Susan Finn 0:13
Hey there, and welcome to Rise Above Noise. Each week, I have the honor of shining a spotlight on someone in the Rise Above Noise community who's making a real difference, and helping others with their business growth. We haven't met yet. Let me introduce myself. I am Susan Finn, and I'm a digital marketing consultant with Rise Above Noise where for the past 15 years, I've been working with transformation creators, that would be energy healers, lightworkers, coaches, creatives teachers, and I'm guiding them with a personal roadmap in their digital marketing journey. Together, we get to create their own system for showing up in a way that feels generous, and in service, so that we can show up with consistency. And that way, people who are already searching for you can find you and your business is going to grow with flow and ease. And many of you who have been listening to me over the years have heard me offer the one tip that I feel is the most valuable practice. As you create your digital marketing strategies. You want to be able to grow with visibility with more flow with more ease. And that tip is this answer their questions. Everyone on the internet is searching. They're searching for an answer to some thing. If you have the answer, go ahead and share it in whatever way works for you. Share it so that they can find you. So in today's conversation, Neil Carroll of Vid wheel is going to share some resources and his special slant on using video and frequently asked questions to show up for the people who are already searching for you already searching for what you have to offer already searching for the answers to the questions that they have. I think you're going to really enjoy today's conversation. Let's get right to it. There we go. Because it's Thursday, it is Thursday. And it is my favorite day of the week. You guys hear me say this every week. But this is it. When you know, as an entrepreneur, no matter what business we're in, right now we've got to, you can be certainly a health coach, and accountant. You can own a store, you can sell widgets, whatever it is that you're doing, you can be making amazing and most of my clients are transformation creators. They're bringing people into a world where there'll be healthier, happier, have better relationships, but no matter what business we're in, where you have to be marketers, and people sometimes like, Ah, I do that. And I'm a marketer. And sometimes I'm like, Oh, I don't want to sell my stuff. I just want to do it. But I get it right. So we do have to do that. And I know that we're going to be here today to talk about one of the ways that we can do that. Before we get started with that I'm going to do what I do every week and tell you about the five pillars of the rise above nine noise process and where today's talk is going to tie in here. Neil, do you see my screen with like a little old fashioned truck moment? Yeah, so do. So there we go. So now I guess I have to press the play button. So that's what I'm talking about. Right? Marketing is is really just a vehicle. I had this conversation with my husband the other day. And I said, you know, people don't always know what digital marketing is. But then if I say, Well, it's a website, and it's search optimization, and it's email and it's video. And it's, that's too long, and people are like tuned out. So why don't you just say you do advertising. And I said, Well, I don't do advertising. That's why so it's so interesting, that basically marketing is a vehicle. And whatever it is that you're doing, if it's networking, if it's phone calling, if it's potent, getting into groups on LinkedIn, or Facebook, whatever you're doing, and we'll talk about that a little bit more. If it allows you to reach more people and you're not shouting at them. You're reaching them in a way that that feels more organic than that. Alright. So with that in mind,
Susan Finn 4:45
with the five pillars of Rise Above Noise, which many of you have seen already, it begins with knowing who it is that you're talking to. And even before that it's digging into your core values and When I looked at my core values and who I wanted to spend my days with, I realized that I wanted to work with transformation creators, because even now more than when I started 15 years ago, our world needs people who are making a difference in other people's lives. And then you want to know who you're talking to, when you're doing your marketing when you're reaching out to people. And you also want to make sure that you're controlling your time, so that all of these things are so you attract clients who align. So the five pillars are, know who your core values, know what your core values are, who you want to work with, who you can make a difference for? And how, how you're going to be able to do that for them what you know, what do they need to have, so that they become your ideal clients? Number two is compelling content. And this is where we're going to spend our time today. Usually, I will talk about frequently asked questions. And when I saw that Neil had written a blog recently about frequently asked questions in videos, I was like, Can you Rise Above Noise? And of course you did. Because we that's marketing, right, like showing up on someone else's podcast is marketing. Proof of Concept, which I know that you've also written about, Neil is, is testimonials, and case studies and storytelling, because that's really what people want, they don't want to be shouted out. They want to know the stories of how you took somebody from, from feeling a certain way to feeling the way that they wanted to feel. You want to organize and schedule your time, we won't be touching upon that too much today. But man, you got to protect your energy, you've got to put your systems in place so that you are not working 18 hours a day, and still not knowing what you're doing, you've got to have the systems in place. And I love that's my thing. I love setting up systems. And of course, keeping in touch would be if you're a great phone call or make the phone calls, if you're great if you're great at sales, sending snail mail do that, of course, in the work that I do, it's about messaging and Contact Relationship Management, and in particular, email marketing, and all of those things, all of these five pillars of the Rise Above Noise process are so that you can protect your energy, save your time, grow your business and be of service to others. And now I have to figure out how to do this year because give me some thank you for giving me some grace. I'm in a different spot today. Think I can do this. I'm trying to stop sharing interesting and it won't. Let's see if it works. Now. There we go. The tech, the tech, all the things. So Neil's here with his super cool background. You guys watch it, you'll be hypnotized for a while and I'm gonna go ahead and bring over my notes and do a nice introduction to philosophy.
Neil K. Carroll 8:17
Well, thank you very much for having me on. And thank you to everybody who's watching via livestream. Yeah, my name is Neil Carroll. I'm the founder of Vid we'll LLC and we have a video community called the fifth wheel creator network set enough Susan to find it.
Susan Finn 8:42
You know what can you tell me like how you got like what's your thing? You're You're the owner, founder of Vid wheel you can you can go into this production for him.
Neil K. Carroll 8:51
Yeah, yeah, so we used to be a very traditional video production company. We have studio downtown here. I'm located in Buffalo, New York, we did a lot of travel around the country to pick up you know, video for corporate clients and when the when the pandemic kit and things got a little crazy, all of a sudden we couldn't do any of that stuff that we had been doing in as a surface. So ultimately, what I ended up doing was really pivoting very much the whole business into instead of being a video production company where people would come to us to because we can make better content than they could. We are now empowering mostly small businesses solopreneurs coaches consultants, how to create their own video content and not only how to create but how to utilize it within their businesses, too. Who to get better reach become more efficient. And our big thing is, we are on the lookout for best fit clients in the world, right? We're in a brave new time of being able to reach a lot further and have conversations with anyone. And it's an incredible opportunity, especially for smaller, really specialized businesses.
Susan Finn 10:27
Well, you know, now that we're diving right into it, the thing that I know that people have gotten better about since the pandemic, so let's talk pre pandemic, pre being quarantined. People were very nervous about turning on their cameras and going live on Facebook. And there was a lot of anxiety around that. And it feels like this is our normal way. Now.
Neil K. Carroll 10:53
It it's interesting, because, in some ways, right, a lot of people are much less worried about getting on to say a Zoom meeting. But there's still a very small percentage of people who would be willing to record and publish video content, or go live with it. So while the numbers are bigger, that's one of the initial hurdles that we find with a lot of the folks that we talk to, is just the the confidence to get in front of the camera and start creating. So
Susan Finn 11:28
well, we could start there, what kind of I know that we're going to talk about frequently asked questions, because that's near and dear to my heart. But since we're talking about this, what What tips do you how do you get people to feel more comfortable? What tips do you have for people.
Neil K. Carroll 11:43
So one of the easiest ways, I feel like people can get more comfortable in front of the camera and be ready to create or do this type of content, we actually built a free course around so I can pop that over to you if you want to some but it's called Camera confidence. And it's just getting really confident with your video setup and the gear that you already have, make sure that you have the best looking video feed that you can have with what you have around you. And that takes away one of the major barriers, which is tech know how which is, you know, can really trip people up, they think they needed a better camera, they think, you know, they look at their feed and compare it to somebody else's, and they're not feeling good about how it would look. So this is meant to kind of clear out all that stuff. And it's just simple. Well, there's simple to a video professional, you know, the lighting techniques, where to be in frame on your camera, how to get the best possible audio, that type of stuff. But I will I'll share that over? Well, we'll do it after the fact probably I'll
Susan Finn 12:58
add it into the show notes, and I'll put it on the Facebook feed later on today. That's very kind of you to offer that to us.
Neil K. Carroll 13:05
Yeah. And that's, that's one of the things and then the second thing is just, you know, kind of the mental part of getting on camera, right, which it's interesting, because you'll speak to a lot of people who were very, we're very confident, say speaking in front of a room. And then you can put a camera in front of them. And it's like a whole different ballgame. So there is a little bit of a weird mental aspect there. And, to me, one of the biggest things you can do is, except that your first video, your first appearance on a live stream like this is not going to be your best, right? So you got to go out, you got to do it, try it, it's not gonna hurt you, right, you're gonna be fine after and then look at yourself with the self through a self critical lens improved from there, you know, you're gonna have statements you wish you could have said better, you might see something in your video feed that you wish was a little different or whatever. And if you look at it through the lens of every time you make a video where every time you make that appearance, you're gonna get at least one step better incremental improvement than before you know it you look back and you say ooh, look at that first one, but you're feeling really good about you know where you are from a video production or video quality perspective.
Susan Finn 14:35
So what I love about what you just said is such valuable information but it also ties into one of the topics that I cover a lot which is digital marketing is a practice right so meditate I do yoga, and every day I need to get better or something's not quite right and so we never get it right same thing with digital marketing right which As we just do what we can do, and then try to be better than next time trying to do better, but with the same thing now my other, the other part of my brain is like, yes. And look at your results, right? If people aren't measuring their results, whatever your key indicators are, is it hits to your website? Is it? How many people are getting on your email list? Is it you know, how many people came to your webinar, whatever it is measuring, and then making sure that it's better next time? And if there aren't any results there, stop doing it. Right, there are people spending way too much time on things that are not bringing them what they need.
Neil K. Carroll 15:49
Yeah, it is good to know why you're starting something right? And what you expect to come out of it. That's a great point. If when you start a new series, or you know, whatever, a new digital marketing campaign, you don't know why you're doing it, or you don't know what results make it a success, then, like you're, you're, I guess, doomed to fail, I'm gonna say or, you know, at least doomed to not know that you were successful.
Susan Finn 16:23
Right, right. Yeah. So that's the thing. And you know, what that runs goes into. So now I really want to spend some time because I was just reading your blog. And I know we we pivoted a little bit, I was reading your blog about using q&a, for video. And one of the first things I teach my clients and it's the second pillar in the Rise Above Noise process, is to create compelling content and what is compelling content, but answering people's questions. If you guys haven't heard me before, and other time, like asked me about Marcus Sheridan and his book, they asked you answer, it totally changed my life. I know, I remember the first time I heard him speak. And it was like, ah, that's all we have to do answer the questions. But now you are, you have given me an extra because I said like, let's go ahead and write a much great first search optimization, right, we're answering the questions. But with video, I think that you have inspired me to make a video series answering the questions.
Neil K. Carroll 17:23
It's a great, so one of the things I love about having video content that answers questions for your audience is, to me, there's no more powerful, we're going to call the power play of the most kind of impactful thing that you can do say if you're on a sales call with somebody, and they come up with a specific question, and you've got a video answering it, it shows that a you know the answer be you've thought about it before and like, you know, if you can quickly share that link can be a really good way to to prove your expert status and give them the answer they need. And, you know, you could give a verbal version in the meeting as well. But maybe it's more in depth, the whole presentation on topic x there that is, that can be a really impactful thing when it comes to building that that know, like trust factor, and just that you're an expert in your field without question, right?
Susan Finn 18:36
So, right. So you're building the know, like trust, they hear you speaking, they realize that it's you they know, and all the things you just said. And then when you have it on let's I'm assuming, right, like you're gonna put it on YouTube is what most people will use. And then when you optimize your YouTube post with the correct words and keywords and calls to action in the description, then it's going to multiply the impact of that too. And you'll be able to measure a lot of that too. So the other thing I often tell my clients is to have one commitment to content each week. Right. So this is my so I get a YouTube out of it. I get a podcast out of it. I get a blog. I get social media posts throughout the year that I can pull the nuggets out of so video, FAQs, I think would be amazing for that.
Neil K. Carroll 19:35
Yeah. And you could even if you wanted to, you know if you're if you want to do an interview style, you could bring on clients that you want to help kind of push your promo and do cross promotional things there. So it actually ties in really well with one of the the most mentioned strategies that I pushed my own group, the video creator network is the easiest way to create compelling or high quality content is to interview somebody smarter than you and record it. That's my, that's my whole thing there. Right. So like, it works great for podcasts, it would work really well for customers. And like you said, when you, you know, kind of go through longer form content like that and record it, then you're able to, to chop it up and make smaller social media size pieces that work really well and stuff, too. So
Susan Finn 20:39
I know I'm very excited about this idea. And actually, then you just gave me three ideas. Just talking you guys. If you're if you got questions, or you have ideas that you want to pop into the chatter you want to email to me or, Neil, later, please do that. Because I feel like the energy is flowing. There's just so many ideas here. You know, So Neil, when I asked you, I'm gonna go back to the beginning, when I didn't do the bio, when I asked you what your superpower is, you told me that your superpower is being in many places at one time. Tell me about that.
Neil K. Carroll 21:15
Right? Well, I answered it from a business perspective. And that's one of the things we really push with video is that when you create content, and you have it, say, you know, intro video on your LinkedIn profile, you're there 24 hours a day, and you're there for the person who's visiting from Japan, or just down the road from you. So part of what I tried to teach through our community is a lot of that, right? Like, you're, you're multiplying yourself, you're multiple places at once. And your ideal client can therefore more easily find you, especially if you're saying the right things, you know, much to the point of your pillars and everything there. It's all about using the right language, saying the right things and making yourself available so that people can, can meet you and consume your content when it's good for them.
Susan Finn 22:19
Right. It's good for them. I liked that. I liked that a lot. You've mentioned your community a couple of times you want to tell me more about that?
Neil K. Carroll 22:27
Yeah, sure, sure. So the video creator network is the the name of our community. And it is a community that I set up to help solopreneurs and small businesses, leverage video to increase the reach become more efficient, and find their perfect fit clients. We use self produced video to to accomplish this. So it's really a community and education platform where we teach you how to make your own high quality video in a really repeatable and efficient manner. We draw on my experience, we draw on the experience of the community as a whole. And we make video work for your business. That's the That's the usual stick anyway. So yeah, that's how we do
Susan Finn 23:19
what is that? So do you meet weekly.
Neil K. Carroll 23:22
So we have, we have actually, and this goes in something we talked about beforehand, but we do two educational events that are open to the public per month. So those are on Thursdays. The next one is on Thursday, I want to say the seventh of July, though I should have looked that up before we got on. And it is on tic tac using tic tac to generate sales as a consultant. And it's with an expert out of LA named Steven Pope that is open to the public, I would love to have anyone who's interested in that come on out, you can go to events that vid wheel.com All of our updated events are there. And that's a Zoom meeting with the presentation by an expert that we bring in or some networking aspects, you know, good virtual event type thing. And we've got a second one of those meetings that happens two weeks after that. So the 21st I believe, and that one's going to be at noon and features and other tic tac experts. So if that I guess maybe that's a roundabout way of saying next month is tic tac month on the video creator network. We do theme our monthly content so that we can kind of deliver concentrated value on specific topics. So next month is tic tac. The following month, the month of August will be first videos which is a great time for people to get involved too. haven't taken a step into creating video or utilizing video within their business. And then we move on some of the other really popular ones are video podcasts, sales with video, LinkedIn, YouTube, and they happen throughout the year. Yes, and then other, I guess meetings, we do office hours twice a week, we have a synchronous course content. And we have a community that we've built on LinkedIn where people can, you know, put out video that they want an opinion on access the materials that we have available, to talk to other members connect with other people who are involved. So it's, yeah, we tried to do a lot with with giving people ways to connect and move forward use Bing video.
Susan Finn 25:56
Oh, wow, that's so awesome. I'll get all the links. And I'll put them into the notes here too. So that people I know that they're people need this. I know we all need this guys. There are some people in my community who are playing with Tik Tok. And, yeah, it's fun.
Neil K. Carroll 26:16
I'll say with this one, right? Like, I have a good video knowledge. I've been in the industry for about 20 years, I guess. But tic tac I know nothing about. So I'm very excited on this one to like really lean into the experts and the community when it comes to knowledge about a platform that I have not explored much myself. So
Susan Finn 26:45
I've kind of avoided it. But maybe if someone showed right, like maybe if I go to these two sessions that you're putting up, maybe then I won't be like, Ah, I don't want
Neil K. Carroll 26:56
Yeah, yeah, I you know, if it, if it works, for some specifically, then I'm, I'm always interested in new tech. But I recently and I think, you know, a lot of people maybe are realizing this, I pull back on tech all the time. I'm not all in on everything, it's got to actually make it a better solution. So if Tic Tac is a better solution in some way, I'm happy to, to jump in on it. Right?
Susan Finn 27:26
Yeah, yeah, it can't. And it can't be another time suck. We have enough of those. No more, like we talked about at the very beginning, we got to know what our goals are. And we have to know if this is going to bring us to our goals. Our Time went by so so so quickly, I I really encourage people to find out to get at events dot vin wheel.com. Go ahead and try out some of these free offerings that Neil and his community has had the regular website is vid wheel.com. And they can find you on LinkedIn and amazing. Is there anything else that you'd want us to take away from our talk today?
Neil K. Carroll 28:09
Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is, if you're a solopreneur, or smaller business, we have again, gone through one of those inflection points in history where, you know, you're on a very a much more level playing field than you were just a few years ago, when it comes to being competitive with bigger businesses out there. So don't don't fritter it away, get in there and utilize it. Right. Video can get you across the world. So
Susan Finn 28:41
great advice. Thank you so much, Neil. I'm really excited that we we got to get you into our community and sharing that information.
Neil K. Carroll 28:51
Thank you. Thanks for having
Susan Finn 28:55
me. Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this week's Rise Above Noise spotlight as much as I did. Did you pick up on that power play? Neil says using video content that answers questions for your audience is the most impactful thing that you can do. Especially when you're building that know, like trust factor, and it shows so it shows that you're the expert in your field. And it also shows a little bit behind behind the mask if you were behind the curtain who you are what's important to you how you show up for the people that you're meant to serve. When you create thoughtful videos that can be viewed just on a click. Essentially, you're multiplying yourself. You get to be in many places at one time. Because you're right there on video. Your ideal client can easily find you a spot Actually, when you're saying the right things when you're using the right language when you're answering the questions when you're making yourself available, that people can see you, and consume your content when it's good for them when it's convenient for them. So you can see how our Rise Above Noise community is revolutionizing how service professionals show up in our marketing to make a real difference in the world, right marketing is just what you do. That helps your business grow and now more than ever, now more than ever. Our world needs our transformation creators to be successful in their ventures, to show up and service and make a real difference in our world. Thanks for joining me today. I look forward to seeing you in our Rise Above Noise community and in the next Rise Above Noise spotlight
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
