EE046 – Vikram Rajan – How to get more referrals

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[00:00:00] Exceeding expectations. Episode 46.

[00:00:03] Welcome to the podcast where we try to help you find ways of amazing your client so you get better referrals more testimonials more re bookings and recommendations and all those great things. This week’s episode I speak with Vikram Rajan. He has created two great platform is one called Phone blogger and the other is VideoSocials and they’re ways that your able… I think many of us want to be producing blogging and video blogs on a much more consistent basis and sometimes it is like trying to think of content or you don’t have the time or you start but you don’t get finished and he’s devised a way of making it much easier for people who do need or who do want to be creating regular content. So that’s coming up in just a few minutes. If you do like the episode please do share it with people who you think may benefit from it leave a review for us on iTunes and some of the other podcast platforms that will be great and hope you enjoy this week’s episode with Vikram.

[00:01:08] Exceeded expectations. This week’s guest Vikram Rajan Ades and Vikram. I’m doing well Tony. How you doing. I’m very good and you’re over in the Big Apple in New York. I am right in the middle of Manhattan. There are tall buildings all around me. How long have you been in New York. Well I grew up in the suburbs of New York City Long Island.

[00:01:31] So I’ve been in New York all my life though sometimes with New York City snobbery. They don’t call you a New Yorker unless you have lived in New York City proper for a good amount of time. I don’t know if I owned that street cred yet but I’ve been here in York City in a neighbourhood called Harlem which is uptown Manhattan.

[00:01:54] I’ve been here for eight years now.

[00:01:55] So I heard a New Yorker I’m going to say you should you should be deserving that I sense as I did time city and I would’ve felt maybe you’ll get a bite opposing culture.

[00:02:05] So so Vikram you you run a couple of companies. It sounds fascinating find blogger and video so she would join to tell us about how what they do and how they sort of started it.

[00:02:16] Sure. So full blogger got started really out of necessity. Originally I was a marketing consultant and so is my co-founder working one on one with boutique professionals around our area mainly lawyers accountants consultants to some degree but mainly lawyers and quickly after working with them one on one we realized that their main challenge and main opportunity was that they get their most lucrative business through word of mouth referrals and they needed to stay top of mind with those who recommend them their past clients even current clients all the referral relationships and very often lawyers are like doctors where they recommend each other especially when they’re more and more specialized. And so they needed to really stay top of mind with their peers. And one of the simplest ways to do that has you know is through email newsletters but then came the challenge of choosing to sit down to write the articles for their newsletter and our clients Wilhelm and high would take weeks to come up with one article that would be like pulling teeth and then we say All right great.

[00:03:22] Well now it’s time for the next one and the next one. And that became even harder and harder. And so we started thinking well what if we just brainstormed article ideas with our clients over the telephone and then sort of a series of telephone interviews where they could just talk about the topic for five minutes or we could type it up into an article that could be read within five minutes. And that’s really how some blogging started where it’s really that simple. First week they record an article literally five or six minute telephone interview. Second week they read an article with us. And the reason we do that is because we learned very quickly that we need an accountability process because we would email the article to our clients. The great danger last week you can read this article about four and a half minutes so give us your thoughts and editors and we’ll run with it.

[00:04:13] D would go by literally Lisa would go hey would you like book. Two weeks ago we reported this article is really ready to go. Just want your approval on it. And then we said why don’t we hopped on the phone just we will read it together. And it became somewhat silly that I’d be sitting on the phone watching them read a Google document and make edits for that type of dare I say babysitting was required for us. As for all of us as busy professionals that make us do even the things that we know we shouldn’t do it ought to do. And so that’s really what fun Balderaz. Now we have nine people on staff and editors and it really to the eighth day interviewing as well as editing and getting approvals from our clients at that same. We tweet process remains and has been really productive when they send out an email newsletter to their circle of influence. They get referrals and introductions to speaking and speaking invitations and direct business of course.

[00:05:11] And of course we now share the articles on their late and other social media. And now if you log into linked in a little on Facebook Tony I’m sure you’ve noticed that nearly every other post are videos and so late last year. Mark my partner and I looked at each other and let’s work a lot a a lot of our clients are asking us about videos here and there they are.

[00:05:33] But by and large they aren’t. But we’d be doing them a disservice if we don’t help them start video blogging. But as soon as you put a camera on some of our clients as accomplished and as experienced as they are they start clamming up and stuttering and getting really nervous and feeling a lot of pressure as if they got to do this in one take. And heart racing and they flub up but they want to redo it and it’s like wow this is a whole lot of pressure for something that they talked about non-stop all day long and probably think about all night long. And. We go tone down the pressure and make them relax and just make it a conversation very similar to what we’re doing here on the podcast.

[00:06:17] So now we bring about eight to 10 of our clients onto a zoo video call. We each take two to three minutes to record our video blogs together. We have fun. Get it done in each other encouragement support feedback even introductions now. And it’s a really phenomenal process that we do that video socials. There is a technology component that we have that upgrades the video and it’s able to. Add their logo and contact information and professional disclaimers to the video and enables that video to be posted on their behalf on their Facebook and LinkedIn etc.. So there is a technology component that we’ve developed. But the video blogging club is really a community where our clients and our members can come to practice support and encourage each other to do video blogging together fun and.

[00:07:09] Well as I said it’s amazing. So when did fan blogger start so fun bloggers started.

[00:07:16] Kind of similar officially because it was originally a side project. It was just really a necessity and for the first couple must be demon and have a name for it and that was in 2000 and 9 9 by 2010.

[00:07:34] Well I should say rather it probably started 2009 2010. It was so full it started becoming more and more. Obvious to us as. The founders and consultants that this is the future for us but we’re both busy with one on one clients and the next step was either to hire a junior associate or partner and kind of build a professional services firm or do something a bit more scalable. And so I remember that it was September of 2011 that.

[00:08:09] The system of now will be called the Maastricht checklist was really put together. I was driving in the south of New Zealand on my honeymoon with my wife and all through the flight to New Zealand from here in New York for our honeymoon I told my wife Yeah I gotta write down all things for this master. Check this thing we’re planning phone blogger and I’d procrastinated I watched movies for her for that long flight and finally she broke up the I said Why did you dictate to me. And I essentially phone blogged the master checklist that we use as the onboarding platform for our clients. So I would say really 2011 was really when phone Blogger team in on its own where we realized by late September that we needed to really systematized things which were really scale. So far is a lot we consider for a very short question to be to really 2010. I would say it was the beginning of fun blogger.

[00:09:10] And since then how is it grown is it. Is it mostly just in the States or is it international. Unfortunately we never had.

[00:09:19] A Canadian client that’s been a dream for nine years so that I could be phone blogger international at the very least of but we’re not. No we are pretty much a coast to coast here in the United States from California to New York we’ve got clients around the country. My staff works from their home offices across. Our country. And so from that aspect we’re nationwide and so over the phone and internet. So that doesn’t really need location bases. So potentially we could be global definitely anywhere in the English speaking world and even Spanish speaking we’ve toyed with the idea that that is actually taking traction. Faster even with the video blogging because they can speak in their native language and they don’t really need us to edit.

[00:10:11] So how do you see expansion happening over the next four years. Where would you like to go.

[00:10:16] Yeah. So right now live video socials is mushrooming. We started this in February. We now have four video blogging clubs. The fifth one starting this Tuesday and maybe by the time this airs we’ll have seven or eight clubs. And. There’s a lot of potential and different avenues. Two of our members want to start their own video blogging clubs because a great way for them to stay top of mind and engage their referral relationships.

[00:10:50] Right on the video call they can really engage their fellow VIP. Right in the virtual video room. So that is another way for us to scale is to identify what we’re calling member hosts. That’s really exciting for us.

[00:11:06] We have an accounting firm that potentially will end up creating internal video blogging clubs where partners and senior associates are able to intermingle and start creating content for their library. Perhaps like firm eyes only content internal content perhaps some of it will be used for marketing or recruitment purposes. Let’s at the early stage. But that also gives us a clue of where this can go. So from a scalability standpoint we see a lot of potential growth with video socials.

[00:11:40] We expect to have over 100 members by November 2019 which means easily two to three video blogging clubs every day. If someone misses their time and their time let’s say was Mondays at 4 p.m. but they were unable to make it. Well there are probably three opportunities the next day that they could probably hop into profitable that they kind of pick our home club for their own accountability and then goes back to what I was saying prior in terms of languages.

[00:12:07] We’re toying with the idea we have one person I need to circle back with who her clients are Spanish prefer they’re predominately Spanish speaking. She’s bilingual. And most of her referral relationships are bilingual Spanish speaking some exclusively English. But that’s why they recommend her because she speaks Spanish. But for her to create a video social club around other bilingual professionals who speak Spanish or Spanish speaking clients I don’t speak Spanish so I wouldn’t go to that club because every video would be recorded in Spanish and I wouldn’t know what they’re saying. For them that would be really exciting because now they are essentially creating.

[00:12:46] A platform for them to get to know each other and get their video blogging done together and have some fun. And of course to do it in their native and preferred language. So from that aspect that could of course scale to every language. So I see a lot of exciting potential. And we are at. 0 8 at this point or week seven with video social so let us think we’re really really early on but. So much excitement and potential and growth really in just a short amount of time.

[00:13:19] Well you mentioned the Ades mostly at the moment for lawyers and accountants. I can see this. I can see so many different industries being having an appeal with this.

[00:13:29] I think so too. One of our members I mean versus who Randy she really has exceeded my expectations. She’s a long time colleague and family friend and she’s a customer service trainer. She’s an author of a book called rants and raves and her clients are mainly home service providers general contractors pest control companies HBC oil heating companies companies that are multimillion dollar companies. I just don’t know that world who I work with lawyers and accountants and so she got so excited about video social she want to create a club or her community for her world. And I had to be frank with her. I said Well I don’t even know that world. Do they blog or are they on social media. I don’t I. No offence to them. Maybe they are personally. But does it make sense for their businesses as she stopped me right there is it. Yes yes yes. They want to be blogging about how to kill a bug because you know that’s what the exterminator job is. You know you can hire me any exterminator do it. Of course they should kill the bugs but it’s all the softer stuff it’s the customer services.

[00:14:40] It’s how they greet themselves how they wear booty so that they’re not painting the carpet or they don’t leave a mess how they clean up are they using environmentally safe products. Are they safe with children at those kinds of knowledge nuggets which are very similar to any other consultant or a lawyer or accountant is what they would be blogging about.

[00:14:59] So I think you’re spot on 20 I think there’s a lot of potential beyond what I know and I expect to really work with centres of influence and other influencers to really create clubs catering to those subject matter experts to those industries or sectors.

[00:15:15] When Ades.

[00:15:18] So with your current clients. Is there room for situations where you have to cool. Especially I’m thinking more of the phone bloke now Robert in the video but I suppose it is could apply for a video social where you have to queue if someone and then for whatever reason they just can’t think of any good content to give them my days the possible things.

[00:15:37] Yes and it’s a great question.

[00:15:39] So these are all things that we learned through trial and error so we ended up putting together a tool called a blog brainstorm which anyone can use. Blog brainstorm or dot com. If anyone want to give us credit for it but it was really a calling in for us we thought we stole it from a lot of places but legally gathered it and curated from a lot of places and tailored it for our type of clients. For this reason Tony that it became like writer’s block for me to wake you up in the middle of a busy day. So he told me what you want to learn about today maybe be easy for you but your podcasts are before a lot of us because you know we have no idea. Even though we are thinking about this stuff all day long.

[00:16:22] So we had to kind of help them create topics if not titles or themes and create a content calendar so that they can know that in a year they’re probably things that repeat year after year that every spring some things happen every fall. Other things happen. End of Year topics beginning of year topics let’s put in those big rocks because we know those things are going to happen and they’re timely. Just put it in custody and forget it. We’ll deal with that in November. Around that time.

[00:16:50] But then there are the small rocks that I call that are evergreen topics. You can publish in April or May. Doesn’t really matter but let’s come up with those topics because they’re going to be important and let’s improve on those ideas. So exactly. Now my job is to really have my phone blogging clients always have four or five article ideas.

[00:17:10] Up with video social video blog ideas so that they don’t come onto the call girl being in the dark wondering what to talk about it’s quite frankly what we noticed that well was that because of procrastination and if they have a bottle of no topics they’ll put off the car. They’ll say let’s just do it later in the week or let’s just skip this we don’t have a topic. And that’s state bad bottleneck. That’s the worst thing that can happen. That’s that’s taking the domino out of. Out of the out of the line and everything grinds to a halt. And now we’ve become part of their problem. Their problem was lack of consistency and on and off blogging barely blogging. And so we need to create that infrastructure to always have topics. We take that excuse off the table. It’s a great question. Yeah that’s our engine. And of course it just goes over to video socials.

[00:18:09] And I mentioned something else that you really going to help them with. Maybe they don’t even realize this because you doing this on such a frequent basis and you’re doing so many plugs.

[00:18:19] You’re therefore getting expertise that title is which is the most important part of the plug in the first place because if the title was not interested no one’s going to click on those references.

[00:18:29] Correct. So a lot of what we do in terms of our seminars and group talks is the rules of thumb of how to craft titles. You know there’s the click Beatty type of titles you know the seven secrets or you won’t believe this. And we have to be careful because we are working with rather reserved subject matter experts who are more used to the type of titles that would be in peer reviewed journals which quite frankly are just downright boring but descriptive and maybe too long. So we have to Melinda in massage and say look. You could go this extreme if you wanted to or you could be pretty basic and descriptive which is not a word because it is at least descriptive or we can kind of bring it in the middle. Very often we’re meeting in the middle so they’re not as exciting of titles that you would see in some of the more bait type media. But nevertheless they are effective and most importantly when the topic is timely it almost doesn’t matter how catchy the title is. The top is it is extremely relevant and timely to what you’re going through right now in the United States. April 12 20 19 and our federal tax day or all tax days April 15. So right now all the accountants we work with I mean probably not right now because it’s a week before taxes or do pretty much you should have gotten your act together but for the past couple of weeks and months there are a lot of topics around tax time. And if there’s any way of. Leapfrogging or I should say a p backing is the right word piggy backing on the concept of X time is extremely relevant. We’re all thinking about it we’re all thinking about how much we’re paying in taxes or how should we should have planned and maybe should plan for next year and all those things. So these are some of our common sense once you realize what we forget or never thought about it in the first place. And of course we should be timely and we have a couple of rules of thumb like that in terms of using numerals in the titles questions for titles are great when I say numerals. I mean literally the number like symbol for three instead of writing out the words break dates or another way of using numerals. So anything indeed driven question driven are very easy on the eyes and that’s a catchy and memorable. Share with others.

[00:20:59] An unknown a similar thing I would. Are you also doing a thumbnails for the videos as well.

[00:21:05] We are starting to. Yes. So and so there are a couple of things that are going to be automated so there are two versions of thumbnails in an hour. Third that is about to come up a couple of weeks. Right now when we get give thumbnails for the videos they can either have a regular P.A. or regular still image. They can also have an animated guess a four second loop of their video which is great for email because. As most people know you can’t literally e-mail a video a newsletter et cetera. You just basically e-mailing a screenshot which links to the video on your Web site or YouTube etc. Which is fine if that’s what you want in and it is hard to have multiple animated gifs in a newsletter or else it’s really annoying and. Distracting but having one or two is ok and animated gifs are extremely eye catching because anything moving of course Brad’s our eyes. So now we’re there to be an animated gif of you talking on video with a play button. You know it is a really cool thing and we provide that. With our video socials. Tool. So from that aspect. Yes. So. Now what’s coming is what I was alluding to which may be out by the time this Parkus airs is a title bar. We found just in this couple of weeks is as. We’re kind of putting out more of our videos kind of on. Both we’re at Mass at scale. Even though people’s outfits change you don’t really know what one video is after another unless there are subtitles which is an add on but subtitles Ades manual Wasser is an add on that we do provide and subtitles are tremendous. I’ll go on the tangent of subtitles subtitles statistically improved engagement which is people watching and liking commenting sharing the video it literally doubles triples engagement because so many of us will watch videos are new because it auto plays on me on Facebook and LinkedIn and we may be on the train or bus. Work where maybe we have other things to do but we are watching videos on Facebook. Nevertheless as we’re watching it on mute. So having subtitles helps engagement. Good you hear or read what they’re saying. Then you over to Moyse who also mitigate that. Is a title bar that we’re going to automatically add a title bar for the first 30 seconds of the video. After that was kind of unnecessary in that way. Just what the title or topic is that differentiates each video.

[00:23:39] Now you know at least in the 70 words title what it is. And it goes back to your point of making sure it’s catchy and informative as as a title very similar to how we judge a book by its cover and email by its subject line. We should be judging a video by its title bar. And we will be offering that literally within the month.

[00:24:00] Before we started recording you were telling me about one of your clients Jennifer and how you helped her with her public speaking fees.

[00:24:07] It’s funny because we did not set out to help her with her public speaking that that is not we’re not a public speaking course.

[00:24:16] We ironically now call video socials the Toastmasters video blogging address. You know what Toastmasters is or you Yeah I’ve.

[00:24:24] I was a member for seven years some middle of the I did my partner oriented Toastmasters in Hawaii and I’ve been to a couple of times after that I do so but with full blogger and a firm or off with Mark my partner as well as being a phone blogger client. And it wasn’t the intent of making her an awesome public speaker but it’s an amazing process as she would that she has told others it’s only me that I feel comfortable repeating it that she has told others how it has brought her out of her shell.

[00:24:57] For her to really just do so in blogging itself and and because it’s own blog or do more networking and fun blogger has helped her with her sound bytes of networking. And now she is phenomenal in terms and in her own way you know no one needs to be the next Tony Robbins.

[00:25:16] Literally no one needs to literally copycat someone else but be authentic and genuine in her own way she’s powerful and dynamic and really exceeded our expectations and her own because it wasn’t really intense and still isn’t like it isn’t like a side benefit that I sell off Hey Linc wait there’ll be great public speaking to some degree I hoped that phone blogging would help with soundbites. It doesn’t as much as I really wanted to which unfortunately wasn’t exceeding expectation it was an expectation I was hoping for that didn’t really. But with video socials because there is a time limit where just went with an attention span of video and social media. You can’t go more than two to three minutes or else you lost them. I’m hoping the expectation is and maybe I’ll come back in a year or two and tell you if I’ve exceeded that is whether or not people are able to really hold their soundbites. But already with video socials. Jennifer is a relatively new person for video social so she’s gonna be great. Well we have other song blogger experience Susan for example who I told you about before we went. Well I think you’re on the air. She actually chose not to present a video blog on her very first video social call and we allow that you know we want people to be comfortable just so Wasser just come as a spectator and not promote themselves to the other professionals on the call. I find that a missed opportunity but no big deal. That’s what their preferences I want them to be comfortable. We see that that’s only the first and the second time with that kind of tongue in cheek forced to present. So just kind of that’s the warning so to speak and we never had to like twist anyone’s arm but you know that is the We Say it with a smile. And so she did she took a simple offer and did offers and the first time. And you know what like All right well maybe she’ll do it again and you know she’s a client but the associates are somewhat new. And she did come the next time. She was extremely prepared. Almost I would say overly prepared I believe she wrote it out because she’s extremely deliberate and thoughtful in the way she is which I think probably makes her a superb attorney. I think the amount of preparation she did for that video blog if that’s any indication for the amount of vibration she does for her clients is done would be phenomenal. And so that one wasn’t all that phenomenal to be frank because to read wasn’t all that great but by the third one where she felt more comfortable with just bullet points she wowed us. I don’t know if she wowed herself. I think she did. I think she surprised herself that she can actually do it which is shocking because we knew we could she could do it. But what really was exceeding the expectations was how phenomenal that video blog was and how it really became a template for us to all learn. And even especially me because as you can hear I can get excited and talk with you fast to really slow down and pace ourselves and be more thoughtful and deliberate with our speaking style and tone and cadence because she still is very thoughtful is only where I could say like very specific with her words where she pauses and those pregnant pauses as I know it’s called makes it captivating and a really engaging and really informative. And you take it really seriously. Way more than maybe someone like me is extremely excitable. That was absolutely phenomenal to this day and and of course we’re only a couple of weeks in has been now really a go to story of how it’s really exceeded our expectations and her own.

[00:28:58] Yeah. Coming out of her shell the.

[00:29:00] Reportedly doing in her own way and really showing that there can be a style the video blogging that isn’t this hyper staged current charisma that you would think of someone jumping up and down on stage. She her quiet storm is extremely engaging in her own way. And there’s a lot to learn there. In a similar fashion one of her colleagues at our own client Claire. Very similar story did not want to present the very first time what really exceeded expectations for all of us was at the end of the video socials call. We had time we had a couple of minutes we leave video social power forty five minutes and maybe it was at 42 minutes an hour. And the host of the call was one of our our staff interviewers. Jackie asked Claire very innocently Hey Claire just below a double check. You sure you know what to present. You know you’re off the user recording and you know you should actually go Oh no no. Immediately the other folks on the caller about seven eight hours immediately. He does a post on a really just grab as a clear just give it a try just go to Shauna you’ll be fine you’ll be great just don’t worry about it just do it. We all did it. It’s great. None of us are perfect. We almost sob into the matter if you mess up just give it a try. And she was fierce goaded peer pressured into doing it. She did she was not prepared she had no topic. Was like What am I gonna talk about there. Like just talk about who you are what you do. It’s like an elevator pitch introduction. And what that exceeded expectations either with clearing in which she was great is just to introduce herself and that’s fine. Used to doing that. The I think it exceeded everyone’s expectations on the call. How quickly people are coming together to help each other and to really create a community that’s even exceeding my own expectations. I mean that was my intention but it was really exciting for me and I think for all of our members is how quickly people are coming together and really helping each other in maybe New Yorkers get a bad rap that we’re you know we’re not as helpful but we are. And a lot of us are on the call in New Yorkers not exclusively. And from that aspect I think it exceeded player’s expectation that she didn’t expect to give a record. It’s a very basic level. She now is video blogging. But how quickly she became comfortable because of the support structure. It really is because of our members and how they really buy into the philosophy of of encouraging and support and don’t sweat the small stuff and no pressure that you don’t have to use a video recording just do it for two or three times you’ll get you know you’ll forget that there’s a camera you will hear that there’s a camera you’re trying to treat it as old hat and you’ll end up video blogging together then done so only cool you remember you mentioned it is a club.

[00:31:54] So do the starts of when the club starts. So is it a case of none of the people know each other.

[00:31:59] No no no. Over a period of time they all do know each other. So people return so very so much like a Toastmasters meeting. It’s the same core group of people.

[00:32:08] And you know I think as a group. Yeah. But what I what I mean is that at the beginning when they started research yes for the most part they don’t know each other by happenstance recommended as they you know to do other networking groups or their professional association. But by and large they don’t know each other Monday we just started a club and no one knew each other. And the extreme behaviour was extremely supportive of each other. I think it helps that everyone sees each other as seasoned professionals. No offence to kids at a college but there are no kids at a college so there are no later you know influencers who are cool on Instagram and you know they’re not community is in that sense to make other people nervous as everyone’s gone in the same boat. Everyone are seasoned professionals. And so even if they mess up it’s like well they obviously know what they’re talking about.

[00:33:00] It just didn’t you know to you know whatever. Cares. You know that.

[00:33:06] And so to getting to know each other over the course of weeks and helping kind of coach and each other I mean that’s just the intent and that’s it’s been surprising of how quickly people had that mindset. I guess we’re attracting the people with that mindset I can only assume. So the people who are feel that they’re too good for this maybe they are literally because they’re too comfortable and they don’t need this. OK. That’s. But people are attracted to this because they know they need the help and they want to be able to give the help. And I think that’s great.

[00:33:40] I mean you just say that some people would be too good for this. I can see the appeal in this even for people who are very experienced.

[00:33:48] It’s just going to be the Ades because I’m presuming to your edits in everything at the Ades and you mentioned about I didn’t know goes and all the rest of it it just makes it all so much easier for people to do on a frequent basis especially people who are busy with a million and one other thing you know at this early stage.

[00:34:04] I’m not looking to convince anyone. So it’s kind of like hey if you want to give it a try give it a try. I think as people see it and it catches on. They’ll see the other benefits. I don’t focus on the technology aspect the. Fact that as the logo and the titles and all that stuff.

[00:34:21] You know that is the technology that is very much the scalability aspect and that’s proprietary to us.

[00:34:27] But I know people know one of the lines that I say every now and then internally is that people come to record but they stay for the. And it’s the community help me that I really want to focus in on. I think that is the value you can pick up your phone and do Facebook lives with us. And yes you have the added aspect of while you don’t get a title borrowed I’ll get your logo on it. Subtitles are done for you. Sure. All these other ancillary things are I don’t think you can hire someone who you can figure it out you can do it yourself. I think it’s knowing that you could do it together and that it’s more fun doing it together. Keep up the habit. So over a period of time it’s less about the practice. It’s good enough all over the fear and hesitation. Then why stick around. And I think it’s going to be really kind of joining a writer’s club or joining a fitness class. Or having a running buddy. It’s it’s an accountability to yourself accountability to others and it’s more fun to do it as a group. You know it will get done. And of course you have an engaged audience because to have seven or eight other people who have really gotten to know like and trust you over a number of months to really be engaged in a captive audience in a very literal sense that they’re watching you and assuming you’re content to willing to share it with their circle of influence. Well that’s extremely powerful because everyone knows you go to the 300 people so eight times 300 is really the audience of the room. So that’s pretty powerful to have you know a couple of hundred people virtually if not literally right in the room. So I say it over a period of time even those who are like too cool for this will realize that there are benefits and that they themselves it’s not about them that maybe need the help but they are able to impart the insights for others and help others. And I think that would be helpful to.

[00:36:26] But what about the I mean a couple of possible problems I see for this and.

[00:36:31] Obviously you’ve thought about this but what about the audio in the lights in which are two essential parts of video. How do you how do you get it.

[00:36:40] So we’re not looking to be professional videographer. So we can’t possibly compete with that. We don’t want to compete with them. They are kind of what I use as an analogy like the tuxedo. It’s Customs state it’s ceremonial. It’s gorgeous. You’re gonna get a lot of accolades just because you’re wearing a tuxedo. But sometimes it’s out of place. It’s like wearing a tuxedo to a barbecue wearing a tuxedo to your friends dinner party where it’s like it’s almost overkill for dressed and professional videographer he has his time and place. Also very expensive. But regardless it’s worth it. It’s not really suitable for what video blogging is when it comes to like Facebook y or linked in to linked in life where literally you pick up your phone.

[00:37:26] Now to your point. You don’t want to sit in front of a glaring window or else you’ll be a silhouette effect. And that’s awful. You don’t want to be outside very often because no matter how quiet you think it is is Winyard. There’s traffic. It doesn’t really make for a good informative video. If you’re doing kind of a Facebook Lowry of a right way to lunch ok maybe. But if it’s a video blog which is why we call a video blog and you’re kind of imparting knowledge you kind of want. You don’t want the environment to be a distraction. So we say look if you’re in your office you know pick a quarter that’s not so messy. So from that aspect everything else works itself out. You’ve got to look professional you’re in a professional environment. The lighting is going to be fine so long as you know the window is facing you by and large you’re not sitting in front of it as you are sitting in front of it and put down the curtain or the drapes or or the blinds and diffuse the sunlight and then it’s fine. What’s amazing nowadays we all have HD cameras on our laptops and zoom is a great platform and there are other great platforms to there we’re exploring. But it’s really the HD camera technology of our laptops and our iPads nowadays that really take into account any kind of poor lighting etc.. So so long as they look the way they want to look for appliance the lighting is going to be fine and their sound is fine. So unless they’re in a quiet environment and we do remind them to turn off their phones or put it on mute not vibrate because even vibrate makes sound very similar to people who wore jewellery or or Vissa chains on this podcast it makes noise and it’s distracting. Yeah it was a little thing but those things kind of work itself out after maybe one or two times. First time they do it we don’t stress out just about it. They realize when they’re recording that map right behind me is a real mess. It looks awful. OK well do we use that you know or or make fun of it. Get over it depending on the personality. And people can laugh at themselves more easily. All right. Whenever I’m in the office because I’m really busy it just move forward really cares unless it’s unsanitary. So I just I found so good question though.

[00:39:37] I mean I got so many more questions I would love to answer but we just we run that over time. So before we finish what are your general thoughts about exceeding expectations and I’ll be delivering.

[00:39:48] You know there’s a saying right under promise over deliver and bottom line is you know the secret to all type of business success I feel comes down to raving fans. And the more you can have raving fans who are not even necessarily our customers and clients though it’s even better when they’re paying us and being raving fans exceeding expectations is the way to create eating fads. When you have raving fans are going out there they’re raving about you to others they’re basically doing the selling for you. A way that you can’t get away with. Their enthusiasm is genuine. Well we’re enthusiasts enthusiastic about our business is good. It’s good to be passionate and passionate but there’s always that look at the end of the day I’m a sales guy.

[00:40:35] I want people to join video social so fortunate. But when a number of does it it’s generally it don’t get anything out of it. You know maybe they get a feedback from there but that’s about it. You know they do it really out of genuine concern for others. And that comes by a the expectation even when they’re not by. And you know there will never be clients or members at our Cates. I want everyone to get video social to try. Even when I know they’re not way where they don’t really need this for legitimate reasons. And maybe they’ll find value and I rather than buy rather than we sell. And if I can over deliver and exceed their expectations I’m literally impressing that it’s impressed on them. And that’s literally what branding is from an old Wild West aspect of the US of branding irons and I guess every country is branding irons branding irons all on livestock where you’re literally synching an animal. Same thing you’re synching the brain by impressing on someone and that’s really what happens when we exceed expectations because if we just meet expectations well there’s nothing to brain about something is not remarkable. All right. That they did what they’re supposed to. Well while unfortunate a lot of people don’t. So sometimes it’s a little bit memorable. But then I go out of their way to rave about it because of what you did. We supposed to which means you have integrity. You’re supposed to have integrity. But when you do things that were unexpected and exceeded the value I think that’s tremendous. And that is really literally our goal with some and now with video socials is we we have grown because of our raving fans.

[00:42:15] And I’m thankful for it. You’ve I think you’ve waited the appetite of a number of people listening to this episode so if they want to find out more and watch some of these videos and so on we should know.

[00:42:27] Yes of course it could go to WDW does stone blogger and dot net.

[00:42:31] They could see our clients there we have a cycle recommended author is where you can really read blogs of all of our clients really see examples of titles and and how wild should be formatted to be catchy and search friendly. If you go rid of video socials dot now do really get to know that community was shooting an email the 8-K at phone blogger dot net ask me any question that really open to do a lot of podcasts seminars.

[00:42:56] Well happy to answer any questions and of course many listeners. Time Zone in media to video socials club. You don’t have to present the first time but you will have to present the second time a lot of fun to do it together.

[00:43:10] Really really enjoyed talking to you. Thank you for the great information you supplied and I’m well best of luck. I don’t think you going to need much luck. It sounds to me this is going to really take off.

[00:43:19] Yeah I think you’re sitting on a goldmine we do the next year and I can give an update and tell you more stories about we’re exceeding expectations.

[00:43:29] I mean how would you to that. Thank you Vikram. Thanks Alex. Next week is episode 47 and I speak with Bill Balderaz who. But would you imagine a data analytics company would be able to exceed your expectations anyway because we’re going to find out exactly how they serve their clients and get their clients to give them amazing endorsements and all day employees they stay for a long time as they don’t have much turnover in staff and they’d be is one of the best places to work and nearly all of the business they gaze from referrals so we’re gonna find out exactly how Bill goes about that in next week’s episode of exceeding expectations. Hope you have a fantastic week please do share the episode deliver us a review that would be fantastic.

[00:44:19] Thank you.