This is and always will be the best way to demonstrate your expertise

I was talking with this dude in my comments earlier and he brought up the oft-mentioned concern about talking videos being “off-brand.”

Common Objections

How when you have a certain brand aesthetic, posting a random video of you talking messes it up and effects the viewers perception.

You have nothing to lose

Maybe. 🤷🏻‍♂️ The first thing I’d say is that if your brand isn’t making you money, you have nothing to lose.

The cool thing about using the #randomtalkingvideo hashtag is that it has a built-in “explanation.” It addresses the elephant in the room. It’s a random video of you talking. The viewers can even tap it and see it’s a meme-like thing people do.

About your face

But beyond that, how is the creator of the brand’s face “off-brand?”

I mean if you’re concerned about your face being busted, and people not wanting to look at it — well, it’s the only one you got so you may as well just get it over with.

It’s not hard to make talking videos look good [enough].

Put some light on your face - ideally from a large window directly in front of you.

If you’re self-conscious about how you look - try not to have light coming directly down from overhead.

Hold the phone so the lens is lined up with your eye brows. Minimize the of space between the top of your head and the top of the frame.

Put some plants or some shit behind you. It’s cool when there’s enough space behind you to give the shot some depth. New phone cameras do nice things with depth-of-field.

Or you can be in front of your desk. Or your studio. Or in your parked car. (just remember to hold the phone higher than you want. If someone sees you doing it in the Whole Foods parking lot, keep going. They have other things to worry about.)

Outside is great. Especially when the sun isn’t directly overhead. Cloudy days are 👌🏼 It’s cool for people to see what’s going on around you.

Checkout the VSCO app. It has a bunch of really subtle filters that you can use to give your videos a “look” without looking like a strange teenage cartoon character with perfect skin.

Then when you press record, just try to be as honest as you can be about whatever you’re talking about. The best way is typically to frame the whole thing in a “story” where you’re the character:

I remember when..

I just got home from training my last client and this happened…

I saw this post on instagram and I felt…

I’ve been seeing people make these random talking videos and I decided to try it because I felt

I was just in Whole Foods and when I was checking out I noticed…

Then just write an honest caption of 2 sentences to 2 paragraphs.

People will 100% Unfollow you every time you post one. Faces and unpolished thoughts have this effect, but remember The Unfollowed Mantra: “they were never going to give me money anyway.”