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Fancypants Videos Are Doing It Wrong

(Lucky us! EPW is one of the guest speakers at Creating Irresistible Presence!)

Fancypants Videos Are Doing It Wrong.
By Elizabeth Potts Weinstein (@ElizabethPW)

You know the excuse most people give me for not adding video to their website?

No, it’s not “the technology is hard/complicated” (that’s the #2 excuse. And yes, it is an excuse, because the technology doesn’t have to be hard).

The #1 excuse is they are afraid of not being perfect.

They may say it differently:

  • “I’m just not good on camera.”
  • “I’m too old/young/fat/skinny/casual/stuffy/pale/dark to be on camera.”
  • “I tried to make a video and my hair looked weird / I had wrinkles / my shirt looked strange / the cat walked in / the sound was off, so I didn’t post it.”
  • “My house/desk/office/car/backyard is too messy and I don’t have anywhere else to film it.”
  • “I talk too fast/slow/accented/whiny/low/high and people aren’t going to like it.”
  • “I had to shoot tons of video and spent all kind of time editing it, and I still couldn’t make it right.”

Here’s the big secret.

Your video doesn’t need to be perfect.

Your video just needs to be you.

Your imperfections, your weird, your uniqueness – that’s the point of doing video.

Video is the most direct way (besides meeting with each person, one-on-one) to have an intimate conversation with each person who comes to your website.

They get to connect with the real you.

In all your weirdness, or wrinkles, or wild hair. In all of your passion.

Your realness. All of the humanness that makes you, you.

Being perfect on video is the wrong way to do it.

You’ve seen those “perfect” professionally produced, fancypants videos – they are flat. Boring. Passionless. There’s no intimacy. No connection. No truth.

The biggest difference between you and a big corporation, the only real difference between you and any of your competitors – is you.

You are the unique selling proposition of your business.

Your weirdness, your personality, your message, your imperfections, your truth.

So don’t let the “my video won’t be perfect” excuse hold you back.

Your awesomeness is found in your imperfections.

Make (and post!) that first video on your website today.

Let your truth, let your passion, speak through that video, and sell the amazingness that is you.

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein empowers solo-entrepreneurs to make a greater difference in the world and become more successful & fulfilled, by doing what is a natural extension of who they really are. She’s also a mom, attorney, author, speaker, coach, radio show host, twitter chat host, video blogging addict, tweetup connoisseur, people loving introvert, and truth evangelist. If you want to follow her on her adventures, learn how to create online videos, or find how to live your truth, find her at http://twitter.com/ElizabethPW or at http://ElizabethPW.com.

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If you want more help with creating your first video, or need additional strategies and tools to take your videos to the next level, Elizabeth has multiple resources available for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced online video creator at http://LiveYourTruthOnVideo.com. And if you join any of her programs by THIS THURSDAY September 2nd at 9:00 PM EST, you can join on a live private Q&A call where she will answer our video questions & you can get immediate implementation troubleshooting as you creating your videos!

Get more info & join at: http://LiveYourTruthonVideo.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 10:11 am and is filed under Uncommon Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • http://www.melaniekissell.com melaniekissell

    Hooray for you, Elizabeth!

    I’m actually looking forward to creating videos and if they’re not perfect, that’s okay! I currently don’t have an recording equipment (no excuse, just the facts) but I’ve got a flip cam on the tippity top of my wish list. I think video is an ideal way to allow people to get to know you — it’s the most intimate form of online communication and I believe it helps tremendously to build that all-important “know, like, and trust” factor.

    Wonderful post!
    Melanie

  • http://www.melaniekissell.com melaniekissell

    Hooray for you, Elizabeth!

    I’m actually looking forward to creating videos and if they’re not perfect, that’s okay! I currently don’t have an recording equipment (no excuse, just the facts) but I’ve got a flip cam on the tippity top of my wish list. I think video is an ideal way to allow people to get to know you — it’s the most intimate form of online communication and I believe it helps tremendously to build that all-important “know, like, and trust” factor.

    Wonderful post!
    Melanie

  • http://www.brandonsutton.com Brandon101

    Awesome post Elizabeth! I finally broke through the barrier I had with posting videos, and although I haven’t blogged on my main blog in a bit, I did use video to tell the story of what I was up to on the last couple of entries. I was one of those people who didn’t think I would be good on camera, and although I’m still not 100% comfortable with myself on camera, I got over it and just did it.

    Another thing – I use my digital camera to record, NOT my mini DV camera. If I use the latter, I have to bring it in to editing software which adds a whole other list of ‘stuff’ to deal with. Doing it straight from the digital lets me upload WITHOUT editing. I find that I’m more concise with my message when I know it’s going to be a one shot thing. Editing is like a crutch to me, and I’d rather not add that to the mix for everyday videos. I’ve found this helpful in getting myself moving and thought I would share.

    Thanks for the post!

  • http://www.brandonsutton.com Brandon Sutton

    Awesome post Elizabeth! I finally broke through the barrier I had with posting videos, and although I haven’t blogged on my main blog in a bit, I did use video to tell the story of what I was up to on the last couple of entries. I was one of those people who didn’t think I would be good on camera, and although I’m still not 100% comfortable with myself on camera, I got over it and just did it.

    Another thing – I use my digital camera to record, NOT my mini DV camera. If I use the latter, I have to bring it in to editing software which adds a whole other list of ‘stuff’ to deal with. Doing it straight from the digital lets me upload WITHOUT editing. I find that I’m more concise with my message when I know it’s going to be a one shot thing. Editing is like a crutch to me, and I’d rather not add that to the mix for everyday videos. I’ve found this helpful in getting myself moving and thought I would share.

    Thanks for the post!