[Progress] #AndyTalks

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 009 - People Follow Leaders (A Snapchat Story)


I dropped the video into this thread:

• People listen to experts, they follow leaders

 

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[Andy Black]

^^^ That post above...



The video was all recorded on my iPhone.

I didn't edit it at all.

Snapchat allows me to keep saying each line till I get it right, and then save it to my "story". (This is helping me learn how to say my lines too.)

I got to a pub for lunch.

There was no Wifi.

In the pub, I downloaded my Snapchat story to my camera roll.

I uploaded to YouTube.

I copied the share URL.

I pasted into TFLF.

I tweeted it out.

Before I got home, someone had liked the Tweet.

I could have posted on Facebook too I guess. Hmmm... I'll do that now.

Video first.
​

Mobile first.​

What happens when you do video ON mobile first?​

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 010 - Local Lead Gen - Simplified

I dropped this video into it's own thread here.

 

[Buickestate]

#AndyTalks 010 - Local Lead Gen

(I'm on a course so haven't edited out the earlier parts... stick with it.)

Looks like a nice place to live, where's the lunch food pic? The Foodies audience would love to see that, and some could be potential customers.....

 

[Andy Black]

Looks like a nice place to live, where's the lunch food pic? The Foodies audience would love to see that, and some could be potential customers.....

Thanks for the feedback @Buickestate

It was the gardens of a hotel. I was going to an all day course on "Advanced LinkedIn for Business".

On the walk from the bus stop, I thought I'd start answering someone's question they'd Snapchatted to me.

When I got to the venue, I was half an hour early so thought I'd make use of the beautiful grounds.

I'm amazed at what I could create with my smartphone, hands-free kit, and Snapchat app.

And maybe 3 weeks of practice on Snapchat.

It's frictionless.

It's fun.

It's fascinating (that self made movie production is so accessible).



My current thinking is to use Snapchat to record stories, rants, explanations, B-Roll, etc

Download the previous 24 hours at exactly the same time each day.

Copy each day's story to my PC.

Edit out a short story with ONE message each evening.

Publish to YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

Get into a nice rhythm.

With a nice fast cadence.

With feedback loops so I can learn.

Measure - Report - Analyse - Act

(But the secret is to start at Act.)



I'm amazed at the difference already between videos 001 and 010.

It's interesting too how my "vision" of flipchart videos is taking a backseat at the moment.

I'll come back to it later, and I'm sure my delivery of each line will be better because of using Snapchat and it's max 10 second clip, and simple ability to retake each clip till happy.



As Dan Norris said in his book "The 7 Day Startup" ...

"You don't learn till you launch."



I'd have never predicted I'd be creating 5 min videos in the grounds of hotels by my 10th video.


Act first.

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 011 - Thanks for Following

Mentioned in this video:

Things Snapchat is helping me learn.

"You don't learn until you launch."

Just get started.

Two great podcasts I listened to.

Why I don't like calling myself an entrepreneur ... yet.

What my videos will likely be about (dropping knowledge bombs about what I already do well, and a log of me becoming a better entrepreneur).

A question I'm asking myself this week.

A question for you to ponder.

 

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[Andy Black]

Here's my Periscope stats two weeks after my one and only scope (posted above here).

Not bad engagement apparently for a first scope.

I don't know how I got 19 followers... I haven't worked out how people find scopes. I know one guy who's following me on Twitter got an alert through on Twitter, and he joined the scope at the start.

I feel another brewing soon. Damn, it was fun.

 

[Andy Black]

Interesting. Someone told me to use katch.me to capture the Persicope live streaming video. I signed up *after* creating my first scope, but it seems to have captured it anyway.

Below is the link, and you can see that the comments and hearts have been captured too.

I've also been told to use fullscope.tv because it has better analytics or something. I've signed up (I think), although don't seem to have had any welcome emails.

Link to the scope captured on katch.me:

• https://ktch.tv/7zdz

 

[ZeroTo100]

Andy, you're awesome!

Andy sent me a PM...After I stalked his posts then followed him haha. As a new member, I think it's awesome that there is a lot of behind the scenes that goes on in this forum.

My first move when I got on this forum was to read through every single gold post. So much value on those and it's got to be a great feeling to get some posts liked from years ago knowing that people still read them!

Always a pleasure to meet people that want to help and bring value.

-Stevie

Background

(This background part was added 7 days after creating the thread.)​

I post a LOT !!!

I joined the forum 20 months ago and have posted over 2,000 times. That's a lot of posting!

A few months ago I even tried to slow down the posting, thinking it was stopping me from doing "real work". Lol... that didn't last more than a week.

I can't stop myself.

I read comments or questions and stories pop into my head. Often I start with a quick response, and end up writing a chapter in a small book.

If I don't answer, it's like a bothersome little splinter in my mind until I go back and answer as best I can.
​

I PM people a lot !!!

Every time someone follows me or sends me rep, I say thanks. I think it's good manners for starters. But I've also enjoyed the little interactions.

That's over 600 PMs in 20 months.
​

It surprised me ...

To be made a moderator.

To have helped/impacted so many people.

That it mostly had nothing to do with AdWords.

(This thread here.)
​

Help more people ...

I'm starting to regularly be surprised when a new forum member likes a post from months ago and I re-read it. I mostly can't remember even writing it. I'd like to repurpose a lot of it somehow, rather than have it all scattered to the wind.

Anyway, whatever I'm doing seems to have helped people in the forum, and I wonder how many more people I can help if I start posting (somehow) outside the forum.​

Help people more ...

Three months ago @SmoothFranko left the following comment in this thread:


I've had quite a few people say I should create an "Andy's Corner", or "Andy's Talks" and just start churning out content.

Creating content and interacting just seems to be one of those things I can't NOT do.

It seems to help people - so I'm going to see what happens when I double down on it.

This was an encouraging reply from @SlowlaneJay that made me smile when I said I was considering it.


Thanks @SmoothFranko, @SlowlaneJay, and everyone else who's told me to "shut up and take my money".
​

Renaming the thread ...

I initially titled this progress thread "iPhone talking head videos", but I'd also like to document creating screencasts, creating a YouTube channel, doing live streaming (Periscope/YouTube?), and whatever else I do to get more content out of my head so it helps more people.

So "Andy Talks" will do for now. It's a bit embarrassing to put my own name in a thread title. It's not to "brand" myself. It's so people who don't want to follow this thread can avoid it. Anti-click-bait. (I vaguely feel this is something I have to get over.)

If anyone can think of something better, I'm all ears.​

My goal ...

I mention this in a later post.​

Help more people. Help people more.

I don't really know how I'll "monetize" it.

It's obviously an itch I can't scratch, so I'm going to do it anyway.

It should be either "Hell Yeah!", or "No".

So "all-in" it is.​

 

[Andy Black]

Andy, you're awesome!

Andy sent me a PM...After I stalked his posts then followed him haha. As a new member, I think it's awesome that there is a lot of behind the scenes that goes on in this forum.

My first move when I got on this forum was to read through every single gold post. So much value on those and it's got to be a great feeling to get some posts liked from years ago knowing that people still read them!

Always a pleasure to meet people that want to help and bring value.

-Stevie

Gosh Stevie. Thanks for commenting, and for your kind words. Much appreciated.

 

[Veloce Grey]

Thanks for the feedback @Buickestate

I'm amazed at what I could create with my smartphone, hands-free kit, and Snapchat app.

I'll come back to it later, and I'm sure my delivery of each line will be better because of using Snapchat and it's max 10 second clip, and simple ability to retake each clip till happy.

As Dan Norris said in his book "The 7 Day Startup" ...

"You don't learn till you launch."

I'd have never predicted I'd be creating 5 min videos in the grounds of hotels by my 10th video.

Act first.

I was thinking about the gist of this post at a recent family gathering. I'd taken my teenage niece to the beach and she borrowed my phone then proceeded to run through a spree of snapchat taking, selfie taking and just generally taking photos and videos at a mad rate before reviewing/deleting most of them. Being from a different era I grew up when you went on holiday with one roll of film in the camera and 24 photos which meant you planned each one like a prison break. That has turned out to be a hard habit to break.

Anyway at the family gathering as one of the few sober people there I was on camera duty and abandoned the whole slow and steady approach for this new "use the camera like a machine gun" idea and while it felt very odd the results were better. Plenty of crap photos but easy to delete those and the next day we were left with a nice edited portfolio of various drunkards vaguely related to me

I found it amusing how people looking at the edited results exclaimed "you're such a great photographer". I'm a terrible photographer-I was literally banned from using the dark room in photography class at school. But thanks to technology that's no longer an issue and long forgotten like MJ's pink pants.

 

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[Andy Black]

I was thinking about the gist of this post at a recent family gathering. I'd taken my teenage niece to the beach and she borrowed my phone then proceeded to run through a spree of snapchat taking, selfie taking and just generally taking photos and videos at a mad rate before reviewing/deleting most of them. Being from a different era I grew up when you went on holiday with one roll of film in the camera and 24 photos which meant you planned each one like a prison break. That has turned out to be a hard habit to break.

Anyway at the family gathering as one of the few sober people there I was on camera duty and abandoned the whole slow and steady approach for this new "use the camera like a machine gun" idea and while it felt very odd the results were better. Plenty of crap photos but easy to delete those and the next day we were left with a nice edited portfolio of various drunkards vaguely related to me

I found it amusing how people looking at the edited results exclaimed "you're such a great photographer". I'm a terrible photographer-I was literally banned from using the dark room in photography class at school. But thanks to technology that's no longer an issue and long forgotten like MJ's pink pants.

Exactly! Thanks for the story @Veloce Grey


A couple of my thoughts and intentions:


1) Give yourself permission to suck.

Or in other words: "Get over yourself!"

As adults, we've been trained to be perfectionists at school and at work. It stops us starting, and it stops us shipping.

I've deliberately published videos that aren't perfect, because I want to get a message out each time, and because I want to put perfectionism in its place.


Are you in your own way?


2) Move faster.

We get much better at things when we do them more often.

I'm trying to find a way to produce content that is frictionless, fun, and that I can do every day.

I'm working out how to make video creation a habit - how to incorporate it into my every day, and not make a big deal of it (like needing to set up tripods, lighting, green screens, create scripts, spend hours editing, etc).

Once I nail that, it will be easy to produce a volume of work, and I won't even notice I'm doing it. Days will pass and videos will be created.

One video a day is my "goal".


Can you increase your cadence?




Thanks for following!

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 012 - Mothers Day & Lining up the ducks

 

[SmoothFranko]

Background

(This background part was added 7 days after creating the thread.)​

I post a LOT !!!

I joined the forum 20 months ago and have posted over 2,000 times. That's a lot of posting!

A few months ago I even tried to slow down the posting, thinking it was stopping me from doing "real work". Lol... that didn't last more than a week.

I can't stop myself.

I read comments or questions and stories pop into my head. Often I start with a quick response, and end up writing a chapter in a small book.

If I don't answer, it's like a bothersome little splinter in my mind until I go back and answer as best I can.
​

I PM people a lot !!!

Every time someone follows me or sends me rep, I say thanks. I think it's good manners for starters. But I've also enjoyed the little interactions.

That's over 600 PMs in 20 months.
​

It surprised me ...

To be made a moderator.

To have helped/impacted so many people.

That it mostly had nothing to do with AdWords.

(This thread here.)
​

Help more people ...

I'm starting to regularly be surprised when a new forum member likes a post from months ago and I re-read it. I mostly can't remember even writing it. I'd like to repurpose a lot of it somehow, rather than have it all scattered to the wind.

Anyway, whatever I'm doing seems to have helped people in the forum, and I wonder how many more people I can help if I start posting (somehow) outside the forum.​

Help people more ...

Three months ago @SmoothFranko left the following comment in this thread:


I've had quite a few people say I should create an "Andy's Corner", or "Andy's Talks" and just start churning out content.

Creating content and interacting just seems to be one of those things I can't NOT do.

It seems to help people - so I'm going to see what happens when I double down on it.

This was an encouraging reply from @SlowlaneJay that made me smile when I said I was considering it.


Thanks @SmoothFranko, @SlowlaneJay, and everyone else who's told me to "shut up and take my money".
​

Renaming the thread ...

I initially titled this progress thread "iPhone talking head videos", but I'd also like to document creating screencasts, creating a YouTube channel, doing live streaming (Periscope/YouTube?), and whatever else I do to get more content out of my head so it helps more people.

So "Andy Talks" will do for now. It's a bit embarrassing to put my own name in a thread title. It's not to "brand" myself. It's so people who don't want to follow this thread can avoid it. Anti-click-bait. (I vaguely feel this is something I have to get over.)

If anyone can think of something better, I'm all ears.​

My goal ...

I mention this in a later post.​

Help more people. Help people more.

I don't really know how I'll "monetize" it.

It's obviously an itch I can't scratch, so I'm going to do it anyway.

It should be either "Hell Yeah!", or "No".

So "all-in" it is.​

My god I influenced someone! that's never happened before. Good on you Andy your 'talks' are always presented in an informative and entraining way. I especially love the way you use drawings and diagrams.

 

[Andy Black]

My god I influenced someone! that's never happened before. Good on you Andy your 'talks' are always presented in an informative and entraining way. I especially love the way you use drawings and diagrams.

Lol. Yes, you did.

More flipchart drawings coming up.

 

[Andy Black]

It begins...

 

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[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 013 - The Big Vision

I wasn't going to publish this, but thought "what the heck".

It's my vision for my business.

I also finish with a thought for the day...

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 014 - Duh, I'm in Biz Dev

Hmmm... this is a bit "vloggy". I want to throw in some flip-chart videos soon. In such a way that I can edit out short clips and post to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Anyway, here's today's vlog. Snapchat was lagging on me a bit so you'll miss the first word or two for each clip. I think it's because I had too many apps open on my phone.

What a glorious spring morning it was!

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 015 - Who can you help?


Contents of video:

I regularly PM people in TFLF.

A common theme is that people don't know where to start when they create a business.

In this video, I take a morning stroll along the canal, and discuss a way to get started in business.


How the video was created:

I'm using the Snapchat app to create the video in clips of 10 seconds max. I then download the Snapchat story for the day to my camera roll.

These are MP4 files and Camtasia on my PC just can't deal with them.

I've installed Premiere Pro and had a problem with the audio and video not being in sync. A weird little workaround was to copy the MP4 file, and then change the extension from .mp4 to .mov (go figure!).

I imported the video, pulled out the 2 minutes below, then exported to a file that I uploaded to YouTube.



Progress?

I created this video on a morning walk using the Snapchat app.

I didn't create a script beforehand - I just started talking.

The post-production work was minimal.

The video is under 2 minutes.

Let me know if it makes you sea-sick!

... and if you have any other thoughts.

EDIT: The video currently isn't showing full screen on my iPhone 5s.

On YouTube, I can see a wee button to toggle full-screen, but all other videos defaulted to full screen.

I've uploaded the video to my Facebook page too, and it's showing small there too.

Now to work out how to default it to full screen...

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 016 - You don't have to be an expert

Ack, I couldn't work on how to export from Premiere Pro and upload to YouTube and Facebook so it showed full size on a mobile.

I'd rather do the editing on my mobile tbh, so downloaded free app "Splice", and used it to edit this next video. After saving to my camera roll, I uploaded to YouTube.

It should show full screen on a mobile. Result.

 

[Andy Black]

Just realised some of the videos I've already created can help people.

Dropped 4 of them in a new thread here:

• Learnings from 700+ PMs with fellow forum members

It seems to be going down well. Dunno if anyone's watched the videos yet.


(Is this a bit weird? I'm posting about posting in the forum? Haha.)

 

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[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 017 - Preparing an AdWords overview

Getting the hang of this Snapchat thing...

 

[Andy Black]

Snapchat Notes
(Originally posted here.)


I'm following and recommend these people:

1) Gary Vaynerchuk (username: garyvee)

Of course...

I prefer his DailyVee videos tbh. It's interesting to see snippets into his life though. Damn... he's a work horse, and a nice guy to boot.​

2) Joshua Van De Broek (username: joshuavdbroek)

Josh runs an Exercise Physiology clinic in Sydney. He started doing videos for this business, did well, then started doing them for other clinics. He now also has a video marketing agency.​

3) Dan Norris (username: thedannorris)

Dan Norris wrote "The 7 Day Startup" and runs WPCurve and is building a brewing company with some buddies. Great daily Snapchat stories of his business, marketing, and content marketing tips.​

4) Elia Locardi (username: elialocardi)

Elia is a professional travel photographer. I'm not even into photography, but some of his snaps are breath-taking. It's very interesting to see how he even packs his stuff into his carry on luggage. He's also the most smiley person ever. He's never not smiling in his videos.​

(I won't be following Tai thanks, and here's why.)



Personally, I'm using Snapchat as an app to create video stories. Because of it's limit of 10 seconds max per video clip, it's teaching me to deliver my lines, and not bleed straight into my next sentence. This will help when I record videos in one take, and edit afterwards.

I've not got many followers on Snapchat but I'm not worried about that.

Snapchat is just texting via pictures or quick videos. It's easier to do than writing a text to your friend. It's massive in the younger demographic. It's also fun, and the wild west (new for businesses so open to land grabs).

For me, 2016 isn't just "mobile first". It's also "video first".

I'm writing this post on my PC. It would be tough to do on my mobile.

But I have my mobile with me whereever I go. I can quickly and easily record a quick rant, answer a quick question, or just ramble to my phone.

I can then download my day's story every evening (before it disappears after 24 hours), and I've a ready made vlog, and I'm building a bank of content and b-roll that I can reuse later on.


I've managed to edit the Snapchat story that's saved to my camera roll using the free app "Splice".

I've then uploaded, still on my phone, to my YouTube channel.

I can then, still on my phone, paste the link to the YouTube video into this forum (in my AndyTalks thread), into my Facebook page, into Twitter, etc.

Really though, I should be uploading the edited video to each of those platforms, natively.



Video's the way forward lads.

Video on mobile even more so.

If you can create content via video, and make it part of your daily routine, then I think you're going to be in a good place in the future.

I'm getting stuck in.

And it's fun.



I'm also slowly realising my real job in my business is NOT to be building the AdWords campaigns - I can hire people to do that.

My real job is to get more clients for my business.

So me learning Snapchat, creating videos, producing and publishing content ... IS my job.

(I know I'm over-simplifying.)



I'm following people on Snapchat to learn from them, not for entertainment.

Make sure you're on Team Producer, not Team Consumer.​

 

[Andy Black]

[UPDATE]

Blimey... it's hectic doing client work, managing subcontractors, speaking/pitching to prospects, AND doing videos and then trying to publish on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Quite a few people have messaged me saying they've been "inspired" to take action, which is a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

I'm so pleased. That was part of the reason I publicly went for it when I didn't think I was "good enough". Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Andy Black]

Some people are asking what my Snapchat code is:


Andy Black (username: andyblack10 <-- Like Ben10, but older...)

Watch a paid search freelancer struggle to get his head round videos and social media, grow a small digital marketing agency (complete with subcontractors and troublesome clients), all whilst juggling being a dad and husband.

 

[Andy Black]

Some people are asking what my Snapchat code is:


Andy Black (username: andyblack10 <-- Like Ben10, but older...)

Watch a paid search freelancer struggle to get his head round videos and social media, grow a small digital marketing agency (complete with subcontractors and troublesome clients), all whilst juggling being a dad and husband.

Whoa... a few new people have friended me on Snapchat. But Snapchat doesn't alert me so I don't know how long they've friended me.

I also found I had a setting so that only people who were my friends could see my stories.

So I guess all these new people couldn't see my stories.

I've changed that setting.

I've also friended everyone back and will send everyone a video hello over the coming week (it's late and I need my beauty sleep!).

Thanks for following, and apologies for being a doofus. Haha.

 

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[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 018 - Talk to Everyone

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 019 - AdWords Q&A Begins

1. Is it worth being Google certified?
2. Do you create campaigns in client AdWords accounts, or in your own accounts?
3. How do you find the best keywords for your campaigns?

 

[lowtek]

#AndyTalks 019 - Q&A Begins

1. Is it worth being Google certified?
2. Do you create campaigns in client AdWords accounts, or in your own accounts?
3. How do you find the best keywords for your campaigns?

hehe, it's Lowtek silly lower case L looking like an i

thanks for posting this!

 

[Andy Black]

#AndyTalks 020 - Tell people what to do

• Get people to do what you want.
• Selling your AdWords service to clients.