48: How To Become A Thought Leader Using Video With Shelley Smith

If you have been thinking about using video to market yourself and your business, and something has been stopping you from moving forward, you’re in luck. This episode is full of great tips. A few weeks ago, I ran a 10-Day Video Challenge. I had not done this before and I didn’t know what to expect. But it went so well, I will be running this free challenge several times a year. So you can sign up here to be notified when the challenge runs again. I want to share what I learned from this experience. First - Everybody loves a challenge. Who knew? I guess it makes sense since a challenge gets our creative and our competitive juices flowing. And people love the idea of winning prizes. Second - The challenge itself is so powerful because our community was tied to it. I gave some basics as far as topic ideas and some checklists to help you create your videos. But that was it. People posted their videos on social media, Facebook primarily, using the hashtag #STANDOUTVC and anyone could search for the videos and watch them. I loved reading the comments and seeing the encouragement from the community. It’s a form of positive peer pressure. And the last thing I learned, although I definitely knew this before, if you don’t have the right message, as well as a really clear one, creating your videos or any content for that matter becomes so much harder. The reason people dropped out is they simply didn’t know what to say. For those that kept going, having that crystal clear message helped them figure out what should be in the next video. The big winner of the 10-day video challenge gets a chance to be on this podcast. So I’m excited to introduce you, again, to Shelley Smith. You may remember Shelley from Episode 17, where she talked about the mistakes entrepreneurs make when growing their companies. If people are leaving your company, if morale is low, if you have trouble recruiting great talent, it could be a company culture problem. And Shelley fixes that issue. She is a culture rescuer. Recently, Shelley really started to embrace that messaging surrounding company culture. And her videos during this challenge were very strategic, designed to speak to people who worry about retention, morale and productivity all day long. I encourage you check them out. You can see them in the STANDOUT Facebook community. And listen to our interview, where you’ll hear how she faced her fear of the camera and created 10 videos in 10 days, how that effort is paying off big time and why she is not stopping. What you\'ll learn in this episode: *Why Shelley took the challenge*What she loved about it*How she turned the challenge into a way to advance her business*How she set up her process to create batched video content*How she used content she had already created to put together her video strategy*How she structures her videos*How she uses notes in her videos*How a clear message that focuses on culture has helped in her business*How she is becoming a thought leader*The one question she asks on surveys that has helped with her messaging - and how it can help you Links mentioned in this episode: *Shelley Smith’s YouTube channel*