It was a gorgeous spring day: green grass, the scent of flowers wafting in the breeze.
Unfortunately, the pressure was on. All of my co-workers were there, watching; ready to cheer those who did well and jeer those who didn’t.
Now it was my turn. I got ready.
I was nervous. While this wasn’t my first time, I was no good at this, and the chance of failure was astronomical. I had told them so, but had been informed in no uncertain terms that this was a required “team-building” activity in which everyone must participate.
Well here goes nothing…
I gulped.
And hit the golf ball about 15 feet, at a 45 degree angle to where it should have gone! I can still hear their laughter today.
As the years have passed, I’ve gotten better. But I still pride myself in being able to hit a ball as many times in 9 holes as my friends hit in 18!
Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience. Most things are hard. But the more you do them, the easier they become.
That’s the paradox of difficult things, best represented in this quotation I’ve heard many times in my life:
It’s obvious how this applies to your life and business. But I’d like to focus on one specific example.
Creating Video
Creating video seems like an incredibly difficult thing to do. There’s the camera, the lights, the microphone
Not to mention what you’re going to say.
So, in spite of the fact that we know that video is probably the best tool we can use to increase sales online (didn’t know that? It’s true) we don’t do it.
And we leave money on the table, day after day, just because we’re unwilling to do the hard thing.
May I give you a simple suggestion?
Pull out your smartphone or boot up your webcam right now. Don’t think about anything, simply turn it on, point it at yourself, press record on the video camera and follow this script:
Hi, I’m _[Your name]____________ of _[Your URL or company]_____________________.
One of the most frequently asked questions I receive about ____[your area of expertise]______ is ___[state the question]________.
The answer is _____[State the answer]______________
If you’d like to know more about what we offer, please visit ____[Your URL]___________
Thank you!
That’s it. Go ahead and do it, I’ll wait.
Did you do it? Well, just do it!
There, now that you’ve done it, can you see how easy it is?
You didn’t need a script, fancy lighting, makeup, music, anything. But you created a video, with great information that your future customer wants to know!
Now, all you have to do is to do it again, so you’re totally satisfied, and you’ve got your first video!
But what happens if you make a mistake?
Easy, just start over and do it again! That way you don’t even have to do any editing!
Yes, it really IS that easy.
And, look back at our quotation: The more you persist in doing video, the easier it will become, until it becomes second nature to whip out your cell phone, your tablet or your webcam and record videos virtually every day!
How did your first video experience go? Let me know by leaving a comment below. And don’t forget to +1, like, share, pin and tweet this post!