Hello everyone, welcome to Stacking Growth. I got an epic episode lined up today. We got Tyler Lissard and we got Kaylee and Yala Herd. Back for another round.
Is this your second? Like just like guest flying Kaylee from this? I think so. I think I just kind of come in unprompted.
So I'm not sure if I'm completely welcome, but I'm here for it. Yeah, I don't know if you're completely welcome either, but I'm. Actually, Carl, when somebody reached out to me up being on the show, this is Tyler here, folks. I actually requested Kaylee to be on with me.
I said, I will only do it under one condition. And that's Kaylee Edmondson is here with me. So I'm glad you guys love to it. We're like the artist that makes demands that your M&Ms have to be yellow.
That's you. You were like Kaylee, you're going to be joining me on a lot more podcasts. You don't even know Kaylee because you are in my writer contract now. So I'm excited about this, guys.
Cassidy's bummed because he got fired from Stacking Growth for today. So you guys are stuck with me as well. So Tyler, it's good to hear from you, man. And thanks for coming.
You got a lot to talk about. Obviously you got your book. We wanted to kind of tee off a little bit. I just had to ask, right?
We talked a little bit about this in kind of like our pre-call chatter to how long have you been at Vidyard? Oh, my goodness. Well, I started at Vidyard when I was 13. I'm now 22.
So yes, I've been here for nine years. Come to find my middle school. Yes. Based on my successful YouTube channel back in 2014, it was when I joined Vidyard.
So I have been here for kind of on my 10-year anniversary, which is a lifetime in the world of tech and SaaS. But it has been a wild ride, an incredible journey, and this evolution of how businesses are using video. It just keeps going, right? So it's never a dull moment.
All these crazy stuff going on. And just when I thought, I'm like, look, this has got to be it, right? Like I'm done with this video as video. And then all this AI stuff happens.
And now I'm like, well, I'm here for another five years, because shit's about to get real. So I'm very excited about what's going on in this space. Yeah, I wanted to ask, like, how do you stay at a company for 10 years? And like, I guess this is a rough topic, but maybe we could start here.
I mean, man, I get bored after like six months, nine months, right? And so like, how have you kind of managed, and I think video has had like just such an explosive era in the last, like, especially like three to five years. But how do you stay just like motivated? And how do you work through like, dude, you're everywhere, right?
So I'm sure there's no shortage of other opportunities for you. I guess talk to me about just why you decided to kind of stay in this space. And how did you work through from a career perspective, just like those moments where you were like, ah, should I go and explore these other roles and do this and do that? How do you navigate just kind of the ups and the ebbs and flows of such a 10-year career at one place?
Well, it's actually a great question to start with, because it has largely mirrored what's going on in our business and in the era of video. And what I mean by that is because like every year, every two years, things changed. And things have gotten way more interesting. It's new markets, new people using video, new technologies coming into the fray.
So it doesn't feel like I've been doing the same thing for 10 years, because frankly, I haven't, right? I've been part of the same company. I've been working with the same people who I absolutely adore. But every couple of years, things have changed so much that it always felt fresh and new.
And not only in sort of the video market and so the things that I get to work on and talk about and learn and research, but also like honestly like how marketing in general has changed. So like every couple of years, it's always like, well, and do this now because this is new. This needs to be built. So it's been constant change, which has kept things like super exciting, super interesting.
But I've always been able to build on that foundation of like really leaning into this space. And like genuinely like every day, I'm like, what did I learn today about using video and marketing or sales that I can apply tomorrow? And so like that foundation that I've built, I'm like, I'm so proud of. And now I can be so productive with people when I talk to them about how they can take advantage of this because I can play on all that experience.
So I love it. I really should. What's like what? So if you think back to like early career at Vidyard your first few years, and now you think like the following eight years, like what surprised you, I guess, or what happened in the space that was like unexpected now when you kind of look back at the whole last decade.
The democratization pardon the buzzword of video, right? Like that's totally changed the game. Like when I started back in 2014 as a marketing leader here, like don't tell anyone, but I had never created a video. Like I'd never got on camera other than like family photos.
It just wasn't a thing. And video was still video production, right? Like it was all about produced content. It was like top of funnel marketing.
It was like every year your business would like produce five videos, and that's kind of the thing. And that's where it ended. I mean, video conferencing wasn't even like a thing at that time. So I really, you know, I had great expectations for the role of video was going to play in marketing in the years ahead.
And that's what drew me to Vidyard. But what totally changed the game for me was about, call it six to seven years ago, when video content creation started to get truly democratized. When it became a core part of social media, and all of a sudden I was making videos. I'm like, if I can make videos, anybody's making videos.
And it totally changed the game of how this applies to business. And it's still to the stage changing. And that's been the biggest thing. That's awesome.
So you didn't expect, I mean, obviously you took the role of video. So you expected innovation to come to the video space. But if I'm understanding you correctly, you were surprised by just the sheer amount of democratization that you didn't expect it to get that. You expected it to maybe get easier and maybe a little bit more accessible to specific teams, but still with specific skill sets.
But what you didn't expect was like any old sales person, like me, you can just click a button and record like what, you know, what years like right now, I mean, it could be pretty well produced with no effort. That took you much. I remember a very clear as day back in like, I don't call it 2017, somebody said to me, Tyler, I were to tell you that Carl Ferrera one day will be recording and sending video messages to his customers and prospects. I would have been like, yeah, right.
Like that's never gonna happen. Are you kidding me? Carl's not a video creator or producer. Yeah, I say that it's tongue in cheek.
But that is like very, very much the space that we're now living in. I didn't expect today to be spending most of my time talking to sales teams about how they can use video messaging, how they can become video creators themselves, how they can use free editing tools like CapCut to like actually kind of create their own personalized demo videos that like would knock their prospects socks off. So that's been this huge like unlock for the world of video and for the world of marketing and sales because it's like, you know, we can all write emails, right? We can all make presentations.
Now some better than others, let's be clear, some of us shouldn't be making presentations. We can all do that, right? We can all make phone calls. And we're now at a point where we can all make videos as a way to communicate our message, right?
And whether that's like high end, produce marketing videos for our brand, right down to like, hey, I'm gonna update my boss. I'm what I was up to last week. I can record a video, talk about it, pull up a screen share, send it over, right? So again, that has totally changed how we all need to think about video and its role in a day to day business and marketing and sales.
And it's a massive, it's a massive unlock when you just start to take that approach and you go, yeah, you know what? Like I've got something important to share with my customer, with my prospect, with my colleague, with my community. Should I smash that record button? Like is video a better way to deliver that message than typing it out or whatever my alternative means are?
And that starts to really change the way you think about how you communicate with your audiences and especially in the digital only world where the more you can show up with your face, your voice, your personality, it's only gonna be better for, you know, what else could you try to drive? Let's talk about video for a second because when I think about the channels that you just mentioned, like phone, email, what I think of as like annoying, they're noisy, et cetera, right? And video still seems to be... Coming from a sales guy, that's rich.
No, no, no, no. Optic, right? A lot of it, yeah, again, it's just like it's just very saturated, right? And it's difficult to stand out.
Any improvements that you can make, I feel like at this point in email is like, it's text only email, it's like marginal, right? Like, there's no gonna be no big breakthrough probably in text only email. So you could argue that the next innovative phase of email is leveraging video, right? But like Tyler, how?
Okay, so the skeptic in me is like, cool. But like, what if everybody starts sending videos and then, okay, the production quality starts to get better and everybody's sending just like really good videos and they're editing CapCut and et cetera. It's like, what do you feel like is the next evolution of video that will be like only the 2% of people are doing it without giving me like some kind of a method-relevant platitude, right? Like where's it going is what I'm asking that video will...
Do you think video gets noisy and saturated or do you think it still continues to kind of stay on the edge? Yeah, I mean, we'll ruin it, right? Like we ruin everything. We ruin everything.
We ruin everything. So I can assure you, there will be a day at some point when I'm gonna open my inbox and I'm gonna go like, oh, not another video, right? But that day is quite far from now from what I can tell. So today, like it's a huge opportunity still for most people, I mean marketers and sales people, but particularly sales people, to be showing up in people's inboxes on social media, you know, whichever channels you're communicating with in video and I'm not talking about Zoom calls, I'm talking about like make a video send it over and create the micro moments of engagement.
So it is still very much a stand-down opportunity right now and it really sets a different expectation from your audience when you start doing that consistently. Now, as we move forward, yes, more and more people will be doing this, it will become increasingly democratized, everybody will be using video art, like 110% market saturation. So video messages will be very common in how we do things. What's gonna enable people to stand down at that point?
Well, one big thing, like this should probably go without saying, but it's like, again, like video is really just like a delivery mechanism for delivering a killer message to your prospect. And one of the things I often tell people to be really mindful of is that recording and sending videos, producing videos, it's not for you, it's for them, right? Like it's always for them, it's for your buyers, for your prospect, whoever else. And as much as you can be hypersensitive to that and always have in the back of your mind, how is this video going to make their lives better?
Right? Like how is it going to deliver the information away that's more valuable to them? How is it gonna make more of the 60 seconds, the 30 seconds, the two minutes that they're gonna be watching? How can I make more of that time than if they were to read and read and form or something else?
And that ability to sort of think through and understand like how to take advantage of those superpowers of video to say like, this is more valuable to you, Miss Prospect, Mr. Buyer, remember it is? That's how you start to really unlock and I think that is still gonna be like, as we go through the next five plus years, that's gonna be a superpower that the top percent of salespeople will figure out how to unlock. It'll be everybody's making video, but I'm the one whose people wants to watch my videos and why do they want to watch my videos?
Like they're waiting for it. They're sitting there waiting for my next video to get their inbox. And why is that? It's because of the immense value that I create in those videos and how it's, I give them 10 minutes worth of value in 60 seconds.
And there are ways to do that, right? And most people don't know great producers, great editors know that today, right? They know how to pack a punch in a 30 second commercial in one episode of Stranger Things, right? More and more, those skills are gonna translate down and across into salespeople, into other marketers.
We're gonna have to become great storytellers, great visual teachers and figure out that unlock. That's what gets me really excited. More than like AI tools, city, AD&C, or like the next 18K camera that comes out, right? Like those things aren't as important as all of us becoming really killer storytellers on video.
What do you think, Kayley? What do you think about that? I was gonna say, I was like, I still think though, that like the my objection to like video becoming saturated is the fear to use your own words of smashing record. I think that from a marketing perspective, we work with a lot of executives and founders in my time before Refine Labs have worked with a lot of executives and founders or SMEs in their own regard that are absolutely mortified to record themselves.
And so I think that maybe to a Carl's point, like maybe sales persona or sales profile, those types of people maybe are less scared to record themselves talking, even if the quality might not be great for 60 seconds or whatever, maybe there's less fear. But I think there's some kind of like psychological unlock when you get comfortable on camera that not everybody has. And so I think that will keep us for a little while longer at an arm's length of being just like, I'm barded with video from everyone everywhere because not everybody's naturally comfortable or naturally inclined, myself included or good on camera, you know what I mean? How do you like see us as, I don't know, a video generation overcoming some of that or getting more comfortable with that?
Like is there anything that you're facing or training or enabling people as they're getting comfortable on camera? Yeah, I mean, it's super interesting, right? And like there's, you mentioned the word like generation, there's something impact in there, right? Like there's like my kids or like ages like eight through 16, like they're all overrun.
Like I'm not worried about the younger generation, if you will, like they're growing up with the stuff and they're on TikTok and they're getting like to sort of part and parcel of their culture, putting themselves out there. I think a lot of other folks who haven't grown up with this, right, it is very challenging to, it's like it's a new muscle we need to build. I mean, there's not many things that we coach, we preach, we help people understand when it comes to kind of getting on camera and it really does kinda the kinds of videos that you're making, right? Like it's very different to say like asking somebody from your team to get on camera for your new homepage video that 500,000 people are gonna see versus like, hey, I'm gonna record this video that's gonna go one to one to this other individual.
And you know, I really of course like starting with those like one to one more casual videos, like having people comfortable with just being themselves on camera, right? Like that's number one is this isn't about putting on an act, it's not about putting on a persona, it's genuinely about being yourself and communicating authentically to your audience and taking advantage of that and leaning into it. You know, I, we like to say that it's about connection, not perfection, right? Like that, like I encourage people to write that down slap, that sticky note on your monitor, like it's about connection and not perfection, right?
Like this is about you delivering a valuable message in a way that you think is going to resonate with your audience and not like re-recording every single take because you didn't like it perfect, right? Like perfection is the enemy of good and of complete in this world, so we need to be mindful of that. I often think about when I'm doing my own videos, I try to, you know, maybe I'm not sure this is like an acting practice or what, but I try to think about like, I'm like somebody that I'm speaking to on the other side as well, right? Cause it's like when you're just sort of talking to the camera and it feels like, you know, sort of general thing, it's a little bit tricky.
But I like to like tell myself, like, okay, I'm talking to Kaylee right now, like Kaylee, my good, by Kaylee, right? Like that's who I'm talking to. And so I'm gonna smash record and I'm gonna deliver my message and I'm gonna be like, I'm talking to Kaylee. And that again helps me a little bit more natural, speak in a little bit more of a casual tone.
And that makes it so much easier to do these things. But the last thing I wanna really emphasize is like as much as being casual, being personal, being authentic is important. That doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare, right? So some people mistake that and they say, oh well, authentic means I shouldn't prepare, it should be off the cuff.
No, no, no, no, no, right? Like that is the kiss of death with video. You'll be here for an hour trying to make a one minute video. So preparation really does matter, right?
Cause if you're trying to do it in a linear take, it's not like an email where you go back into lead stuff. That's coming with AI tools, we can talk about that. Like right now you wanna sort of get that message out. And so being prepared, right?
Like going into it, knowing how am I gonna start and how am I gonna end, right? Like that's the most important thing. The middle will flow much more naturally when you're confident going in it, knowing, okay, this I'm gonna start this how I'm gonna end. And these are the main points I'm gonna cover.
So a few tips for you there. And of course the proverbial like practice makes perfect. I mean, it doesn't make perfect, but it makes pretty darn good. Just like practicing repetition, right?
Like it's a muscle. Every time you're on camera, feel a little bit better, a little bit more comfortable. And you know, I didn't start this way. It was horrible.
I'm like still be horrible, I'm not sure. But like when I started, right? Like it's like your first video is always your worst and your last video is always your best. Like it's just the way it goes, right?
And every time you get a little bit better, I'm uncomfortable. I have a question about how you think of like performance. I guess this is like an objection or something. Again, I'm a naysayer.
I've kind of been a skeptic, you know, of a video and I'll share with you why and you can be V off over it. Like it feels like, this is my feelings. I have no facts or data to back this up. But it feels like it's a lot of extra work, right?
That's what I think of, right? I'm like, man, because I want the video to be good. And I think like I have a little bit of that like perfection is the enemy of progress for me. Or like, man, I really want the video to like not just be my blurry, you know, hair covered face, like on a video saying something to Kaylee, right?
But I want it to be good. I want like some production. But then I'm like, God, Lee, man, like I gotta go learn stuff. Like a learning curve feels so just intimidating to figure that out.
Like how to make this not just like a video recording on like a loom or like your basic vineyard, right? Just hitting record and just recording my face. Like how do I make it like really good and stand out? So the learning curve there, I'm like, damn, I feel like a lot.
And then I'm like, is the marginal improvement in communicating in this way? Am I getting the juice out of the squinnies for this? That's my own, in my heart, like my objection, I guess sometimes the video. And what would you say to just a horrifying naysayer, like me, like I would do exactly that?
I'd say if you only expect very minor marginal gains, don't do it, right? Don't do it if you genuinely believe that. But that's what I would challenge, right? Like where is that notion coming from?
That you believe that, you know, I'm only gonna get like very minor marginal gains and putting myself on camera. Like I'm probably gonna win this deal anyways. Like why is my win rate gonna go from 30% to 40 if I start sending videos in a sales process? Right.
Well, can I interrupt for my, look, I'm gonna interrupt you on there. Cause I'm like, for me, video breaks the fourth wall to some degree, right? You think about even like my experience with refine labs. I have listened to hundreds probably of episodes of Chris Walker talking through demand in life, through state of demand in, through rev idols, like all the iterations of growth of the series that he's run.
And I know him. You know what I mean? Quits like I know him because I feel very connected, like broken through this fourth wall, seeing him, hearing him, seeing him on LinkedIn. It creates a relational connection that doesn't happen when you send me an email.
And so it maybe, maybe it doesn't always help you win that deal in that one moment. Maybe you did already have it in the bag or whatever, but it could help with customer retention. It could help when they move gigs or at a new gig and they're like, oh, Carl, loved Carl, great sales guy. I remember he sent me this video this one time.
Well, they'll, they feel connected to you. That's my like, like argument. I'm sure Tyler has actual data. I, I, so there's some data.
I'm thinking big enough about the value. I'm still like, advertising. So go ahead. I think you're right.
And Kayleigh, so what you're speaking to there is really important, there's a really important word that I use to describe what you were just talking about. And I actually think this is one of the, an underappreciated superpowers of video compared to other forms of communication. And basically what you're describing there was the power of familiarity, right? Chris has become familiar to you, right?
And if you think about in any relationship building exercise, any audience building exercise, any communication exercise, the more familiar somebody becomes to you, the more relevant they become, the more trustworthy they become, the more you seek out their input and feedback and so on. And so familiarity is actually a really powerful concept, I think, in the world of sales and marketing, right? Like brand marketers, right? Like that's what they do.
We want our brand to be consistently familiar in your mind, right? That we're top of mind as a result. And I think that, you know, this sort of consistent use of video as a salesperson can really unlock that in many ways and can give that sense. Now again, if you're doing Zoom calls with your prospect once a week for two months, you're good, right?
Like you've got a huge level of familiarity. And I would only use videos when you're like, I have to communicate this. Can't come through in an email. It's not worth setting up a Zoom call.
So I'm going to record a quick screen share, where I'm going to show them how to do this, and I'm going to send it over, right? Like that's sort of like those moments. But otherwise, if you're not consistently able to get on live calls, using these short videos as a way to intentionally create consistent familiarity with your audience can have a really meaningful impact. And it's also a way to build familiarity with any other potential stakeholders who may not ever join one of these live calls, who may not ever talk to you, right?
But by nature of you sharing these updates where you're on camera, you're not going to be full screen, right? Like that's one of the other tips, you mentioned earlier for people who don't feel super comfortable on camera, do a screen recording with your camera, the little bubble in the corner, right? So those who don't use video or a loom, when you record, you can record your screen along with your camera in the corner. And in that case, you no longer feel like you're the center of attention, right?
And you can use the visuals on your screen to help clarify an idea, share some information. And so when you do that, and you say, even after a meeting, right, like a follow up, just recording a quick video, maybe with a screen, with like a slide up with four bullet points where you summarize the key takeaways. And you just go, hey, you know, super great to chat. I want to quickly highlight some of the key points and talk about that one big next step.
And that's something you send around to everybody who was invited to the meeting, right? And like three of those people didn't show up, right? All of those people that do click play, get a chance to see you, to get to hear you, to get to know you, to become familiar with you. And that doesn't happen when you just send over the email with some bullet points.
So you may often say, like, is it worth the extra effort? And I can't quantify the impact of familiarity. I should quantify the impact of more clearly articulating an idea. But if you get to the point where recording that video is no more effort than writing that email, that's when the unlock happens.
And I think you won't get there, right? Like again, you say, like it seems like a lot of extra work. And it is, right? It's like when you start doing anything, right?
It's like in the beginning, it's like, it's a lot of work because you did not efficient to edit. You haven't built the muscle memory. If you believe that long term incorporating video into your communications will be important, career, life, whatever, how's the time to start doing it? And I'm telling you by, you know, if you send a video a day, like a video a day, two months from now, you'll be like, yeah, actually it's faster to record a video than the type of email.
Cause I don't have the verbal grammar. I don't have the verbal punctuation. I can hit record, I can deliver my message and share it. And again, now you might be hesitant to say, well, people won't watch my videos.
And you're like, well, usually they will actually. And if you focus on, again, am I communicating the most important value and keeping it respectful of their time, they absolutely will and it'll be a win for both sides. So that's your challenge. I'm throwing it down for you, Karl.
Man, that was compelling. I got, there was some goosebumps. I mean, you paint a really big vision. And- I mean, we joined this call, Karl, right?
What did you, the first thing you said to me was, I feel like I know you, Tyler, because I see you. And that's not because I do all these text posts on social, it's cause you see my face show up out there, right? I'm a good deal person cause I put my face out there. Yeah, I wish I wouldn't have said that now.
Get your own words. Yeah, I got them. Yeah, I hate that you tied that back to that. I'm like, but on the spot.
Yeah, I love it, Karl. I love it. So, yeah, it looks super, like super valid. It's definitely challenging, right?
It's challenging. I'm not afraid to get on video. For me, it's always like, I'm that cranky CEO that's like, cool, you started LinkedIn organic. Where's the leads?
And so I'm like that ROI person. And I know like that's not the right mindset about everything, even though they're like, I'm not saying it would be ROI, but there's something bigger and more like, you're talking about not sending videos, honestly. You're talking about elevating how you communicate. And that is a bigger vision that I think I need to, get on board with, right?
It's the same reason. It's the same reason we take the time to meet in person, right? Like, right, like Karl as a salesperson, if you have the opportunity to meet your prospect in person, it's gonna be a hell of a lot more work for you. You're gonna waste probably two hours, even if it's gonna be local, with the power of that conversation.
Now I'm not saying sending a video equates to that, but it's that same mindset of like, am I gonna get, like, it gets hard, because you know in person meetings work. You don't yet know that these videos work for you in that manner. So it is a risk you have to take, right? Like you have to do a bit of a lethal phase and say, if I genuinely believe that sort of thing of building the familiarity, being more clear all these things.
But once you build a muscle, I'm telling you, I just like, you know, I think one of the things that you mentioned that was really important is just like, it's painful at first because it's not a part of like your routine, right? Like, so I can definitely see how relevant it would be, because I send, right, those first call follow ups, emails, and like, you know, I feel like they're pretty dialed in, like they're pretty good. And you know, it's like, that's just a part of my rhythm. And when I first started sending those emails years ago, earlier in my sales career, it's like, there's a pain in the ass to like, put those together and like go back to the call and like, what did we really talk about and summarize it?
So you can even see that in text forms of communication where, in the beginning, it was painful, it took a little bit longer, you got better at it, some of those early emails are terrible, now they're a lot better, and they take me to 20 seconds, you know? So it's like incorporating video in the rhythm of your process. I mean, it's hard to argue with the fact that, yeah, it would get faster. I would have to worry about grammar, to your point, I would have to worry about, I mean, dude, just like, I mean, you know, is this my sales rep?
Is Carl okay? Is he homeless? We're unclear? So I'd have to worry about that.
Do I trust this guy? Like, my dad doesn't trust me. When I let my beard grow this long, right? Carl, I think you're too worried about it.
People will trust you based on the stature of what you say. If you can communicate something clearly, concisely, and it's impactful and it hits them based on the conversation you literally just had with them, I don't really care what you look like. And I don't think most other people will either. So I think you gotta get that out of your head.
We get a lot of people on our live events for Refund Labs that are like, oh, but my executives are not good looking. Like, are people gonna listen to him? And I'm like, genuinely, people really, collectively aren't that shallow. Like, they will come because the content is great.
They will stay for your personality, because even though you're negative Ned, your personality's not that bad, they will stay for your charisma, and you're like funny dad jokes, and it'll be fine. Yeah. Well, you know what? I think they also end up having an increased expectation of value that they'll get.
And a greater sense that you have confidence in what it is you're speaking about, right? Like, that's one of the things when I get a video message from a salesperson trying to sell me or pitch me or whatever it happens to be. I find that that is like subconsciously, and I've sort of like caught myself now doing it, what runs through my mind. I'm like, I'm willing to watch this, because the fact that this person was willing to put themselves on camera and deliver their message tells me they're confident in what they're speaking about, right?
It doesn't tell me they think they look great. It tells me they're confident in what they're speaking about, because their personal reputation is at stake much more in this video than if they had just copy and paste an email. So my expectation of value goes way up. I'm like, time spent with this person is likely more valuable than over here.
All these other emails that I'm not even gonna read, because I don't know if they wrote it or if an AI bot wrote it, or if they have any idea what they're even talking about, but this person here, they put in the work. So... You feel like a part of that is like a law of reciprocity, where it's like they actually invested time here, and so I'm going to meet that time investment with my own time investment to watch the, you know, a 40 second video or whatever. Do you think that's like a psychological factor at play there in video?
Oh, they're absolutely, absolutely, can be. And you know, what's interesting again still today is most people don't know that these really simple video messaging tools exist. So they often, like if you're in the core of these tech circles, you're like, yeah, I get it. But like most average people in business, they'll see that and they'll be like, wow, like this person took the time to produce a video for me, right?
They'll think you spent half an hour making it because they don't know that it's actually that easy, that you can just use a two-way video to record and send it, right? So what they feel that effort you put in is probably even more than you actually did. And that's also where, you know, one of the other things we see, if using it for prospecting in particular, doing those little things to make sure the video is personalized for that person and showing that visually sort of taps into that, right? Because when you see that video show up in your inbox, the first thing is, oh, a video for me, that's different, that's interesting.
And then you, you know, psychologically, you may go next to the like, oh, but did they like, make this for me or is this just like any other spray and pray message I get? And then you see the thumbnail image, right? And it's like, you know, it's a video of me in the corner and I've got Kaylee's LinkedIn profile up behind me on my screen and Kaylee sees that. She's like, oh, they made it for me because that's my LinkedIn profile.
And so again, it's like, then the law of reciprocity really kicks in and you're like, okay, I know, like literally in a split second by seeing that thumbnail, they made this for me, they took the time, I should reciprocate with giving it a chance to at least click the play button. So absolutely. And that's one of the superpowers when using it for prospecting. No, right?
The sales cycle. Now it's more about like the value of the content and saving them time. But yeah, those are all things that come into play 100%. So I wouldn't talk about, I know we've got like 10 minutes or so left.
I wanna talk about like surprising ways you're seeing video use that are kind of new. I think we've seen at least in the tech kind of like bubble, like you see a lot of chatter about the prospecting use case or like in sales use cases, right? Or even like customer success use cases, et cetera. What have you seen that is new use cases for video that you're particularly excited about?
And if you don't have a good answer there, like what are you excited about? That's coming next potentially. Yeah. So I'm gonna give kind of like a bit of a horizontal answer to your question and I'll apply it to a couple of specific example use cases.
So I'd say the most, what I've seen lately as kind of new is using video as this like, I almost think about it as this great like authenticity engine, this transparency engine, like this rise of and part of this is just because of how video is being used on social media and other cases. Like this rise of intentionally using video as a way to like demonstrate authenticity, transparency and allow people to get to know you. And I think we really saw the rise of this during the P word that we will not speak of, you know, ends in Emmec. When, you know, all of a sudden now, we're all on Zoom calls at home with our, you know, pets behind us and all these things.
And there was this like sort of great moment across the world of business where all of a sudden we were all humans again, right, which was super cool. And so, and that like actually is really carried forward. So I'm now seeing like real like high end producers are using iPhones to record even produced videos. And they're not using stabilizers because they want it to be a little bit shaky because they want it to feel as authentic as possible.
They want it to feel as much like a TikTok video or more like a TikTok than they do like a scripted, produced, active video. So there's all these use cases where we're seeing people intentionally using video now to come across and be more authentic, more real to connect with their audience to kind of demonstrate that empathy, right? Like the old, you know, the old executive communications was like the CEO in the boardroom and, you know, all dressed up and like very formal. And now, right, it's like it's totally flipped.
Like the executive communications that get the highest engagement are getting the executive like at home, you know, sitting on their couch. Maybe they're wearing a cowboy hat just to like play off of some weird pun they're going to talk about, right? It's much more casual. It's much more personal.
It's very real. And they probably recorded it themselves on their smartphone. They didn't call in the production team to script didn't do it, right? We see it in like, again, like customer onboarding.
I got this amazing video once. I love this when I was a buyer. And we were in like the very late stage of like making the purchase decision. And we got a video from the team, the sales team that we were selling to.
And they basically had cut together clips of each of the different people that would be working with us should we sign on introducing themselves and like talking about how they support us. So it starts with like, you know, hey, I'll just make up some names here. Like, hey, it's Carol here. You know, as you know, I'm your lead account rep.
And you know, if we move to actually bringing on board as a customer, you know, I'm really excited to get you there. But at that moment, I would hand you off to one of our most amazing account managers, Sarah, I'm going to pass it off to her to introduce herself, right? Sarah comes on. I was like, hey, I'm Sarah.
I'm one of the account managers here. I love helping my customers do A, B, and C. I just help this other company hit this amazing milestone. And I hope to get the chance to work with you.
Now I'm going to pass it off to our CFO, who'll be the one who'll be working with you on any finance terms, right? And the CFO comes on, but they're not like together in a boardroom, right? Like the CFO was like as cottage and like recorded a video on the deck of his cottage. And so it's this awesome montage where by the end of it, I'm like, these are great people.
Like I totally want to work with these people. And it was like almost this intentional mode to like humanize the business. And by the end of it, I shared around with the whole team. And I'm like, hey, meet the team.
And they're like, are we buying from them? I'm like, yeah, I think we are. Seems like we're getting married. Let's go.
So there's all these new use cases where like you can start to do these really casual, personal videos. Even when you're demonstrating a product, launching a new feature, showing somebody how to do something, like intentionally being like, hey, this isn't a script to produce things. This is like me showing it to you. Because that's what I'm here for.
That stuff is working really, really well. That's pretty slick. I mean, just that specific use case there. I could see how applicable that would be even to help over fine labs, you know?
The customer side too. So what a cool way to improve that handoff experience. Or even pre-handoff, right? Like end of the sales cycle.
Like, you know. It could be part of your unique differentiator, right? If you're up against a set of vendors, and maybe everybody kind of gave a good pitch. Good sales process, everything seems kind of good.
You're up against two others. And you're the only one that takes an extra step. It could be what gets you the deal. Yeah, especially if you're a services company.
Because people are buying the people, right? They're buying your expertise. And like stuff like that where you're suddenly like, oh, cool. I feel like I know these people now, like in a very quick burst.
You know, I don't have, I can't tell you that's going to increase your close rates by X percent. But I can tell you it leaves a really, really impressive. All right, I will. I'll just make it up.
It's going to increase your close rates by 18 percent, Carl. Get it done. From me wrong. Now that we've sat through a sales demo with Tyler, unprompted, and Carl's now sold on Videard, I want to understand too, as you're looking for trends and things that you're most excited about, obviously the elephant in the room is AI.
I think there's two things. One, you just said a bunch of things about accessibility, especially on the iPhone. And obviously they just had their summer rollout or whatever that has a lot of video capabilities that are now coming. I think that's part of it.
And AI kind of all booming at the same time. What are the things that stand out most to you regarding Videard's video on the roadmap? Yeah, a lot of those different tools and technologies are really aimed at this continued democratization of not only making video and being a part of video, but making great video as individuals who don't have traditional training in video creation. So my favorite thing and a lot of the new AI tools for video are the automated editing that they can do.
There's like Adobe's, it's actually meant for podcasts. It's the audio enhancer tool. It's like free to use. And it's phenomenal.
If you record yourself or you get some footage where the audio isn't that great, if somebody's speaking and you run it through this, and all of a sudden it sounds like they were in a studio, we're not even recording. We're not even sending out great microphones that people now. We're like, just record with whatever you've got, because we're going to run it through this AI tool and it's going to make you sound like Hollywood, right? So there's stuff like that where all of a sudden now, we can make the videos again feel really compelling.
Editing tools that automatically will cut down, remove your arms and awws and allow you to make the most of every second, respect your audience's time. I think that stuff's really interesting. And then we also see, again, cases where outside of the one to one personal videos where a lot of these tools again are making it easy for anyone to generate a video about a specific topic. There are lots of cool tools out there now where you can type in a script, take a blog post or something like that.
And through a few steps, it will auto-generate a video that explains that. Maybe it voices over the script. It automatically adds B-roll video to match what you're talking about. Usually they give a pretty decent first cut.
Just using AI to generate an email, you want to go in, you probably want to do some edits to it. But it gets you 70% of the way there for something that is pretty darn good. Like anything with this, we're very much in the beginning still too, which is what's really exciting. And so I think that's where all these tools are heading is they're continuing that path down through democratization.
To the point where honestly, Carl, you can say, hey, make me a movie, a 30-minute movie about a sales rep who's challenged and fraught with wanting to adopt video, but he's struggling, but he really wants to do it with the climax of he closes a deal because he sent a video. And these tools will go, OK, here's the script, and here's a movie using all this footage and it generates it for you. Now that's not quite full reality today, but this stuff is coming. So those sorts of things are really, really interesting.
And it's all about unlocking our creative potential. That's really what a lot of this is about, whether we're sales or marketing people and allowing us to visually tell stories, whether it's a 30-second pitch, a demo walk through, or maybe you want to create something even bigger and bolder. So we'll see where it goes. But that stuff gets me really excited.
Yeah, so you're at least going to be at the yard for another five years. I mean, who knows, right? Who knows what we'll be doing in five years at this pace? Yeah, so we'll see.
Isn't that kind of crazy to think about, though? Yeah, making predictions for five years from now based on the innovations that have just happened in the last nine months. That's kind of scary. We're now in six-minute prediction windows.
Yeah. I mean, it's actually pretty challenging, I can imagine, for video because you have to make guesses on what you're going to build. And it's like, like, you don't know, right? Like, should you be building more for salespeople?
Like, how much AI do you incorporate? You have to try to guess where the ball is going to land. And at this point, I feel like we're at a point with technology where it's harder than ever to predict where the ball is going to be in 24 months, five years. I don't even know if we're going to be on Mars or something.
I don't even know. But so that's a challenge. I guess in the short term, what is, I guess, give us a little non-confidential, maybe sneak peek at videoed at what are you most excited about on the roadmap that you're comfortable sharing? So we just dropped a couple of things that will be new for most people listening.
But they give you some indication in terms of our direction. So about a month or so ago, we launched a new product line called Video Art Rooms, which is a digital sales room product. So the idea there, really spawned out of our customers. We're sending a lot of different videos to their prospects.
And they said, hey, if I had one place, I could put all those videos, one central landing page, if you will, and invite my customer there so they could watch all my different videos. And as we dug into it, we realized we can do that. And we can allow you to upload your documents, resources, proposals, whatever. And now you've got one digital sales room.
You can invite your customer to. They can invite all the stakeholders. They can even record and upload their own videos and those sorts of things. So really, really excited about that.
I think the opportunity for that kind of online sales room world in the future of sales is massive. So really excited about that and adding more value to the day-to-day lives of sales reps and that sort of fashion. And then the other thing we sort of quietly introduced as a beta was a pretty simple thing, but an AI-powered script generator for your videos. So Carl, if you're like, I don't know what to say, and I want to make a video for this person, but I don't know what to say.
I haven't made videos before. Just like chat GPT, you can put in the prompt, write me a script for a 30-second video, talking about refined labs, pitching it to VPO marketing, and make it out a joke at the beginning. And it will spit back out a sample script for that video, but you can go in and edit and be off to the races. So that is stuff that you can build very quickly with backends like chat GPT and others to power it.
So to knock down that hurdle of people who aren't comfortable with video to start to get them there. And that's where we're going to continue to lean in, is again, those who aren't comfortable making videos every day, how come use AI to make that simpler for them? Script generator, right? If they make a video and they want to chop parts out, how do you use AI to do it?
Like, yep, take this sentence, I said, delete it, remove that, all these sorts of things are coming to fruition now. And I think it's a big opportunity, which we're excited about. I heard that whenever you do put in a prompt and ask for a joke that those actually manually it's sent to you and you on the spot generate a joke for salespeople's scripts. Is that like, is that room or true?
That's 100% true. And I actually, much like five or it's actually more like a tour. I get paid two bucks a joke that I write on the back end of it. So it's a good side hustle.
And who knows? Maybe I won't be at a yard in five years because I'll just be writing jokes every day. Yeah, I love it. I love it.
Tyler, man. Kaylee, I don't know if you have anything else. We'll hold you hostage here for another two hours if you let us. But it's great to do you just pick your brain on these topics.
And I'm jazzed up about video. Now I'm like, shit, I'm behind. I should go. I need to go get on this.
So I guess I need to talk to sales or something. I bid you down. It's embarrassing. Kaylee, it worked.
Bringing you on. Carl doesn't know that we commiserated beforehand. We said success in this podcast is walking away with Carl needing some video art. So thanks, Kaylee.
I appreciate your help. Yeah, we tagged him. I'm happy to help convert him. I think the podcast is really being recorded.
Like this was all about. This was a sales demo in the sky. It's actually a sales demo. Damn it.
It was great to have you on. Thanks for letting us drill you. Thanks for listening to all of Carl's objections for an hour. That was great.
That was so great. I got to act like a salesperson for a change. Super fun and appreciate everybody listening. Tyler, it's the end of the show.
Like where do we, how do people find you? You got a book that people should buy. What's the best way? What's the best way?
Smash my bell on LinkedIn. That's not like a metaphor for something. That's like actually serious. Hit me up on LinkedIn.
Smash that notification bell. I like to share tips and tricks about video and sales. Lots of sales humor. So that's the best place to find me.
You'll also find info about my book, The Visual Sale There, which is all about using video across both marketing and sales in today's world. So that's the place. Hit me up. Awesome.
Thanks, man. See you soon. Awesome. Thank you.