thank you for all those views. Now I understand where they're coming from. That's fantastic. But, so my, my whole, the whole piece about it doesn't matter is, I think, where I find people get uptight about jumping into video, specifically for social media, is that they go, it needs to be a [00:19:00] professional commercial.

[00:19:00] Stefan Zavalin: It needs to have this high level where they think this is what video for business looks like. And that's not what social media, social media is, people forget so much half of social media. It's social. It's social media. Meaning, you have to be yourself, you have to be human, you have to interact. This also gets into the thing of where people go, Oh, I'm just gonna schedule it and just forget about it.

[00:19:21] Stefan Zavalin: Then why would people connect with you? You need to be social on social media for Crying Out Loud. So there's that piece, and then there's the thing of, Okay, if you're always uptight, and you're always very, very professional that way, is that what I think I'm gonna get with you every single time I work with you?

[00:19:35] Stefan Zavalin: For some professions, that works. For most professions, it does not. We really want to connect to the, to the person. And so the biggest thing that I want to say around all of it is what is the purpose of social media? And so people will say, oh, yeah, I got to get more leads, got to get more sales. You know, just got to promote my business.

[00:19:57] Stefan Zavalin: None of those are the reason for social media. The reason for social media [00:20:00] is connection. You connect to the person, develop the relationship, sell after a while. However long or short that process is for you, but the point of the social media post you're making is the connection piece. Far more than it is selling and I think that's where people go.

[00:20:15] Stefan Zavalin: I need to be professional. I need to sell No You need to be something people can connect to and if they can't see themselves or anything they like in you Why would they ever connect to you?

[00:20:24] Harry: Yeah. So good. So where does somebody draw the line then on

[00:20:30] Stefan Zavalin: that? Yes, is the answer. To the point of you draw the line where we're in this very interesting era now where before company brands were separate from personal brands.

[00:20:42] Stefan Zavalin: You, you had some overlap for celebrities, but for small businesses, it got, no, this is my logo. This is my branding. You don't see much of the business owner, and we're really getting more and more into this idea of personal branding and how much personal branding matters that even if you or I started another business, our name and our cloud [00:21:00] follows us along into a completely new venture with that regard.

[00:21:03] Stefan Zavalin: And the reason I bring a personal brand is because. The more of yourself that you can put in there, the more people can connect to, the more that you want to be part of that personal brand, that's how far you take it. Is, do you want to be known for this? Is this something that you actually care about?

[00:21:18] Stefan Zavalin: Because putting up a facade of something that you're supposed to be and playing a character all the time is doable. Don't misunderstand that, but it's hard. But being yourself all the time, eh, it's much easier. We're just afraid of doing, because we've been kind of conditioned to that. So, where to draw the line for me is I think always a good litmus test for me is, if you're not having fun doing it, they're not having fun watching it.

[00:21:43] Stefan Zavalin: So, yeah, if you're not having fun creating the videos, you need to extend your line a little bit. If you're having a little too much fun and people are starting to go, I don't know if I agree with that. We're diving into some political buckets that maybe you're like, I don't know if this relates.

[00:21:56] Stefan Zavalin: Okay, then maybe kind of draw it in a little bit.

[00:21:59] Harry: Yeah, [00:22:00] okay, yeah, good point. So, one of the things I think about is, do my videos need to be better? And I start thinking about, well, does my camera need to be better? Do I need to have one of these little portable microphones? I hear, I see people using, when they're speaking in front, and I'm just using my iPhone.

[00:22:23] Harry: So, All out. It's like I have no additional investment other than a tripod stand. And I use the phone that I would have bought anyway. But I see people that are holding a tiny little microphone. They've got lavaliers and they're doing different things. And it's like, well, and I know I hear people talking about, well, you want to get this Canon camera.

[00:22:45] Harry: I'm like do I really want that? So what do you. What does thou sayeth, Stefan, on this stuff? I don't know why I went to King James, but I went to King James for this.

[00:22:57] Stefan Zavalin: I sayeth nay. [00:23:00] And to a large degree I sayeth nay. So I always love pointing that kind of stuff to various clips of where there's one dude that uses an iPhone and he says things just like, You know, you can just not do the things people tell you.

[00:23:12] Stefan Zavalin: Just go do whatever you want. Crazy hair, dude in the middle of the woods. That's it. That's the entire video. Hundreds of thousands of views. Is there a hook? No. Story? No. Call to action? No. Crazy camera? No. Human. We just connect. It's a good piece of content. It's like, that's true. I needed some of that from a, from a crazy haired gentleman somewhere in the middle of the woods.

[00:23:35] Stefan Zavalin: But, so there's, there's that piece of where I think people jump to all of this high tech stuff to solve their problems. When the quality of the communication and things they talk about and how they connect with people sucks. And so I understand, for example, the less than 15 second videos do amazingly well.

[00:23:55] Stefan Zavalin: It's very hard to tell an emotionally compelling story in less than 15 seconds. [00:24:00] And so I, I always say I think you need a mixture of both. I'm, it's not like never do anything less than 15 seconds. The algorithms there that also does help generate some of those of those parts, but in terms of the quality of things that you need to do quick little checklist for anybody listening to immediately without getting a new phone improve everything that you're doing.

[00:24:19] Stefan Zavalin: And if you watch Harry's videos he does all of these things already. Okay, so the first one, you're going to raise the phone. This is like you have the phone on you're about to press record. Camera up to or slightly above your eye level is where you want to keep it. You want to have more light in front of you than behind you.

[00:24:36] Stefan Zavalin: Meaning if there's the sun, it should be shining in your face and not into the camera and blinding your audience. Look at the camera, not at the screen. You want to make eye contact with the audience so that when somebody's watching, they feel like you're actually talking to them. And then as soon as you press record, start talking immediately.

[00:24:54] Stefan Zavalin: The technology is just so good. Now you don't have to pause for that half second. You can just start talking right away. It saves a lot on [00:25:00] the editing side of things. So that's, that's an easy way to improve all that getting a better camera, getting the the microphone, those are improvements. And if your video quality completely sucks, yes, that can be detrimental.

[00:25:12] Stefan Zavalin: But if you think that's the only thing that matters, you're, you're kind of wasting time. You need to be looking in. Am I making good quality content? Yeah. I mean, it's

[00:25:21] Harry: sort of like podcasting. If people ask me about what they need to get started in podcasting. And the first thing I say is try recording, you know, three or four podcasts without buying anything special.

[00:25:37] Harry: Use your phone, I mean, use your camera from your computer, they, you normally have a microphone. If you want to spend a hundred bucks or something, you spend a hundred bucks, but you may not even like it. You know, you spend, you know. Build out a studio and you spend thousands of dollars and, you know, three months later, you're regretting [00:26:00] everything because you don't like podcasting.

[00:26:02] Harry: So, yeah, I agree is that if you're going to do video, just get started with what you've got and then build in time when you feel like you actually need something that's better or you have a conversation with someone like you. It was very bright and these things, and you either get us to play the guitar and sing through our videos, or it might give us some encouragement to get a microphone or better lighting or something, right.

[00:26:30] Harry: Yeah. Any other thoughts

[00:26:32] Stefan Zavalin: on that? Well, for, for a lot of my videos, I just use my iPhone. Oh, really? The only thing that I will add is for most phones nowadays, your back camera is going to be much better than your front camera. So, well, on the, the front camera, here's the, here's the, the back and forth.

[00:26:49] Stefan Zavalin: You can use either. The front facing camera allows you to see yourself in frame on the phone. Which then lets you kind of get into the right space. Like I said on the checklist, what I find is most [00:27:00] people starting out stare at themselves the entire time and they don't make eye contact. So, if please make eye contact with the camera.

[00:27:06] Stefan Zavalin: The back camera usually has way better resolution than you nowadays. Most all phones now have the 4K that you can record in. And no screen. So you can only really look at the actual camera as, as your one focal point and way less distractions. So it's kind of like a back and forth there in terms of all the quality, but yeah, I just use my, my phone for a lot of them.

[00:27:27] Stefan Zavalin: I have extra mics, but I don't use it for all of my videos. I actually recently made a video that talks about all the differences using an AirPod, a mic and just the phone itself and how those sound differently. But in the end, yeah. Quality of content over quality of video. Nice.

[00:27:43] Harry: So Stefan just winding down here.

[00:27:46] Harry: What does it look like for people to work with you? What is, what is it that you do for

[00:27:50] Stefan Zavalin: them? So we kind of talked about the whole thing of, of chunking it down and recording a bunch of videos in just one hour. And that's really what it comes down to is [00:28:00] taking all of the knowledge and the humanity that you have and capturing on a video where you're going, I have no idea what I'm doing.

[00:28:06] Stefan Zavalin: And then getting it to the point where you have a library of content. Nice. Because my goal is after you work with me, we make so much content and I teach you how to use it and reuse it that you're set for, and I'm not joking, four years. Is, is for years four. Four years, literally four years, four, FO you are years or four years that, that you are, you are set up for.

[00:28:28] Stefan Zavalin: Wow. In terms of that, that kind of content. Okay. And it's all video. It's not, oh, I'm just gonna use Chad, GPT and make another one of these templated things that look exactly like everybody else's. That uses Canva as well. No, it's actually saying no, it's me and it's the human side that people connect

[00:28:44] Harry: to.

[00:28:44] Harry: Okay. So now you've got me curious. This is where I go. I shoot way past the 30 minute mark. All right. So take the average business owner who is my dog says hello. That does not [00:29:00] use video today. How long do they need to work with you to get the skills and to have the video and to have this type of content?

[00:29:09] Harry: What is that length of time typically?

[00:29:12] Stefan Zavalin: So, and I'll, I'll also go a little bit into what it actually looks like because I can't, I have a separate thing where I do, if somebody goes, no, I just want to do it myself. I can train you to do it, but that takes very long to become comfortable on camera. Harry, you know, doing all the videos, it takes a while for you to get into it.

[00:29:30] Stefan Zavalin: And then if you just do the talking head videos, you only become good at doing talking head videos. If we're starting to go into all the fun edits, the in between stuff that you might have to do, that's even more and more and more and more. So when, when I work with people, I'm just going What I need you to do is do what you're best at, and that is to be yourself.

[00:29:48] Stefan Zavalin: Because you've been with you your whole life, I hope. But and it's uncovering that. So that's, that's really my genius is in that moment, it usually takes about 15 or 20 minutes into that hour when they're really [00:30:00] starting to be like, No, I can be myself. It helps when there's the dude on the other side looking like a unicorn.

[00:30:04] Stefan Zavalin: You're like, I can be a little bit me, this guy's ridiculous. That from that hour recording, we can get about 30 clips. The minimum is 30, I've gotten up to 46 clips from an hour recording. So we do one of those per month, because then you can start posting, and if you post every single day for a month, you're gonna need 30 more next month.

[00:30:22] Stefan Zavalin: When we get to six months, you have 180 videos. Relatively simple math. Now, here's the beauty of it. People have short attention spans. And they will not know if you repost a video twice a year. Many people are reposting videos three to four times a year at this point. And because we're making videos that really communicate your human side, it's not going to change.

[00:30:45] Stefan Zavalin: The content is relatively going to be the same. After a while, you're making the same types of videos. So if you take 180 videos, repost them twice a year, that's 360 days. Take five days off for the holidays. And now you have evergreen content that's pretty good from [00:31:00] quality standpoint for the next probably three to four years.

[00:31:04] Stefan Zavalin: So that's how you, from six months of work, can get four years of content. And if somebody goes, but what about the people that have seen my content before? If they remember it, it means they liked it and they will go, Oh my goodness. Thank you for the reminder. I remember you said this before and I completely didn't act on it, so it's never going to be a thing of, Oh my goodness, you post the same things all the time.

[00:31:23] Stefan Zavalin: It's not that it's still providing quality. Hmm.

[00:31:27] Stefan Zavalin: Yeah. If you go, I don't have money. Then at the very least jump in that pool. Stop planning. Start jumping. Start swimming.

[00:31:34] Harry: Yes. Yeah. And save your money from Starbucks or something else and spend it on getting your quality branding and connections, not branding, but connections.

[00:31:43] Harry: So thank you for that clarification because sometimes I lose sight of that too. So this is a great. Use of time for me. I hope you got something out of it. Stefan. Is this

[00:31:54] Stefan Zavalin: okay for you? This is fun I I love talking about this stuff All right, good deal.

[00:31:59] Harry: [00:32:00] So where can people find you before we sign off here?

[00:32:03] Stefan Zavalin: Yeah, LinkedIn is an easy place Stefan's Zavalin or stefanzavalin.com if you want to see more unicorns in your life And if you need content ideas stefanzavalin.com has a free ebook with 101 Creative content ideas for entrepreneurs and small business owners. So they get very, very fun if you're struggling with, I don't know what to talk about.

[00:32:23] Harry: Yeah, that's perfect. And we'll put that link in the show notes. So find that, click on it, get that ebook and good things will happen. , thank you so much for joining us on the sales made easy podcast. We'll see you around social media showing off your great talent. We'll talk to you soon.

[00:32:41] Harry: Thank you.

[00:32:41] Thank you for listening to Sales Made Easy. If you found value in our conversations, please subscribe and leave a review. Our goal is to provide practical strategies for growing your business while staying true to your values. Remember, [00:33:00] Success in sales is about serving your clients. Serve first and the selling will follow