Video Marketing For Counselors With Ernesto Segismundo

Video Marketing For Counselors

Phillip Crum: Well I’m still Phillip Crum, the Content Marketing Coach, and you would be Kathleen Mills-

Kathleen Mills: I still am, actually.

PC: - founder and proprietor of www.practicementors.us.

KM: Yes, sir.

PC: And your mission in life is what?

KM: My mission in life is to help-

PC: “Make it through this podcast,” is what you said earlier.

KM: That’s right! So I can get back to my coffee.

Ernesto Segismundo: Awesome. Yes, exactly.

KM: That’s it, man. That’s all. I live for the moment. No planning on my part.

PC: Alright. Well, I hear chattering in the peanut gallery, so who’s with us today and what are we going to talk about?

KM: The wonderful, one-and-only Ernesto Segismundo from California. Pasadena, to be exact. I love that place.

PC: He is one of the dark knights if I recall.

KM: He is one of the dark knights. Yes, we’re BFFs and we got connected – what? – just a week before the Colorado conference and had a blast, Ernesto. You were so much fun to work with before we got to Denver. So that’s why we’re doing this podcast.

PC: So who are the dark knights for the uninitiated?

KM: The uninitiated – the dark knights are Ernesto, Roy Huggins…

PC: What is the group thought? What is the dark knights? Your drinking buddies, is that what you said?

KM: It is! (Laughs) But, no. I think the dark knights; we are all about trying to keep counselors on the safe road.

PC: Oh, this is knights with a “k.” I’m sorry, that’s a different group we were talking about there. Alright.

KM: Ernesto, this is going downhill real fast.

ES: (Laughs)

KM: Yes, k-n-i-g-h-t-s, sir. Anyways.

PC: So the dark knights are a group of people you met in Colorado.

KM: They’re counselors throughout the country where we’ve watched each other’s work for quite some time, and the first time we were able to meet was in Denver and we hung out at the conference in Colorado.

PC: They didn’t ask you to leave after the first 30 minutes?

KM: They didn’t ask me to leave. They actually, some of them asked me to eat with them for dinner, and then dinner again. And that last night at dinner at Ruth’s Chris was just fabulous, Ernesto.

PC: Excellent.

ES: It was fun.

KM: It was fun.

PC: Ernesto, you’re in California somewhere.

ES: I am in California. Actualy Brea, California, close to Anaheim. The way I explain this to people is I live close to Disneyland. I can actually hear the fireworks from my home in Disneyland.

KM: I love it.

PC: You close to the tar pits?

ES: No, the tar pits is probably about 45 minutes away from me. But 45 minutes here in California is-

PC: It’s about a mile and a half, isn’t it?

ES: Right. We commute. I mean, when people visit California go, oh that’s 30 minutes away? And we go no, we can walk there.

KM: Wow.

PC: Alright. Now before we jump in for the benefit of the listeners, you have a website that they might care to look at while we’re chatting. Why don’t you tell me what that is and spell it for me?

ES: Sure. It’s www.fylmit.com.

PC: Okay. That’s an interesting spelling. What- Ernestolikestofilm.com was taken, or what happened there?

ES: The thing was, the word fylm is a misspelled word for film. And I just ran with it because I paid for it. There’s a story behind it, but it’s basically an accidental spelling.

PC: Alright. So you’re a counselor? LMFT?

ES: Yeah, I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist.

PC: Give us a quick Ernesto background there and then we’ll jump into the good stuff.

ES: Sure, absolutely. So I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist. I went into clinical counseling and got my graduate school working in the field obviously. And then when I got my licensure I went to a real estate agent conference. There they started talking about video marketing and there were only two clinicians in the room of over 1,000 people that were there. And that’s when I turned to my colleague who was the other therapist who was in the room and said, “Wow, we can run with this.” So I did video marketing. That night, I did a first parenting video off of a camera. Within two months, my case notes went from 10 clients a week to 28 clients a week within two months.

PC: Say that again. You did how many videos?

ES: One video. A parenting video that I marketed at my church, my community, and other people were sharing it on their… they were just sharing it all over the place. So that’s when I started getting the idea that video marketing really works.

PC: Did you ask them to share this, or did-?

ES: I did. I was asking people to share it because at that time I did not have any authority or clout within the community yet. But my church showed it in church and then that’s when I started getting the phone calls and referrals and referrals and referrals. Yeah. Then I started doing workshops teaching this type of marketing for the past two years now.

PC: So you went from 10 a week to 28?

ES: 10 a week to close to 28 clients a week within two months because I hustled during that time, too, and I was in more exposure. That just has been catapulted ever since. Now I’m doing www.fylmit.com close to full time, I’ve got my caseload down to four clients and I’ve got a group practice as well.

KM: So, Ernesto, what’s the driving force behind why you do this?

ES: I discovered that not only does it attract a lot of people to your website, but what really got me into doing this is the idea that you can actually do it – the inspirational piece – because we were not taught how to market in grad school. We were not taught any of that. So when I went on my own, I had no idea what I was doing and I could see my finances plummeting. And so I see a lot of clinicians now who try to market and try to do some other things, but it’s just not working for them. This is the generation in this day in age that we walk around with our cell phones, YouTube is on our phones, and we watch videos. The new generation of marketers and consumers are on their cell phones watching videos so why not have a promotional video of yourself? More exposure, plus I noticed that it also develops authority and engagement so people get to know you way before they come into your counseling session. They feel that energy.

PC: I know that works. You’re absolutely right – I have notepads at my place of employment with my picture on them. I work for a printing and marketing services facility when I’m not keeping track of Kathleen, and I know this has happened a number of times – I walked into a facility once and the receptionist looked up and did a double-take and then with mouth wide open she looked up and said, “You’re that guy on the note pad. Ooooh yeah.” You betcha. I mean, you don’t have to be world famous for this to work. You just have to do something that most people are scared to do.

ES: Yeah, and the thing is when I go to networking events now, they see my face and they hear my voice because of the videos. And they come up to me and they go, “Woah, hey you’re Ernesto. I saw this video blog of you doing this and that.” And so that is the power of video and social media marketing, that people already have engaged with you and connected with you just by seeing you on camera.

PC: And you’ll know you’re over-the-top when somebody asks you to autograph their forehead. You’ve arrived, buddy.

ES: (Laughing) Right, yeah.

PC: You have made it. Interesting. So how many videos do you have to your credit now as far as marketing yourself?

ES: Sure. Right now, the last time I counted I have over 85 promotional videos done for therapists and it’s been just about two years. Video blogs, it’s pretty much countless. My thing right now is showing authenticity so my video blogs are actually done with my cell phone. The purpose for this is to let people know that people actually welcome authenticity and mistakes and the ums, the impromptu. That’s why live feed is so powerful nowadays because people get to see who you are in real time.

PC: Exactly. Another Ernesto truth. Start a list over there. Ernesto truth number two.

KM: (Laughs) Got it.

PC: People like to see… I tell our sales reps that if you can get someone to go to lunch with you and spend an hour, hour and a half, that’s the equivalent of six appointments in their office because after they’ve seen you slop spaghetti sauce on your shirt, and eating is the second most personal thing you can do with somebody else, and I’m glad this is not a video because I tend to draw pictures and you can guess what the first one is. After you’ve eaten with somebody, you know… you’re in. You’re in, so yes seeing somebody else’s foibles – it makes them human and real, but they’re still star material because they’re in a video.

ES: Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is, I did a survey on Fylmme.com’s Facebook group and one of the questions is, “If you look at this video, what is it about this video that engages you?” And the list goes on in saying there’s professional attire, the environment, or the authenticity of the therapist. 78% of those who took that survey marked the authenticity and the engagement they had with that therapist. They did not mention the professional look of the room and the attire, and they did not mention anything else like how many years of experience they had. And they list a whole certification and experience on there on that video, but they mention that the engagement was what kept them watching the video.

KM: Yeah, I’m a big proponent, Ernesto, of people don’t give a flying flip about how passionate you are about counseling. And they also don’t give a flying flip how experienced you are – I mean, that’s important, but they’re assuming that you like what you do and they’re assuming that you have experience. The disconnect is how do I have a relationship with this person in a safe place so I can just get some comfort and that attraction to like, “I think this person is for me.” And I think that’s what you’re talking about with the video production where it’s powerful. Your client niche is being developed because you’re just being you.

PC: Did you have any kind of prior video experience, Ernesto?

ES: None.

PC: Zero?

ES: None. I learned how to do professional videography by watching YouTube videos of it.

PC: Right. Okay. So what made you think, with no experience, what made you think that you could do this?

ES: That’s a really good question. I think the first time I did a video for a colleague of mine who wanted to do a promotional video, and she handed me – I mean, she was so floored by what came out. Because I think deep down inside, clinicians – all of us – have an artistic vent to us. We just have to tap into that. And early on in my career I think as a videographer I tapped into it. So I started watching videos of it and I started experimenting and actually executing from things that I saw online, or what I was learning. And then I started experimenting more with other visuals, and then I discovered that clinicians’ personality disappeared as soon as I turned on the camera. I noticed that right away, so I told myself, “There’s got to be some way to harness that character and that personality.” So because I’m also a therapist, it’s only natural for me because of my training, to harness that. So that’s why a lot of my promotional videos are interview style because I ask those questions that dig a little bit deeper in to the person. And that’s why I want to capture the persona of the clinician, not so much the years and year and years of expertise because clients will come to you and pay for counseling based on your expertise, but they will stay because of you as a clinician.

KM: Right. The staying power is exponentially increased because there’s a fundamental, “I know this person and I trust you.” And you set that up in your video production and it just works, doesn’t it?

ES: Yeah. Absolutely. So I didn’t really connect with who I am as a clinician, how valuable it is for me to be a clinician and a videographer, until people asked me, “How many people do you know whose a videographer who has the type of persona that you have, who is a professor who has a group practice, and a clinician and calls himself a videographer at the same time?”

KM: Well you’re in that 1% - nope, not very many. You are the star.

PC: Alright so I’m convinced that video is probably a good idea. It won’t hurt me. Do you have any numbers?

ES: Yes.

PC: Let’s hear them. Numbers are good at this point.

ES: Absolutely. According to a few research that’s out there, big name ones like ComScore, Forbes – video is 50 times more likely to get organic page ranks in Google than plain text. What this means is that if you have a video on your website or anywhere in your content, your blog, that has 50 times more likely organically – not paid – organically rank high on Google. That is a very powerful, powerful backing for videos to be on your website or on your blog page.

PC: Ernesto, I want to shoot a video and I want to be on page one in spot one. Can you help me?

ES: Yes. And a lot of people think that the video should be played somewhere hidden in your website. It should be on your landing page. The video that you do has to be engaging. There’s a lot of factors to go around with it. So if you have a video that’s very, very engaging and people are clicking on there and watching for the whole two minutes or even more and you’ve got a lot of traffic on your website because of this video, Google looks at that and goes woah. This guy has authority and because the video’s been ranking a lot, let’s put that video and that website on the first page of Google. Now, if you know this, if you type in on Google “video marketing for therapy,” most likely I would come up and most likely two or three of my videos and/or my website, or videos that I’ve done for clinicians, will end up on that first page. There’s a lot of factors that involve not only just having a video, but also consistency inputting videos on your webpage, on your blog. That’s why I encourage a lot of therapists to have a media section on their website that will host their blog, that will host their videos. So the more videos you have on your website, the better it is for Google to rank it higher closer to the top.

PC: Now I cut you off a minute ago. You were going somewhere else. Do you remember where that was in the number?

ES: Numbers. Here’s the other thing: With the video, people spend two minutes longer on your site if you have a video on there.

PC: Engagement.

ES: Engagement – exactly. So two minutes is almost a lifetime in the interwebs. So if the first ten seconds when somebody visits your website, the first ten seconds is actually very, very crucial because they need to engage. If you have a two-minute video on your landing page, you have a higher likely chance of that person staying in there longer. So it really increases the authority of your website if you have that. Now if you have a video that’s playing to other pages of your website, you want that to happen because people need to stay on your website longer than two minutes, or around two minutes. So with that said, videos on a website have a higher change of ranking higher because people are engaging.

PC: Exactly. Now, if a counselor wants to… well, before I forget. Everybody has a definition of a landing page. What is yours?

ES: My landing page is actually the homepage. So when you click on any of my websites, the first thing is you will be greeted by a video and that basically is my home page.

PC: Okay. Good. Now, if a counselor wants a video or two or ten, there are two ways to do that. One is he could do it himself. Number two: 1-800-ERNESTO. Right?

ES: Yes.

PC: Okay. So if I want to do it myself, give me a real quick rundown of what’s that process look like and then let’s move into your world and how you can help them.

ES: Absolutely. An introductory video does not have to be elaborate, like those elaborate videos that I do. I’d love to be hired, but that’s a myth. I actually film a lot of my video blogs on my cell phone. I have an iPhone 6. I just turn on the video camera and start talking. And again, the content actually matters so that’s one way to do it – video blogs or just filming a video off of your cell phone is the way to go in this day in age. Because it also shows authenticity.

PC: Alright. So you’re suggesting somebody just shoot themselves, so to speak, with their smart phone?

ES: Yes. And the environment that they want to be in, maybe a professional-looking environment. It can be outside, outdoors. It could be at the beach. It can be a night setting. It’s just a really soft introduction to your potential clients and visitors to your website.

PC: If I’m listening, I have about six or eight questions, so let me rattle off one at a time and you give me a quick answer. What about key words and optimizing this video before I post it somewhere?

ES: If you upload it on YouTube, there’s a lot of key words on there. The description section actually you can hold over 400– I think it’s 900 – words. So you have to treat the description section of the YouTube video like a blog. Just write as many as you can in there because Google will not detect the content of your video unless you write what is actually being talked about in your video. So that’s one way to rank it.

PC: Okay. So I am going to have to optimize the video in some form or fashion, and you and I both know there are several ways to do that. But you just told me one of them, whether it’s YouTube or Vimeo or some of the others, key word optimization is necessary because those little robots, spiders, they can’t see.

ES: Yeah, now as far as marketing the video, that’s a little bit different because you would have to post that video on any of the social media platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. So that’s another way to kind of increase visibility of that video.

PC: What about ads? Is it good to run ads on top of my videos or not? What are your thoughts?

ES: I’ve always stayed away from ads just because I work with a lot of people who are tight on their budget. We want to try to figure out a way to optimize your video without paying for any ads. Because organic ranking has happened to me, I’m pretty sure it’s possible for a lot of people just with the ingredients of consistency and strong, strong content. So as far as ads go, for me I know it works. I know it works for a lot of people, but for me I try to find other ways to help promote that video and optimize it for my clients.

PC: Alirght, so that was the answer to the content promotion ads question. What about, like in YouTube those ads that run across my videos. Should I sign up for that or not?

ES: Actually, I do sign up for that. I know it’s a little distracting and annoying, but once you start monetizing your videos, let’s say your videos go viral you want to monetize that with YouTube. And those ads will actually-

PC: They’ll do what now?

ES: If you monetize your videos unfortunately those ads will be coming up.

PC: Oh yeah. Okay. What about titles and other cute little tricks that overlays and things you can do?

ES: YouTube actually has its own free software to do all of that. And if you have a YouTube account, you can actually go to the back end of YouTube and you can actually edit all your videos on there. You can actually put royalty-free music. You can actually do all kind of gradient or visual effects and transitions in there. So you don’t have to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars for editing software for your videos.

PC: That was my next question – editing software. Cameras we touched on. What if I have something a little bit more professional than just my smart phone? Maybe I’ve got a $250 camcorder or something a little more expensive. Okay to use that?

ES: There’s tons of apps that are out there. One that I used to use is called Capture. It’s really good for YouTube where you can actually edit all the videos on that one app called Capture, but if you want it to be done professionally, there is a software under $100 called Power Director 14 and it is a very powerful, easy to use software to edit all of your videos professionally because if you have a Mac you’re also spending a lot of money for their version of a software. But because I’m a PC kind of guy-

PC: Thank you!

KM: Man, Ernesto. That’s a deal breaker right there. No, you’re good.

ES: I’m a PC kind of guy and Power Director has really made my life easy as a videographer.

PC: I’ve had that software for a number of years.

ES: Right?

PC: I like it. Alright, a call to action. What is that, and should I use one and where should it be and what should it be?

ES: From my perspective, there are two ways to do a call to action. There’s a soft and direct call to action. A soft call to action is basically at the end of your video you can just put in, “For more information, please contact” in text at the end of the video or somewhere on the lower third of the video. That’s a soft way of a call to action. The other way to call to action is a direct, which is, “If anything I’ve said resonates with you, I’d be honored to help you through your journey.” That’s a direct. You’re talking straight to your client or the viewer and it’s a very direct way of saying, “Please pick up the phone,” but not necessarily saying please buy my service or hire me as your clinician.

PC: Right. Okay.

KM: Well I’m just overwhelmed. This sounds like it’s too much for me to do. Ernesto, can I call you so you can do this for me? Give me how you do this, you know, people hire you to do this.

ES: Usually people hire me when they see me at conferences, when they see my videos or it’s word of mouth and they’ve seen some of the promotional videos I’ve done for therapists. So what I normally do is here in California I go to your office or setting, wherever you want to shoot the video, and I edit then and all those things. Now if you’re out of state, what I normally do is I try to market to people that hey I’m going to be in your state, I have two or three spots available and usually I waive the traveling cost if there’s about two people that is going to sign up for a video. Waive the traveling cost so I fly over to your location and before then we have a conversation on what type of location you want. You either want an outdoor location or an office setting location. I normally encourage people to film their talking head or their video outside their office and put in footage of them indoors as a b-roll or a cutaway.

PC: I guess we’re going to have to re-do that video from last week where I green-screened Godzilla coming up behind you.

KM: Yeah, I’m thinking that’s going to happen probably tomorrow. (Laughs)

PC: I liked that.

KM: Phillip, you’re just so much fun. Maybe I should hire Ernesto instead of you.

ES: The fact that you guys have a green screen is pretty darn impressive to me.

KM: Well, don’t let that go to Phillip’s head.

PC: It’s actually just a giant greasy spot on the wall, but it is green.

KM: (Laughs) Oh, man.

PC: What about metrics? Tracking stuff? How do you go about doing that? You get your video all over the place.

ES: Yeah, so the way that I normally just track some of my videos is two ways. Whether people are on my YouTube and Google actually looks- there’s the back end where you can see how many people are viewing your videos or see how many clicks is there. The analytics are there for you to look at, but I also have Google Analytics in my website so I track it that way, usually just track not just my video but my website to see if there’s any traction or a lot of traction because of the video.

PC: How long, what’s the typical length of a video that you shoot for somebody?

ES: Sure. Usually I try to go within the two-minute mark. I try to go after the two-minute mark because that’s usually the time when the brain actually consumes that much information on a video. One of the things about a video is that you don’t want to overwhelm the viewers so the shorter the better on videos. Any video that is under 30 seconds have 47 times more likelihood to be shared on social media.

PC: Say that again.

ES: Any videos that are done within or shorter than 30 seconds, have a higher likelihood of getting shared more than other videos. But here’s what going on now – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter are increasing theirs seconds of videos now. They’re allow people, for instance Instagram- If you’re not on Instagram yet you should be because Instagram is going to really, really take off because of millennials. They’re allowing for 60-second videos to be filmed now. Before it used to be 15 seconds.

PC: Alright. Got to stay up with the times, right? We may have to look at upgrading your MySpace account though, Kathleen.

KM: You’re funny, Phillip.

PC: That might explain our lack of traction though.

ES: That was the best comment throughout this whole conversation. MySpace! (Laughs)

KM: Oh, Ernesto. My goodness.

PC: Okay, so is it fair to ask- I mean, hop on a plane to fly to Texas or anywhere else is not cheap these days. What with getting frisked a couple times in the TSA lines and what not, it would be a good time to have a video camera I suppose though. Would it be fair to ask, what does a two-minute video going to cost me as a counselor? What’s that production effort going to cost me?

KM: Yeah, get me a number.

PC: Ballpark. Or a range.

ES: Sure. So the standard cost for any of my videos currently is between $1,100 to $1,500 depending on what the production looks like. There’s a lot of production companies that charge way over that, but for what I charge it’s definitely mostly for the persona of the individual. So between $1,100 to $1,500 and a lot of the people that I work with in the mental health field, they’re either starting off with their marketing so I don’t want to go too crazy with the price.

PC; That’s one video, yes?

ES: That’s one video. Uh huh.

PC: Do you have any recommendations on how often I should create new content? A new video?

ES: You know, I remember speaking with my really good friend Temra Settles [?? 33:36] that it’s almost as you need a lot more content. The more content you put out there, the better it is. I try to do one video a week. I’ve seen a lot of people posting a lot more videos. Now with live feeds, you can just be very spontaneous about your video production, so you can just record on a daily basis if you want to. But for me, I recommend just once a week videos.

PC: Going back to you were talking about the shorter the better for a number of reasons. I know in the printing industry there are people out there that think a business card is really a 12-page brochure and they’ll try and fit everything on there and they give a business card out. They have to give out a pair of reading glasses to go with it. It’s just crazy. Why did I say that? So do you find the same thing when shooting a video – people try and cram their entire educational history-?

KM: They’re overthinking everything.

PC: Their dog’s name and how old their kids are and every client they’ve ever seen? How does that work, and how do you deal with that?

KM: Yeah, how do you deal with that?

ES: Absolutely. So I actually had this conversation with a group of therapists this past weekend and I told them that you don’t have to say everything on your video. Your website should say everything about you as a clinician. So your video needs to point to your website because your video is where you just have people hear and see you and engage with you, see your personality, see your smile, see you laugh, see you make mistakes – whatever it is. That is the engagement process, so I try to sell them on that point because they try to treat their videos as a resume or CV, which it’s not. It’s basically here’s who I am, here’s who you’re going to get. I’m funny, I’m this, here’s my personality, and that’s where it’s at. So I try to tell them, “Look, don’t say too much on your video. Let’s just have a few points – the why you’re doing it, how you’re doing it, and how you’re going to inspire those who are viewing your videos.”

PC: Kathleen told me earlier that you have two prices, two fees for filming a video. One – if you’re the director. And another one that’s twice as much if they want to direct the damn thing.

ES: (Laughing)

KM: I think therapists really have a tendency to not take the lead of someone who knows more than them, which can be problematic when you, Ernesto, know how to do this and yielding, being vulnerable to someone else in their expertise needs to be very prudent for that therapist.

ES: Yeah, absolutely. And I think- because I do understand that because this is your craft. This is your professional identity on the line, so I do understand that. And that other piece where I show them themselves on video and they have that reaction of, “Oh my goodness. Wow.” You know, and video does take a lot of work because prior to filming a video I usually spend about three or four conversations over the phone or via Skype just to see what’s going on with them and walking them through because it is a very somewhat personal and sacred process.

PC: I would imagine- what is the demographic/makeup of most of your paying clients? How old are they and male or female?

ES: Oh my gosh. Well, because our profession is made up of [?? 37:50] of females, obviously I’m going to get a lot of those demographic. But the people that I’ve done videos for are just a whole array of spectrum. I’ve got people that are just fresh out of college or grad school. They got their pre-license number and they’re ready to go. They’ve got a supervisor to supervise them and they want to start marketing. And then those who are way ahead of the game, they’ve got 30 clients on their caseload. They’re not really looking to expand, but they’re just shifting their profession to a different avenue and they’re finding a different niche, but they’re not looking to expand their practice but they have a different shift to their profession. So those are pretty much the spectrum that are paying clients.

PC: Do you find that those of us over 50-

KM: Uh oh.

PC: -who might be technologically challenged.

KM: Oh my goodness.

PC: Can we say that?

KM: You just did!

PC: I just did.

ES: You just did, and it’s PC to say. That’s cool.

PC: Do you get a lot of trouble from us old fogies who don’t have a clue what a computer is?

ES: You know, I got to tell you. I got to tell you: I’ve gotten more – not to say encouragement, but – they are more likely to want to learn technology than the millennials. Because the millenials grew up with it, right? They’ve done it. It’s just second nature for them. But when I did a workshop at California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, a lot of them were not technologically savvy at all, but they were so inspired to learn and to want to know this type of marketing. And I just absolutely loved that. So I kind of welcome their questions. I let people know that hey, there’s no such thing as stupid questions here. I had a question once of, “What is Facebook?” (Laughs)

KM: I know that answer.

ES: No, it’s not MySpace, Kathleen. It’s Facebook.

KM: Oh, man. Come on!

PC: Alright. But Ernesto, $1,200 is a lot of money for a video.

KM: I can do it for free! Where’s the free stuff?

PC: What’s your response?

ES: I try my best not to convince them about this. I really don’t. And a lot of people that I work with, or have inquired about my services, really don’t ask that question. So one of the things I do say is look, if you really, really want to do it, I’ll work with you. If there’s a payment plan, we can work with you on that, but with the amount of work that I have to do, honestly I want to stay true to my craft and the cost. But I do understand where they’re coming from. So maybe along the way I can just teach them how to create a video for themselves, and offer that as a coaching side business. So they don’t have to come to me to hire me to do their promotional video. I love teaching this stuff. And I’ll offer that part of the service.

PC: So you don’t actually use the closing technique whereby you’ll tell them, “If you’ll shoot a video with me, I’ll go away?”

ES: I don’t, because in due time they will see the value of this. But I don’t do that. (Laughs)

KM: I can honestly say – and I’m looking at Phillip as I say this, Ernesto – Ernesto makes me feel so comfortable that I don’t even realize that I’m being filmed until they ask me to look at the Facebook feed, and then I freak out.

ES: Oh, that’s the one we did for Life Tree!

KM: Yeah, that was fun. You’re just very good about- just, and that’s your clinical skill set.

PC: I think it’s that Martin Scorsese goatee thing he’s got going on there. That’s what it is.

KM: So Phillip you’re going to have to learn from a master here how to help me feel comfortable with this shoot.

PC: Ernesto, one of my favorite personal sayings is, “Life is a math equation.” We make decisions with emotion, but hopefully it’s based on facts and right up front you said you went from 10 to 28 on one video, so how long is it going to take me to recoup my 11, 12, 1,300 bucks on this one video? This is a rhetorical question not requiring an answer. How long is it going to take me to recoup that cost, and then one of the nice things about video or audio that is posted online on the internets, it’s perfect. It must be true. It’s on the internet and it’s permanent.

KM: It is permanent.

PC: You only have to pay for it one time, right?

ES: Yeah, it really is. And besides the recouping money piece, there’s also that other piece where while you’re out there in the world and this is who I am, and people really find that engagement. So when I do videos and people come to me and go, “Oh my gosh, I only have four or five views, 20 views on my YouTube. What the heck is going on? No one’s watching.” Well, you always have to think about the conversion rate of that. If you notice in any of my videos, I’m not even hitting the 2,000 or 3,000 mark in any of my videos, but the conversion rate is a little bit different. So I kind of look at that. It’s like this millennial thinking where the more people like me, the more I should be rich and famous right now. No, that’s not the case.

44:10 KM: Is it called entitlement?

ES: What’s that?

KM: Is that entitlement?

PC: Don’t worry, we’ll edit that out.

KM: Well, I think it’s quick fix. We’re all on this quick fix because we’re freaking out because we’re not making a livelihood and our cash conversion has to be overturn in a night, and that’s not really how really life goes or being in business goes. But what you’re suggesting, Ernesto, is the more that you put out good content through video, it really does exponentially increase everything very quickly. But you still have to keep working your referral sources. It’s not just, “Oh, I’m going to shoot a video and then I’m just going to lay low.” There’s a disconnect there. This is a piece of the puzzle.

PC: That’s the mechanical part. After the mechanical part you’ve got to get out and pound the pavement, so to speak, a little bit. Promote yourself. Promote that video.

ES: Absolutely, because when I tell people, “Wow your video – you’ve got 28 clients in two months,” and then their brain stops there. They don’t observe when I explain what I did to promote that video. It was tough. It was tough, but all the people hear is 28 clients in two months. That’s all they hear.

PC: Well, from now on, Ernesto, we’re going to do it backwards. This is what you have to do to promote your video, and this is what happened. You think that will work? It might. We’re going to think about that. You know, we’re out of time. But I tell you what – we’re going to do this again because there’s lots more to talk about. If you’re willing to talk with us again here in a few more weeks, we’ll talk a little bit about the ethics involved in video production, and then jump into social media marketing which is just another way of saying content promotion, and explore that and see where we end up. You game?

ES: I am so up for that. You guys are fun to talk to. I’m so relaxed right now. You know what?  I was actually a little bit nervous coming into it.

KM: Were you? Ernesto, really?

PC: This guy is so good, he actually relaxed himself. Did you see that?

KM: Were you overthinking?

ES: I was! I hate it! I hate overthinking and I always fall for it.

PC: He’s going to send himself a bill.

KM: Well, Phillip is just a huggie teddy bear except when he tells me to get in front of the green screen, and then I flip out.

PC: Ernesto, if somebody wants to shoot a video and get in touch with you, how do they go about doing that?

ES: Visit my website at www.fylmit.com and there’s my email address and my phone number from there. That’s the best way to get me.

PC: But I’m in the car driving and I can’t look it up. So you’ve got www.fylmit.com, and is there a phone number?

ES: Yes, it’s 909-247-8820.

PC: Alright, we’re going to do this again.

KM: Yes, Ernesto, thank you.

PC: Kathleen?

KM: Yes, Kathleen.

PC: Where can they find you?

KM: They can find me all over Dallas, Texas, but it’s Kathleen@practicementors.us.

PC: And the website is?

KM: And the website is www.practicementors.us. Check it out. We’re building it as we go and it’s a monster.

PC: And I’m still Phillip Crum, the content marketing coach. www.contentmarketingcoach.us.

KM: You’re not at www.practicementors.us?

PC: I am also there. I am everywhere. Ernesto, this has been fun. Don’t worry, the recovery process is usually short.

KM: (Laughs)

PC: And you and Kathleen lien up the next event, and on we go. I look forward to meeting you in person.

ES: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, guys.

KM: Yep. And you got to work your plan, and plan your matrix.

PC: That’s right.

KM: There you go.

PC: Thank you, dark knights.

KM: Dark knight, I love you. You’re awesome.