Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Hello, welcome back to Rogue startups. I'm your host, Craig Hewitt. Video today we're talking about video and specifically on LinkedIn. Continuing our LinkedIn series, chatting with Danny del Vecchio, who is the person on LinkedIn for both short and long form video content. Danny drops just a ton of knowledge around, like being really practical about how to get started, how to stick with it, and how to be successful with video content to drive leads and revenue for your business using LinkedIn and YouTube. And that combination of the two as like the ultimate social platform, leverage to grow your business. It's probably one of my favorite conversations in a really long time. Super practical and useful. I hope you enjoyed.
You know, when you find that perfect partner for your business, the person you say, shit, where has this person been all of my life? I found that a few years ago with clearly design and Francois, who has helped us design almost the entire Kastos web application, mobile app, WordPress plugin and marketing site. You know, I think that, you know the old saying that software is eating the world. I think it's never been more true, right? Software and AI are getting easier and easier and easier to build and cheaper and faster. And so what's differentiating you from all of your competition is how much your customers love using your software. It's not good enough anymore to just have good software. People have to absolutely love it. And to do that, unless you're a designer, which I'm not, you need someone who gets this stuff and is able to take the stuff that's in your brain as a founder and put it into Figma and put it into specifications for your dev team to implement. And it's really been transformative for us to work with Francois and clearly design on Kastos and really on every aspect of castos, from branding to marketing to product and to promotion, I can't recommend it enough. He's a really great human being, a really great service. And Francois, running a special just for rogue startup listeners right now, go to clearly design. You can get a discount off of his monthly design as a service subscription. Tell him that we sent you and I hope that you enjoy. I know you won't be disappointed. Francois, absolutely amazing. And clearly design is our chosen partner for everything design, Ux and product. At Kastos.
We were just talking about how you got into video and you said it was from podcasting. I think podcasting is like the gateway drug for a lot of people to get into entrepreneurship and online business. Tell me kind of how that enabled you to be where you are today.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's exactly what it was for me. I started a podcast in 2015. I was working in sales at the time, and the podcast, actually, it was a hobby, and I never intended it for it to be, like, this big thing, and it ended up getting 500,000 plus downloads. We grew a community of, like, over 20,000 followers across multiple social media platforms. And it was really where I learned to use social media, because I had this podcast, and it was like, okay, well, how do you get people to actually listen to it? And there was really, you know, the choice of, like, you know, run, put money behind it, which I didn't have money to put behind it. It was a hobby, or you just grow it organically using social media. So basically, I just started to, like, figure out social media on my own. And this podcast kind of blew up. But after a couple years, we had to sunset the podcast just because I got promoted at work. And I was, you know, doing a lot of traveling. My co host that I had for the podcast, he quit. So I was trying to get people from the tv show. The podcast was about the tv show and practical jokers, and I was trying to get all these people from the tv show to do every episode. And, like, the scheduling and everything was so difficult, so had to basically give up a giant audience, and I didn't realize at the time what, like, the value that I had because I wasn't making any money off of it. You know what I mean?
So five years later, you know, I decided that I wanted to start a podcast again.
And I was like, oh, you know, I was able to do it really big the last time. I'll have no problem doing it again.
Not quite.
So I started another podcast. This was, like, 2021, and it just wasn't going well. So I joined this podcast mastermind group, and the guy that ran it, guy named Travis Brown, and he basically learned a little bit more about me and who I was and my background and what I was doing. And he's like, you need to stop podcasting right now and go start a coaching business and go promote your coaching business on Instagram. And that's what I did. I took his advice. I shut down the podcast. I started building a brand on Instagram. I was. I couldn't build my brand on LinkedIn because I was still full time working for a relatively, like, well known company. So I had my boss and his boss and their boss and all my peers and everything on there. So I couldn't promote myself on LinkedIn. So I was doing it on Instagram. And I started to get a couple coaching clients. And basically what happened with my coaching clients was I was telling them, if you want to be successful at promoting yourself and building your brand online, you need to do videos.
And that was easier said than done for most people and for a variety of reasons.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Still is. Still is, man. That's why.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Yeah, right. And it's, and it's for a variety of reasons. And, like, one of them is just, they're just not comfortable on camera at all.
Another one is they just don't have the time to do, like, consistently create the amount of video content that I was looking for them to get out there. And then the last one is like, there's just a lot of, like, production and skills, like, involved to create, like, high quality video content on a regular basis. Right? So, like, you need to know how to, you know, film and edit and do lighting and all these things. So it's just a very difficult proposition for people that are super busy, like, trying to run their business and service their clients and do all these other things to be able to do video content. So I was kind of challenged with this idea of, like, how do I create something for these clients to help them get out a bunch of high quality video content in a short period of time?
And I had this one friend, Sal. And Sal and I, we've been friends since we're like 1415 years old. We work together, and he's a real estate agent in New York, New York City. And he does very well. And he's like, I really want to start getting myself out there online. And I was coaching him at the time to try to help him do that. And he.
So I said to him, look, I want you to do this video. Here's what I want you to talk about. Go do it. Right?
And then I'm like, send it to me and then I'll teach you how to edit it from there. He's like, okay, cool.
So now, mind you, Sal is extremely handsome, outgoing, well spoken. Like, he goes into a room. He has like, a very big presence.
His camera presence.
Yeah, not good.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: It's not good.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: The worst I've ever seen.
He was, it was so bad. I'm like, I can't even work with this. So I said to him, I said to him, I was like, look, I got an idea. I said, why don't you come, come into this podcast studio, this exact studio, Riverside FM. I was like, come in here and I'm going to ask you a bunch of questions. And that's what I did. I just asked a bunch of real estate questions and 20 minutes later I had enough footage for ten videos. And that was when I realized, like, okay, I kind of. I got something here.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it. I want to. I want to take a kind of half step back to something you said, which was kind of something I touched on in a recent, one of my recent solo episodes, which was kind of this concept of social media as an amplification tool for kind of the rest of your stuff. Right? Like, if I say I want to grow my business or my brand or my, whatever, my real estate practice, there's like, whatever, a handful of ways, right? Social media is one of them. And I think that a lot of, especially more like technical founders or kind of pure play, I'm just a business person and this is like, I'm not the company. That's something that I hear a lot of scoff at, this idea of like, building a personal brand to then kind of grow the company. But then you look at pick a big name out there, you know, the guys from morning Brew or whoever, who can just like, basically do whatever they want because they got this big old huge brand.
I don't know, I guess it's more of a statement than a question, but like, I think it's discounted a lot. And people say, hey, that's just not for me because maybe they're scared. I don't know. What do you think the psychology is behind people who are like, I'm not going to build a personal brand for kind of whatever reason, or. That's not important to me.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it could be the fact that they are like a little bit scared or they just, they feel like they don't have the time to do it, or maybe they are just kind of stuck in their ways and they don't really believe in it. I think that's a lot of it. You know, people that have been doing business for a long time the traditional way, and going out and doing in person networking or virtual networking even now, and really relying on word of mouth, I hear a lot of that from prospects and clients and things like that is like, hey, most of my businesses, just word of mouth and referrals and networking. And those people are kind of struggling right now because they're missing out on the opportunity to build their brands online and they're starting. And I can see people have this realization that, hey, and most people are.
Some people feel like it's too late and it's never really too late. I mean, I jumped on LinkedIn in the very end of 2022. I was almost 40 years old. I was 39, and, like, I was going to be 40 in, like, a couple months. And I started building my brand with, I don't know, I had a thousand connections.
Then I went into creator modes. I had thousand followers or whatever, and, I don't know, it's been a year and a half, and I have almost 17,000 followers, and I get, I don't know, five to ten inbound leads from LinkedIn, like, every week, people just booking on my calendar. And so it's out there.
You don't need to be like, you know, people don't think that that's possible, but it is possible. And then the other thing is, is just people give up too early. They'll say, okay, I'm gonna do this, and they'll create content, and they'll be consistent with it for two, three, six months, and they won't see the return immediately on that, you know, on their. On their efforts, and then they just end up quitting. And that's the worst part. And that's the worst, I mean, even for me. Like. Like I said, I started in November. I didn't really start getting business until July, so I posted every single day for eight months. Just build my brand, build awareness, kind of understand the market, understand the platform and the nuances, and, you know, see what other people are doing and kind of trying to figure out how to emulate some of that and do it my own style.
But big thing that most people are missing is patience.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, it's a trip, man. I didn't take it seriously for, like, a long time. Started taking it seriously about a year ago, I guess. Year and a half, maybe. And still, you know, I still am kind of in this waffling phase. You know, I'm a yo yo everything. I'm a yo yo dieter, I'm a yo yo workout person. I'm a yo yo LinkedIn and YouTube, which I want to talk about in a bit. But even so, I had someone come to me, like, I do some coaching on the side, and it really came from LinkedIn. This person reached out to me, and they're like, I want to work with you. And, like, at the time, I was like, I don't know what you're talking about. Like, I don't. I don't work with people. I got a business. I run castos.
And she's like, look, like, what you're doing there is awesome. Like, can you just do this for me. And I'm like, I wrote a number. And she was like, yes, let's do it. I was like, wow, that's crazy. Like, yeah, but it. But it's all from, like, you know, can inbound on LinkedIn.
It's a trip, man. Okay, cool. So I want to touch on the. I was late to this call because I was futzing with my gear, and I think this is, like, the guilty pleasure kind of, like, procrastination mechanism that a lot of us have with video is, like, camera over here, and I talk about the fucking teleprompter that I have on every one of these episodes, and, like, have friends who are like, I'm gonna get into video. And they spend months researching gear and spending thousands of dollars on gear and stuff. So let's talk about, like, when you're starting to work with a new client. What. What should they do? Like, what's the preferred setup?
[00:14:37] Speaker B: So every single person out there has, you need to create video. Like, your pocket right now, you just need an iPhone or Android or whatever it is. A smartphone. Like, the cameras in a smartphone are, like, same cameras, like, quality that they were using to film movies back in the nineties.
Like, your camera quality in your smartphone is excellent.
The only thing that I tell people to invest in.
Well, two things. You can completely level up the quality of your video. Spend anywhere from, like, $50 to $60.
And that's with lighting and a microphone. And you can get lighting for dollar 25 to dollar 30, you can get a ring light. That does the trick. Yeah, if you got glasses, it's not the best thing.
There's other options, but, uh, and then the microphone, you can get a lapel microphone for $25. I mean, is it the best quality microphone in the world? No, but it's gonna make your. It's better quality than, like, what you have in your phone, so it's gonna make you sound better, and you'll have crisp sound and good lighting and a smartphone. That's. That's it. That's all you need. And, like, there's been plenty of times that I've made videos, like, without any of my microphones or lighting or anything. Um, you know, I'll make a video when I'm outside or something like that. I don't have my equipment on me, but the idea comes and I just. I get on there and do it. Um, yeah.
People use the equipment as an excuse to, like, delay them getting started. That's what it is.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. I want to. I want to ask about a couple of different, like, setup scenarios, because I think this could cover, like, how. How folks might do it. So, the first is, like, right now, I think we both are at our computers and at my desk, and this is kind of my setup. I film all my podcasts here. I film my YouTube stuff here.
This is a trip. So for folks who are just listening, stop. Go to YouTube and watch this, because I think this is, like, a visually interesting thing. So we're at rogue startups on YouTube. So my setup is, I have elgato key light I have on each side of my desk, which is 45 degrees. They're cool because you can adjust the hue and the intensity and all that kind of stuff. I have a floodlight that's colored behind me. It's like teal color to match the branding of the podcast, but I can change it to purple and blue and stuff like that. Then microphone. I have a Samsung Q two U. Just a USB mic. Plenty good. It's, like $70. And then the big one is, I used to have, like, a DSLR camera, and it was such a pain in the ass all the time, like, fucking disconnecting, resetting all this kind of stuff. I got.
I got a really good webcam. I forget insta something rather instant 360, and. Yeah, yeah. And now I have this.
I have this piece of plexiglass. One of my mentors, rob walling, turned me on to this. It hangs from your monitor. And so my. My webcam is sitting right next to your face and riverside.
So it's kind of like. It's kind of like a teleprompter, but without any of the shit. And so, like, when I'm doing a podcast, I just hook it up to this thing.
Yeah, it's a plex. Plexi Camden Plexigam.
[00:18:15] Speaker B: I'm gonna get myself a plexiglass.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: It's, like, totally the most expensive plexiglass ever. It's, like $90. But it's cool because, like, it's none of the bullshit with the. With the teleprompter, I found it was, like, really high up, so I was, like, craning my neck, and it was, like, looking down on me too much.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Anyways, I really like this. That's my setup. I don't know any. Any kind of thoughts or.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah, so I have. I mean, your elagato key lights. I mean, those are even, like, a little bit. Those are probably more expensive than what I have. Those are, like. Those are kind of high end.
Yeah. Okay. So like I have two softbox lights on either side, same, same setup. I got the softbox lights I think for 79 or $89 or something like that.
And then I am using, I use, I use a Mac computer so I use continuity camera from Mac from my eye. So basically my iPhone acts as my webcam. So the camera that I'm using right now is my iPhone 14 pro back camera. So you get really high quality that way. Right.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: And so how do you mount it?
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Like, oh, I'm going to pull my thing down. There's a little. Hold on. I don't know. I'm going to mess up the view here. Give me 1 second.
Mess it up, but it's okay. So this here is like. Yeah, a little Belkin thing. It's a magnet. It clips right on the phone and then it sits right on top of your laptop, which is like perfectly eye level.
[00:19:48] Speaker A: Oh, gotcha. So your laptop is sitting on the desk and then this thing sits up at the top of your laptop and that sits.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Yep. That clips on and it literally clips into the top of the, basically rests on the top of your laptop. It's perfectly level. So I can look right into lens.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: That's cool, man. I like that.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And then I have also just bloodline which has remote that you can change the colors and all that. Just kind of get a little bit more depth of field when I shoot.
And I do have DSLR camera, Sony V one f.
Honestly, I don't even use it.
No iPhone is like, the quality on my iPhone is just as good, if not even like, I'm sure the quality on the camera is better, but I'm just not a photography and camera and videography guy. I don't know how to use it. Like I need somebody to come here and like set it up and like teach me how to use it. I have a shure mic.
This is what I use when I do like podcasts or when I am, you know, doing zooms or stuff like that. And I have a vocaster too that the short mic plugs into. So basically that's an interface to get your mic. For anybody that doesn't know, that's an interface to go from your microphone to your computer. Right. Um, let's see, what else do I have on the equipment side? I just got these DGI mics, the lapel microphones.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:22] Speaker A: And so when you're not podcasting and you're doing just like talking head stuff for LinkedIn or YouTube, you just use a lapel mic with your phone.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Using the lapel. Yeah.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: And are those wired or Bluetooth?
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Oh, those are.
There's a piece that goes. That clip into the bottom of the iPhone and there.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: So it's not. You don't even Bluetooth. There's a little. That clip to the phone also will. Into your camera or your Android or whatever it is.
And then you just wear the lapel. And it comes with. It comes with two. And it comes with a portable charging station. It's very cool. Um, those. I splurged on that a little bit. Those are like, $300.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Okay, cool. And so if you're like, I want to record outside and kind of do this right. You'll take your phone and just. You have, like, a selfie stick kind of thing or you just hold it.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: I do, yeah, I have. All my stuff is packed away because I was away. But, yeah, I do have a. I have, like, a selfie stick that also extends into, like, a tripod that you can stand on the ground.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: DJI. I have the DJI one that has the gimbal and everything.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: No, I don't have that. Mine's not that advanced that mine was, like, 30, like, like $30 or something. And it has, like, a little bluetooth remote so that you can, like, control the remote.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I've used it. I've used it once. So, like, I fucking bought the thing and never used it, which is just.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that's it. So I don't believe, like, going out and spending, like, a ton of money on equipment. Like, you can get a high quality video with just your phone, some good lighting, and very simple microphone.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Cool, cool. I want to ask. You are one of the few people who I would actually ask this question and kind of, like, respect their opinion on it, but I know you and I have chatted on LinkedIn about, like, YouTube, and, like, this is honestly, like, I have a lot of. I'm huge on, like, prioritization. Like, I don't want to go fucking waste a bunch of time on ten different approaches. I want, like, one. You know, I want one thing I can do. And honestly, it's a pretty close toss up these days between LinkedIn and YouTube. To grow my business.
You kind of have a foot in both places, I would. I would guess. Right? Like, you're the video guy on LinkedIn. You have YouTube channel, and I'm sure you want to grow your YouTube presence. How do you. How do you view that kind of internal conflict? You're like, LinkedIn is going great right now, but, like, YouTube's great because it's, like, long form. It's everywhere. Evergreen. Like, if I want to really build a piece of real estate, that might be the place to do it. Yeah, I'm sure everyone listening this struggles with the same question.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Cool. Yeah. So basically, YouTube is basically a new platform for me. And, you know, last year in 2023, LinkedIn was the platform that I was like, that was my new platform, right?
I was on Instagram before that. So in 2023, I was like, hey, I'm going to add in LinkedIn.
LinkedIn crushed so much in 2023, especially, like, once we got to, like, mid year, for the second half of the year, that I ended up, like, completely kind of abandoning Instagram. And I'm actually back, and I've been putting some content on there recently.
Now, YouTube was my new platform for 2024, so I hired somebody to manage my entire YouTube channel. I don't do anything except record videos. So he does all editing, does the uploading, does the descriptions, the thumbnails, everything.
And my goal for YouTube this year was, at the beginning, my goal was I wanted 100 videos on YouTube per week.
Short two to five minutes.
That was only. Was to get 100 videos. I don't care what it does for me. I don't care. I get a lead from it. I don't care if I grow, like, all I want to do is put my video content there. So I have evergreen video content. That was, that was the entire, like, reason behind YouTube. So it's growing a little bit slow, and I'm not that thrilled with that.
But again, I'm not worrying about it until 2025 when, like, I want to turn YouTube into more of a lead generation and business channel. Right now, I'm just not concerned with it. The idea is just to get content out on the platform.
And then, and here's the thing.
All of my content from YouTube goes on LinkedIn.
Yeah, everything, like, so all my long form videos are going up. LinkedIn. LinkedIn has the ability to take the same long form videos. I'm creating YouTube. And them over there, it's. And some of them up to 15.
[00:26:31] Speaker A: Months or something, right?
[00:26:32] Speaker B: I think it's up to ten, actually.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: Some of long videos are doing just as well. Like, have been some of my top performing LinkedIn posts, three, four, five minute videos, and some of my top posts on LinkedIn. So, yeah, I am basically doing YouTube thing, but not, like. And I can put, and I can invest in it and worry about it because content is going in both places.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
I am in the very final throes of hiring someone to manage YouTube for me as well, on the personal side. And it's challenging, man. There's a lot of people out there that say they do all this and say they do a good job. They charge wildly different rates.
How did you pick the person that you work with if you don't want to? If you are able to share who it is and kind of what they pay or what you pay them and stuff like that, I think it'd be interesting. I can share what I'm doing as well and kind of the reason behind, like, why I chose to work with the person I am.
[00:27:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So basically I've just recently updated my offer portfolio, right? So I, and I now I am basically taking my offer and just to give you like a heads up of like, what it is, essentially, like, it's done for you. Video content. I actually interview the, I come up with the questions, topics, prompts, whatever you want to call them, and we do a recording session. We record all of short video of the month. So now in my new offers and in my new offer portfolio, I'm long form content people and that same thing, helping them record long form content.
And I actually now have full, like, my top package includes not only me helping you come up with all the ideas and guide you through the filming and that whole process and everything, but we're now doing all the editing and managing the entire YouTube channel. Oh, well, okay. Yeah, basically I have that now as, as an offering. And the partner who has been saying my YouTube channel is basically now my team.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. Cool. That's awesome.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: That's awesome. I've only had this offer for one week and I've signed three clients. So he's very happy. I got three new clients.
They're not the full YouTube management. You know, that's a little bit, that's obviously a little different.
But basically I wanted to, it was funny because the reason that this kind of came about was because my short form video I was doing on my own and I had him just doing my YouTube stuff. So basically I said to him, hey, I want you to start doing my short form video. And he started doing my short form video and I was like, I have a problem.
My video looks a lot better than what the quality that we're giving for the clients. So clients are going to look at my video and they're going to be like, but yours looks like that.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Like you.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: Why mine look like this? So basically I was like, hey, you know how many clients. How many more clients can you handle? Yeah. Yeah, I, you know, just to do short form and maybe get some long form in there and everything like that. And ultimately, you know, he's like, we have. We have the capacity to take on more clients. He's got himself and he's got two editors with him. So, you know, basically, I changed up the offer to be, like, a more premium, and now what's happening is every single client that we bring in gets a custom style. So whereas before, everybody got, you know, here's the. Here's the different captions that you can choose from kind of thing. Now, every single one of them gets a custom style based upon their branding. And, you know, and that's in line with their brand. And we're just doing. We're doing more motion graphics and we're doing, you know, just like, a little bit more, you know, stylistic stuff with captions and things like that, distracting from message. Because this is another thing that I see a lot of in both.
I mean, especially, like, Instagram and also YouTube is, you know, people tend to go overboard with the graphics these days.
And I think that sometimes if you take graphic too far, detracts from message, and it takes basically what it does, takes the attention off of the message and puts it onto the production.
And what I love about new team that I'm working with is they are the perfect balance between, like, giving it those dialectic elements, but at the same time, like, making sure that the message is still the top priority.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Who do you see do this really well? Like, I think. I think one of the things we hear all the time is, like, go study the great creators. Right? So, like, we'll have your link, your LinkedIn, and your YouTube in the description. Right. But who else were folks who are like, okay, I get what Danny's saying. I want to go see this so I can replicate it or whatever.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. Two people come to mind that I do it really well.
LinkedIn.
So, Alex Sheridan, probably, if you've seen me, you've probably seen Alex before.
Chris. James. If you know James, he's somebody that I knew from Instagram, like, years ago. And, you know, we started. He started a little bit before me on Instagram, and, you know, I've watched him kind of skyrocket. And he's got this big business that he's running now, and he's doing all kinds of big things. And he's doing. He's doing a great. He's doing great job on YouTube.
And. And again, so is Alex. Both of them are very good on. On both LinkedIn and YouTube. Those are the guys.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Oh, and Laura Acosta does a very good job on.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: She's great. Yeah.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: On YouTube and LinkedIn as well, balancing those two channels.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, I'll just kind of share how I think about it because I think that, like, this combination is really powerful. Right, right. Like, LinkedIn, as an amplification mechanism for the YouTube content is kind of how I think about it. Like, YouTube really is where I want people to go, because, like, you just give them the little taste on LinkedIn often. Right. But. But then it's like, hey, what. What do I do from here? Like, I want them to go to YouTube to watch the whole five or ten minute video. I'm not. Even if I put the whole ten minute video on LinkedIn, nobody's gonna watch it. Probably.
That's kind of how I think. Yeah, I probably would be. I've not done it. I'm a terra. Like, oftentimes I'm a terrible podcaster. Like, what I should do is take this episode and cut it up into, like, six or seven different five minute chunks. But. But, like, I'm just not going to. Because I'm lazy.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: That's why you hire somebody to do it, by the way.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Fucking run a whole production company. Like, I just asked the team to do it, but. But I just. Yeah. Anyways, I'll tell you what, what I'm doing for. For my YouTube, which is very similar to your offer. Um, like, we have our castos production service. We do, like, end to end audio and video podcast production for. For about 50 clients right now. Um, so. So they're. They're kind of managing the editing, but, uh, I wanted somebody to, like, I just want to get an email. Like, hey, Craig, here's your homework assignment for the week. Here's the topic, here's the hook, here's the intro, here's the bullet points for what you're going to talk about, and here's the CTA or the. The conclusion.
I found somebody that is going to help me with doing that, but kind of like you're talking about. We're only going to record once a month, and I'm super excited about this. So we're going to record four long form videos, and mine on my channel are.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that's exactly what I do. You know, once a month, you come in, you record all your content for the month, whether that's just eight short form or whether that's, like, six short form. And two longer or whether it's four long form and eight short. You know, whatever the plan is, like you're going come in and record once a month and that's it and you're done. Like, you know, you spend 1 hour a month to create all of your video content and you have content for an entire month. Like, what's better than that?
[00:35:27] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know what it is to me is it's not as much the efficiency and all this kind of stuff, it's the mental stress or the lack of mental stress of it. It's like I only have to fucking do my hair and put a nice shirt on. Like, I went to the gym this morning and I'm still dressed in my workout clothes, but like, I only have to like get it right and get my fucking lights and my camera in the right spot once for the whole month and then it's done and I don't worry about it. And then the team, that the team edits it and then the guy got managing my YouTube, he posts it and thumbnails and SEO optimizes it and interlinks cards and all that crap. Like, if I was doing what you're doing, I would do the exact same thing. It's like I would fully manage it because I think that's so valuable because so few people can hire a good editor. So I think that's like spot on. And then I would just do the whole thing, you know? And like, I'm sure you're mixing in like the shorts and the clips and the reels and all that bits too, like that. I think that's important because.
[00:36:25] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. And like, you know, you know, now with the, you know, with, like I said, since we have the higher level of editing and everything like that, people can send us clips to do b roll or, you know, or we, or we can, you know, pull from stock, you know, to do b rolls and things like that if people want that particular style. So, you know, there's just, there's so much that you can do and, you know, when you have like a good production team behind you to accomplish these things, like, it just makes it so much easier because otherwise you're just going to spin your wheels, like, and it's just not going to look as good as if you just hire somebody to do it for you.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, no, it's super challenging.
One of the big questions I always have about social media in general is like, how do you think about kind of continuing the journey with a leader, a prospect from like they like, your stuff to, okay, let's go have a business relationship, you know, so, like, a bunch of people are watching your stuff on LinkedIn or on YouTube, and then how do you, like, bridge that gap? Or how do you think about bridging that gap to, like, let's book a call, let's engage on some kind of service.
[00:37:38] Speaker B: I think ultimately what you want to do is you want to be engaged in conversations, as many conversations as possible.
For me, that starts with when I connect with somebody on LinkedIn, I send them a welcome message every time. And that welcome message is very simple. All I do is I say, hey, I just want to thank you so much for connecting and welcome to my community, and I'm looking forward to seeing you around on LinkedIn, and I hope you're having a great day.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: And it's amazing what that does because people are like. And it's a voice message, by the way. I send this as a voice note. I don't write. I don't write this out. I send this as a voice note.
Like one, maybe 1020 thousand people will do that. Right? So basically, I have completely set myself apart from everybody else on the platform, and then what happens is, who the hell is this guy sending me his voice message? And what do they do?
Write a profile. And their profile, it says, making video easy. Founder solopreneur. Well, I'm a fan solar and video suck. I wish I would do video. It's like, so now I'm in there. Like I'm in their brain already, right?
And then the next step is like, you know, I'm looking for. For that initial voice note is to get a reply back. Because if I can get a reply back, that means that that signals LinkedIn, that like. So if you are communicating via DM's and LinkedIn, that's that signal to them that you and I are interested in each other. It's going to push my content out to you.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: So basically those people are going to see my content and they're going to get a couple and they're going to see this post, see the next one. They're going to see next one. There's going to be one resonance with them and going to either raise their hand and comment and be like, I'm interested to DM word easy, which is like a word I use, like every time. Just dm the word easy if you're interested, right?
[00:39:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:47] Speaker B: Or they're just going to give me some sort of hint they're interested, like whether, like a comment or something. Like that, they're going to give me some indication that they're interested, and I'm going to use that to start a conversation.
Anything that you can do to start a conversation is basically what you need looking for these platforms. So new connections is perfect.
People that viewed your profile hitting those people that viewed your profile reaching out to them, and like, you know, I reach out and I say, hey, I noticed that you stopped by my profile. Just want to see if you got, you found what you were looking for or if you had any questions. If not, no big deal. I'll see you around. Right.
Just a quick, just a quick message. Like, again, I'm not like, I never like, push on the services or anything like that.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: Then all this is manual, or you go manual.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I do this manual because, you know, there's a human behind it. And 90% of my, 95% of my business comes from LinkedIn. So, you know, people like, oh, you're crazy. You spend all this time, like, doing LinkedIn. I'm like, well, isn't that what you do when 95% of your business comes from there, right?
[00:41:01] Speaker A: Yeah, you double down until you squeezed every bounce out of that, right?
[00:41:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So I reach. So I, you know, I look for things, too. Like, I look for things, like when I go to somebody's LinkedIn, like, I look for things that people are excited about, right? So, you know, for you, like, the podcast is probably like a big deal, right? Like, you, you know, you, you. It's one of the more exciting things that you're doing, right? It's the, it's. And, you know, maybe you're talking about in your content and you're talking about in the call to actions. Like, come listen to the podcast, right? So what I do is I look for the things that people are most excited about, and I start conversations around that.
So it would be like, oh, cool, how's the podcast going?
And then they want to start a conversation about that because it's the most exciting thing. They want to talk about their podcast, right.
Then, like, the other thing that I'll kind of do is I will look some of these videos, and I feel like, hey, I know you've been doing a whole bunch of videos. I give you a quick, can I feel like a tip for your video?
I'll say, hey, you know, like something simple. It could be like, hey, the music is a little bit too loud and it's interfering with the message.
Cool, yeah, I'm in that now. I'm like, okay, cool, I'm in there. I'm in that. Like I'm on, I'm in their mind. I'm top of mind.
And then some people, like, I'll just be like outright, very outright about it. Basically people that are doing video but are like doing it very inconsistently and I'm going to be like, hey, look, I noticed you posted the video. Your video's really good.
And you've only done one of them in the last 90 days.
[00:42:49] Speaker A: Right?
[00:42:50] Speaker B: Like why?
Come on. Like let's, let's set a meeting. Let me, let me. If I can make you ten, if I can make you ten to twelve videos, I can make you a whole month of videos in the next, you know, in 90 minutes or something like that. Or in third, in 60 minutes. Like would it be worth a conversation?
So, like, sometimes I will be more outright with certain people, but I, I'm never going to be outright with somebody who doesn't really know who I am.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: Like, right. I'm more, I'm more, I'm able to be more outright because I'm on video every day, people. And like when I jump into sales meetings, it's incredible. I don't like people know me already. Like they feel like it's comfortable. Like my sales process is like the most chill, like, sales process and conversations that you could possibly get. It's awesome because people are used to seeing me. Like they see me all the time. They, they see me on video and it's like they feel like they know me.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: So just to play devil's advocate, because I get this a little bit is, okay, cool. So you're selling video services to people on LinkedIn and you're like a video guy. So like, there's so much alignment there. But if I'm selling architectural review software to municipalities, how do I think about a LinkedIn video strategy differently than you would? Who's kind of creating content that's selling to the people who want to buy the content?
[00:44:26] Speaker B: Yeah, you do the exact same thing. Basically what you do is you create three styles of videos. Okay? Everybody should be creating three styles of videos or just three styles of content in general. They should be creating educational content that positions themselves as an expert. Right. So if you're an architect and you're selling to whoever it is. Right. You should be creating content that speaks to, like, things that, that educational things that those people are interested in learning about. Right. Oh, that's a really good, that's a really good, interesting piece of information. I wasn't aware of that. Or, hey, you know what? You know that that's a helpful thing that I can go and I can immediately apply or whatever it is to what I'm doing, right. So if you can create that educational content, that person then starts to see you as an expert. And then what they then start to do is they start to associate you to whatever your niche is. So if it's an architect, when they think architect, you're the person that they start to think of, right. Then the other next thing that you want to do is you want to create content that builds your know, like, trust factor. Everybody, you know, like, there's. That's a kind of a cliche term, right? No, like, trust. But it's. It's very legit. Um, people want to buy from people that they know, like, and trust. This is the way it is. So you need to create this kind of, you know, middle of the funnel content, which helps take the people that are existing in your community that are currently seeing your content and build a deeper connection to them. So by telling your stories, by sharing pictures of, you know, behind the scenes or, you know, or, you know, videos where you're sharing your opinions on what's happening in the industry, right. Because when you share your opinion, like, you get two reactions. You get the people that don't like you, and they either, you know, they'll hoot and holler and write negative comments, which is great, because that does. Is bring attention you. Right?
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:46:20] Speaker B: And the other, for the people that actually agree with your. With your thought process. Right. And people want to work with people that think the same way that they do. So those people that agree with you, those future clients. So I would tell anybody, do not hesitate to share your opinions of things that are happening. Your industry needs target market, whatever, because that is going to help you attract your clients. Right.
Then the last type of content, and most people, like, are afraid of this, is, like, you need to create sales content.
And, like, sales content doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be, like, got this promotion, and I'm doing this service and I'm offering. No, all it is, is here's my client I've been working with. Here's. We've been playing. I have. I had a client meeting today. In the client meeting, went over this, this, this, and this. People like, okay, that's really cool. Like, I see myself go wanting to get these items that you went over with your client today.
All you need to do is give people a little bit of an inside look at your process. Inside look at the results that you're getting with a very simple call to action, say, hey, if you're looking to get similar results, reach out to me. Yeah, like that content is designed to build curiosity around your product, services, offers, or whatever it is, right. And if you have a combination of those three things and you focus on talking to the right audience, you're gonna be successful no matter what industry or niche that you're in.
[00:47:54] Speaker A: So just to recap, kind of authority, right. Establishing your kind of knowledge and authority in space, trust kind of you as a human and why someone said no, like, and trust you. And then sales, the ability to. For people to take the next step. Hey, you can work with me. You know, book a call, free consultation, whatever.
[00:48:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And the ability to take the next step. But also just like the. You want to kind of paint a picture for people of what it's like to be a client, right? That's what I would say is the best thing. It's like, you want people to think about, like, you know, jumping into, you know, people, like, losing my train of thought here. Like, you want people to jump into the shoes of your client and see themselves getting those same results and picture themselves going through that process.
That's what you want.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: That's so huge, man. Like, I've been. I've been the buyer of a couple of services recently. One is, like, my YouTube, my new YouTube guy, and the other is, like, some SEO. And.
And every time, my question is always, what is my life gonna be like after working with you? And the really good salespeople nail that. And the really bad ones don't. They just say, this is what the thing is? And I'm like, I don't want the thing I want. I always say, like, I sell bridges, you know, like, I sell getting you from here to there. Um, and I think that's something that a lot of people forget. Um, and me too, sometimes. But, yeah, you're not selling the widget, you're selling the transformation.
Totally cool, Danny. Um, I'm sure after this, well, I hope after this, like, your. Your phone is ringing off the hook. Like, where. If folks are like, I want Danny to solve my video problem. Like, where. Where can they go to learn more about, like, working with you?
[00:49:37] Speaker B: Yeah, just. Just come right to. Just come right to LinkedIn. Um, you can just find me on LinkedIn. Danny del Vecchio. Um, and, you know, I'll be easy to find. I'm the guy that wears the. The hat backwards, slightly to the side. Yeah, I stand out like a sore thumb. Just come. Hang out. Come meet me on LinkedIn. You get every everything that you need to get is over there and awesome. Or you could find me on YouTube again. Just Danny del Vecchio or coach Danny D.
You'll find me. No problem.
[00:50:09] Speaker A: Awesome, buddy. I appreciate it. Thank you.
[00:50:11] Speaker B: It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. I do appreciate it.
