Justin Booth | How To Create Memorable Videos

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Joel Harris: Hello, this is Joel Mark Harris, and we are on the publishing for profit podcast. Today we talked to a very special guest, Justin Booth of doc visual media. He runs a film production company that specializes in creating videos for small businesses. So today we talk a lot about how small businesses can leverage film.

And videos to boost their marketing and boost your branding. Justin also has another side of the business, where he creates these legacy videos for families back casher, families histories. so that is also a really interesting conversation that we dive into. and it was a great conversation. So hopefully you enjoy.

Hello, Justin, and welcome to the publishing for profit podcast. How’s it going today?

Justin Booth: Perfectly

Joel Harris: good. so Justin is owner of a production company, a film company called doc visual media. So you’ve been doing film for a long, long time. Can you tell me, you know, cause you know, I love film of, you know, be doing a film for a long time as well.

So I’m excited to talk a little bit about kind of the ins and outs of filmmaking, but can you tell me where, you know, your passion for filmmaking came

Justin Booth: from? Yeah, it was from my, my grandfather and my dad. my grandfather had an old Panasonic camcorder and it was like. It was, it had the handle and it sat on his shoulder, and then he had like a bag.

It hung off of his other shoulder, and inside that bag was a VHS tape and the wire was running from the camera down to the bag and recording the video onto that. And so he would sit up. Tripod at the end of like the Christmas dinner table, and he’d record a three hour long dinner of all and just a stationary shot if everyone’s sitting eating dinner, or he’d pull it out at different family events and vacations.

And dad was the same way. He had a little camcorder that he bought and we all played with and use. So that was where I, like, I started playing with video and film and, you know, making the little movies with my cousins and friends. And then as I got older and like high school, we did the same thing. We made music videos on the weekends and then edited them in camera because there was some one camera we had, I remember what it was, but you could add titles in camera.

And so we would make, yeah, I mean, we, we’d beg our teachers to let us make school assignments with video and we, so I kind of always played around with it. And then, yeah. And then it was always just into movies and film and what it. What it did. what it made you feel is really what it comes down to. It made you feel things, all sorts of things.

And, I always thought that was amazing how powerful that was.

Joel Harris: Did your dad forced you into watching all those, reruns again of your family dinners?

Justin Booth: No, but I did eventually. And then when digital video. Technology came along, I actually digitized all those tapes and then edited them into like vacation videos with music and titles and all that.

That was sort of one of the ways I cut my teeth on digital was editing those old videos that had been sitting unwatched for a years. And again, that was another like powerful experience was pulling all of those out and digitizing them and you know, editing them into a. A movie and then showing them to my family and, and that was were amazing experiences.

But no, I never fought it. No, it was always, my dad was always like, he was always the director behind the camera. When I was, you would remind me not to pan. And when we were watching footage that I’ve shot, he would tell you, zoom didn’t have to zoom there. Zoom too much. You don’t have to zoom.

He was a. I guess I’m mentor of sorts, but, yeah.

Joel Harris: What sort of, music videos did you, did you make

Justin Booth: these, the boys was the one, I remember my sabotage where we, a friend of ours had an old, an old car Devaa similar to the one in the. In the video that the Beastie boys actually made, and we kind of copied the costumes and went and shot it all behind the mall and show a lack and had people rolling over the hood.

Yeah, it was. It was great. I did that one. I remember we did a video book report on Macbeth. We had asked him about 15 people in that I shot it over in a few days. And we record a lot of slam dunk contests too, and, in the front driveway and would go and watch those back, at the end of the day.

Joel Harris: Yeah. I, that’s funny cause I, my brother had this band and I would do the same thing. I would record, him performing and make these music videos. That’s awesome. Pretty cool. awesome. So fast forward, w was film always something you wanted to pursue professionally?

Justin Booth: Not really, no. I was always think I was always, I always wanted to do something creative with my career.

I thought that was going to take me down the path of. A marketing and advertising. I was going to work at a, at an agency. that was sort of my dream job. it was to work in advertising and create ads and, but then a digital video came along and changed a lot. And so suddenly you could, you know, we looked at those old music videos that we made and realize, wow, if we had this stuff.

We could have made, we could have made it just like the Beastie boys we could have. So when we realized that we, being my friend, my original business partner and I, He actually approached me with it and said, Hey, look, this year is coming out where we can make movies on our desktop at home, everything.

What do you think? I just like, yeah, let’s, let’s give it a shot. And we bought a. We bought a Canon XL one, which is a standard definition, mini DV camera and the first iMac and the first version of final cut pro editing software. And we, he went to work and call ourselves a production company and started beating the bushes for companies that wanted to make anything.

Cause that was the one thing we realized right off the bat was like. Yeah, well like we could make film and, and movies and stuff, but the quickest, the quicker way to realizing some financial  return was to work with businesses because suddenly businesses could make movies about themselves for way, way, way cheaper than ever before.

And that to us was slow. That’s really interesting. And that was before Facebook and YouTube even existed. It was. DVD was like you were making videos and then you’re putting them on DVD is, and then the customer was putting the DVD in, a DVD player out there business and playing it on a probably a tube TV, like not even a flat screen.

But nonetheless, it was like, this is a real opportunity for like, how cool would that be for a video, for a company to have a video in their trade show booth at a trade show. They’d be the only one or a TV in their shop showing, you know, how their products were made. Like, at the time was super cool.

And so, yeah, we started going out and pitching it to businesses and making little videos and TV commercials. Not TV commercials, but you know, in house. Private network commercials for them.

Joel Harris: What were some of your first customers?

Justin Booth: monk McQueen’s restaurant, I think was our very first one. I was working there as a valet parking cars.

I had graduated university, started up this company with a friend of mine and resisted going and getting a real job. And so I went and parked cars at night so that he and I could. You know, work on our company during the day, but I ended up, yeah. Convincing the owners of monk and Queens to allow us to make a TV commercial for them.

Okay. Which they ran on, what are they? I don’t think they can write about TV, but they ran it on like the hotel in room

Joel Harris: networks.

Justin Booth: So that was the very first one that I remember. Yeah.  I’d have to reach back and remember what was next after that, but that one sticks out as the first paying gateway. We did.

Cool.

Joel Harris: Yeah. you’ve told me about some really cool, like. You were talking about legacy before with your own family, and I know you, you’ve talked about that for other families. and I know you’ve done a lot of cool, storytelling, a lot of cool projects. Can you tell me a little bit about, some of the more interesting ones that you’ve done over the years?

Justin Booth: Yeah. We had a great contract with, with BC tourism for awhile. It was before the Olympics here in Vancouver. And so the tourism, organizations were looking to promote the area in advance of the Olympics. And one of the strategies was to have a pavilion at the, I think it was at the Beijing summer Olympics.

I think that was the one before ours. And so they wanted to take footage, their videos, their, to play in the pavilion of pretty much as many communities in our provinces, they as they could. And so they sent myself and my business partners and a few other crews, all over the province to play tourist in our backyard.

And so we went. Northeast Southwest on river rafting trips, well, watching fishing’s skiing, helicopter rides, like everything you can imagine. We were well getting to go and do this stuff with a camera in hand. So that was a really fun on that. Lasted for a couple of years and then afterwards we had good relationships with the people at tourism and in particular up in Northern BC.

And so we continued doing work with them and those were always fun cause yeah. Like we got to play tourists and then, and the capture on video and make these really exciting videos afterwards. That was, that was a good one. A really good one. the, the legacy project you mentioned is really interesting cause that’s, that’s where like the filmmaking part really comes in for me because living legacy is a.

It’s a living legacy. Doc dot.com it’s family documentary. So, you know, grandpa, grandma, mom and dad, you know, as they reached the outside of there, they’re experienced. Your honor. we want to record their lives on, on film. We want to hear their stories in their words. And so one of the things we work with families to do is record their stories, but then make a documentary film.

Using video and photo that the family has in their own personal archives, and we build a 1520 minute film about this person’s life. And those are really cool because then, yeah, you get into real filmmaking when you’re telling the story of someone’s life and interest versus photography and, and video footage to.

You know, enhance what they’re talking about. Like, you know, when you have them telling a story from their past and you actually have images of these places they’re talking about, it’s a, it’s really powerful for the family to see. so those ones, and notably, I, I’m working now on, on the film for Mel’s age, Jack and Mel’s age.

Jack is a philanthropist here in the Vancouver area who has this age. Jack ranch for kids, operates that emission. And he’s had an amazing life from, you know. Building, you know, apartment blocks in the West end of Vancouver too. Yeah. Now running this camp for kids. So, that’s, those are always fun to work on cause I get to really play with the storytelling part of it.

And then some other interesting projects I’ve worked on, Every one of them, like they’re all really, that’s part of what I like about what I do is every video I do, I get to sort of peek behind the curtain in someone’s business and see how it works and, and figure out a way to tell that story to someone in an interesting way.

So, I, there have been very, I think there’s probably, I could probably more easily pick out the ones I didn’t like cause they’re, they’re the ones, there aren’t many of them. Mm. I’ve always, that’s one of the things I’m always like to, my job is always, it’s always something different.

Joel Harris: yeah. And, so for the Zajack Jack, project, you, you interviewed, Jimmy Patterson?

I believe. So. Can you tell us about that?

Justin Booth: Yeah, it was cool. So Jimmy and and Mel were, there were acquaintances back in the day. They were, they weren’t like buddies, but you know, they were both successful in business. They were both around the same age. And so they knew, they knew of each other. they were friendly.

and funnily enough, that when, when Jimmy was approached and asked to say some things on camera about Mel and what he remembers about Malhi. He didn’t hesitate. So yeah, I went just myself and a camera and microphone, and I sat, it was mr Paddison in his office in the Shaw tower and the waterfront and Vancouver there.

And, yeah, he mean, he gave me about 45 minutes of his time to sit and just shoot the breeze, really about Mel’s age Jack and the things he remembers and the things he admires about him. And, and then towards the end of it, I had prearranged for Mel to. To come up and actually, you know, say hello to Jimmy, and, and and so he did that on a cat, captured that on film.

But. It was cool to see. But the really cool thing at the end of it was I turned the cameras off and those two guys chit chat a few more minutes. And then Jimmy actually walked Mel back down to his car. I took the elevator down with him and walked him out to the curb, walked him to his car and say goodbye.

Personally, I wasn’t there to see that, but that was a, that was a pretty cool home cause yeah, mr Paddison is pretty revered around our parts for. The success he’s had in business. I found them to be really friendly, really down to earth. The first thing he said to me was telling me something about yourself.

We sat and talked about me for 10 minutes, which kind of caught me off guard. So did you tell them? I didn’t really know. I wasn’t expecting, I wasn’t expecting it so. I was just like, well, I live in Sheila whack, and he’s like, Oh, Chilliwack. I lived in, Sheila lacks, we talked about Chillowak for a little bit.

You were up there for like a few years in his early life. yeah, I didn’t, I asked him if he wanted to make a video about his life.

Joel Harris: For, for those who don’t know, just that, to put some contacts into this. So Jimmy Patterson is billionaire lives in Vancouver. I think he’s like, what, the fourth or fifth richest person in Canada owns a whole bunch of businesses.

you know, very successful. Started as a, as a used car salesman. And yeah, it just kind of grew his business from there. So I mean, that was, that was pretty cool. Yeah. I don’t know what I would tell him. It seems kind of pale into comparison to whatever he’s done, so,

Justin Booth: yeah, exactly. Yeah. I thought, what am I going to tell you?

and this man is in his nineties to yet, and remember.

Joel Harris: Yeah.

Justin Booth: Is he still getting strong? Oh, God. He’s not worked earlier in the morning than you and I are. No, sir. Personally, I think he said he gets to the office at 6:00 AM.

Joel Harris: Wow. That’s pretty amazing.

Justin Booth: Yeah. Oh yeah. He’s still putting in full days and still putting together big business deals and, yeah, it was a, I’ve, I felt pretty lucky to have had an hour to talk to him and, hopefully some luck rubbed off on me somewhere along the way.

Joel Harris: Yeah. so for somebody who is listening to this and, and thinks this legacy project is a good fit for them or wants to get started, can you walk us through the process, and what, what they can expect.

Justin Booth: Yeah. Yeah. So it really starts with discovery, right? You, you, you know, you tell us a little bit about who this person is and

what their life’s been like, the things they’ve accomplished, the, you know, the, the, the milestones of their life.

So when we start, we get a, a very, you know, broad picture of. Of who this person is and what the story is going to be. and then we, we start collecting materials. So we get the families start collecting photography and video, and in whatever format it is, because we have the ability to digitize anything.

So sometimes we’ll get tapes, sometimes we’ll get this, sometimes we’ll get photo albums. No matter what it is, we convert it all to digital. we work with a professional company that does that and treats it all like gold. because, you know, we realize how important these things are. and then, and then we do a little bit of a deeper dive with the, with the individual.

About their life and about the points that they want to talk about. and once we’ve got a pretty clear framework of the story, we wanna tell, we sit down and have any, that’s when we pull the cameras out. You know, after we’re prepared, we, we sit down and we pull the cameras out and we do an interview.

Okay. We talked about, you know, the things we’ve identified that are important to them. And. We’ll look at photographs together with them and have them recall stories of particular pictures and moments in their life. And then once that’s captured, sometimes we’ll also get some footage of the family together.

We’ll arrange some time together at a place that’s important to the family maybe and get some B roll footage of. You know, the individual that we’re featuring and their family together, and then we edit it altogether and we edit it in the same style as you might see, like a Ken burns documentary. Not that I’m comparing this team at all, but that type of style, lots of photographs, lots of evocative imagery from the past.

and we, we really do want it to have. A high end look and feel. so that this person, this person’s life, so then it seems special. And, and it is, everyone’s story is special. And that’s, that’s sort of why we take a little extra care and making these, a high quality product because, yeah, the seniors in our lives.

I th my praise, my personal feeling is I, they, they don’t always get the, the love and the attention and the adoration that they deserve. and everyone’s, I think everyone’s aware of that phenomenon, whether it’s happening in your own family or families, you know, and this is a way to let that person know that.

You know, we really, really care about you and we care about the life you’ve lived and we want to honor that life. You’ve lived there. Really key part of it though, is you get to explore this person’s life with them while they’re here, and too often these Memorial videos are put together after the fact.

And so we think the power of being able to listen to your grandfather or your father, his story in his own words, and then sit there with him and talk about that life is a really powerful experience. And so that’s what we’re trying to recreate for people is, you know, the ability to connect with their loved ones in a way that’s meaningful for everyone.

Unless that person know how, how valued and treasured they are. Cool.

Joel Harris: That’s, yeah, I think, I think you’re right that we don’t treasure . Treasure the seniors enough in our society. I think that, with what’s happening with, coven 19, with, you know, the, a lot of senior care centers are, kind of hot spots for the, the virus and the disease.

I’ve read a couple articles about how, we have not been doing a good enough job with the senior care centers. And we’ve, you know, as a society, we have, not been doing a very good job of, of taking care of them. So I think, if anything that, yeah, it comes out of this virus, hopefully it’s going to be that we know that the, the, The lives of, you know, our grandparents are very important and I’m very special and, and hopefully that we will, recognize that. And I think that these videos are a part of that. And it seems like, you know, doing that will also enhance, you know, like you said, enhance the whole experience of, of, you know, of your father or your grandfather, whoever it is, of people who’ve come before you.

Justin Booth: Yeah, I mean, yeah, that’s, that’s the hope. And we’re all doing what we’re doing now, you know, staying home, really to protect them, to protect the most vulnerable people in our society, the most immunocompromised people in our society. And that, you know, happens to be. Yeah. The senior citizens are our mothers and our fathers and our grandparents.

And so that hasn’t been driven home already, that, you know. You know, we’re  that we really do value their lives. I think that is being driven home right now, and that’s the reason why I’m staying on SMEs and we didn’t go visit my parents at spring break was, you know, I love them too much to risk, to risk their safety.

So, yeah, we’re gonna all come out of this and I hope with, a real appreciation for the ones that we love in our lives. And. I know I’m for one, I’m going to be working harder to spend more time with them. Okay.

Joel Harris: Yeah. all right. So switching gears a little bit, I mean, we’ve talked a little bit about technology, about how far, you know, cameras, camcorders, have come.

I guess since, you were growing up. How do you see the future of, like basically what you do film productions, and, and video.

Justin Booth: yeah, it’s, we all have video cameras in our pockets, and I think, I think as time goes on, more people will start flicking their thumb. I’m turning the video camera on and capturing, capturing more video.

So I think the amount of video captured is only going to increase as people. Started using it more and more and more and more. I think people that use it often now and look back on the videos they record, whether it’s just their family or whatever it is. I’ve, those memories are richer and fuller.

When you can see in here the people in those pictures moving and talking. when you look at those images 10, 15, 20 years from now, those memories will flood back with more impact and more power and be more meaningful.

Joel Harris: For .

Justin Booth: Yeah. Is this point of view? I think it’s only the same thing. It’s only going to increase, and I, I, because the, the, the ability to distribute is only increasing, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, tic, talk, Snapchat.

All of those are video platforms.

Joel Harris: Have you, have you played around with tech talk

Justin Booth: at all? Okay. Are you baiting me too? Yes, I have Joel . What have you found with ? I have found that word spreads quickly. You when you’re in a tick tog video dressed up as a rapper pretending to rap with. So my daughter loves stick dog and we’re allowing her to use it in a limited way.

and she wrote me into making one the other day. and I heard it from a friend in Australia who was like, . It was hilarious.

Joel Harris: you have to send me that video.

Justin Booth: I’m sure I’ll be in more. But yeah, I mean, these, there’s so many ways to distribute video now. and then on top of that, there’s so many ways to target.

Audiences for businesses to get their business. This mass. I really want to buy their stuff. that power is only growing, and so I see. And then so, so that, so the ability to reach people. More accurately combined with the power of video, which again, it moves. It makes noise. It is like really videos, just big flat.

It’s flashing movie lights with sound and your, your body, your eyes, your body. You can’t resist it. You can’t. You have to look, you just have to. So that’s the power of video is it gets attention. It draws people in. So when you combine that power with a really, really specific, targeted strategic message, and you can put that strategic targeted message in front of the person it’s intended for, you have a very powerful tool for business.

To coerce people into working with you, and not in any sort of like sneaky way, but in a way that really is appealing to their, their pain points, to their, their legs, their dislikes, the things they want solutions for. so I see that power only increasing as the power of distribution increases and as the sophistication, and, And targeting and, and, you know, both the ability to target and the people that are doing the targeting, as the sophistication of both of those increased. there’s, yeah, a huge opportunity for businesses still because by and large, the vast majority of businesses aren’t using video at all. And so in some industries, like the trades is one that I think of often, somebody who, who’ve got a video program going to promote their business.

in a unique entertaining, educational way, what Kayla  would kill it. do

Joel Harris: you see businesses? Doing more video. By themselves or do they still need your help to produce

Justin Booth: that film? They should do it by themselves, Joel, because they have a camera in their pocket. So there’s, there’s two things there.

There’s always going to be a need for highly produced, really slick, professional looking video imagery for your business, whether it’s video photography, copywriting, right. All those things are better when you engage professionals to do it, and depending on what your message is, yeah, you will probably be better served to have her professional work on it for you.

But the way these algorithms work on the V on the platforms we’re talking about Facebook, YouTube, and so on, they reward you in part for creating more content. Then the next guy, right. So stands to reason that if you want to produce more video and you’re a small business, you’re probably not going to be able to afford to hire someone to do it all the time.

Therefore, yeah, pull your video, camera your pocket, and figure out some ways to make content on your own. And when I say figure it out, I don’t mean like I, I, I do that for my clients all the time. I help them conceptualize and execute videos that they make on their own. but yeah, I think it’s an integral part of the mix for small businesses to market.

you have your. You know, your foundational evergreen content that is professionally produced, that represents your brand and a very high way, high level, and then you have your sort of daily content that you’re producing on your own that has its own place, right? People love behind the scenes content where they get to see, you know, a little bit of your day as a whatever you are a, that stuff is great.

That stuff is marketing. even if there’s not, an overt marketing message in it, or a call to action, that’s still Mark’s called content marketing, where you are just out there in front of people repetitively having there in your name come up in their head. And that’s okay. That is advertising as I see it.

That’s always been where traditional advertising’s power laid was in repetition. Because in newspaper and television and radio, there is no way to target, not in any way that’s meaningful or rivals anything that’s available with our, the social media platforms. Yes, you can advertise on a particular radio station and you knowing you’re going to hit, you know, white males if you’re list.

You know, another demographic, if you’re lifting it, listening to soft listening, soft, whatever, easy listening music and different publications will give you access to different types of audiences. But really they’re all, they all rely on what I think is repetition. You know, just getting that message in front of an audience over and over and over again until.

You know, they need what you’re selling or they’ve seen it enough that they decided to, to give it a try and switch switch from whatever brand they’re using now.

Joel Harris: I think familiar familiarity is also a big thing. When they actually see, you know, your face and they, they, you know, they feel that they know you a little bit. I think that also definitely helps, you know, and there’s also that old adage, I think, you know, it takes. Five touchpoints or something, five, eight touch points, before they’ll actually make a purchase.

Right. So I think that’s, that’s a very old marketing, I guess philosophy that still holds true, obviously today.

Justin Booth: yeah, it’s laid out differently now though, because. Pardon me. Cause you can be far more strategic and you can, you can, instead of just creating one radio ad or one TV ad that you just play over and over again, you can create different pieces of content.

Now, whether it’s with video or a combination of video and photography and writing, you can put together a journey for a customer. And if you dig deep enough with, with the client and find out. What their customer journey already is. You can, you can recreate that for them. You know, like what you said, like part of the customer journey in any business is getting to know the people within the business and feeling like you have some sort of common value with them.

Right? And that’s the power of a video is you can, you can record messages with employees and our owners, with customers, and, and help a potential customer really get a feel for the type of person you are, which is, yeah, that’s an important factor. And then deciding to do business with you in addition to, you know, knowing that you’re an expert in what you’re selling and that the quality of the product you’re selling is good.

They also want to know that you’re a good person and that they can have a beer with you. Or they could have a, you know, have a cup of coffee with you because let’s face it, not everyone works together. So, I think that’s an important part of the customer journey. The video really, really lets you accomplish is, is, is, is letting a potential customer get to know who you are on a more personal level.

Joel Harris: So for a business that is listening and say, okay, I want to try it. I know it’s, you know, especially it’s important now where we are limited with the actual, like face to face interactions. I think video is, is, you know, a million times more important. so. How you mentioned behind the scenes, is there any way, any other thing that a business can do, where they can just get started and how should they think about it?

Justin Booth: It’s right in front of us. Zoom or something like it. This is an easy way to record a conversation with someone who has just done business with you. And I had a great experience and business owners can reach out to those people and say, Hey, would you mind? Would you mind providing a testimonial for me about the experience you had with my business?

Would you mind jumping on a zoom call with me for five minutes? And I’m going to ask you three questions and I’d just like you to tell me you know what your problem was before we met. How I help solve your problem and what the experience was like working with me or some variation of that, and you can record that and you can have a customer testimonial finished, ready to upload to all your social media channels in less than 10 minutes because the file that this software spits out the other end, once we’re finished this conversation.

I don’t have to do anything to it. I don’t have to edit it if I don’t want to, I can upload it right to social media and the power of a customer testimonial. I, even though it’s the easiest thing to do and it makes, it makes me virtually no money as a business. It’s the most powerful sometimes because as someone who’s potentially going to do business with someone, why do I want to take their word for it?

That they’re great to work with. I’d rather take someone’s word for this done that has worked with them, who will give me an impartial , an impartial, impression of what it was like. Okay. And they’re all there. The word authentic is like overused right now, but they are, they’re authentic. Like that’s a real customer telling you about are real experience.

And people on the other end of the camera can sense that. They know that it’s not a coach or a, you know, it’s, it’s a real person talking about their real issues. I think that’s one great way for people to to start is to either use technology like this or ask that person if they can record testimonial on their phone.

It’s not a cold, big cough. Another way I think is. Yeah. If your business has a unique process that customers don’t typically get to see, you know, I think of your business, you know, the, the brainstorming sessions that you and your crew have. Some times I’m an auto body shop. You know what goes on back there.

I don’t know what goes on a screen printing shop guy that makes tee shirts and puts logos on G shirts. How does that happen? That’s, I’m curious to see that and this so guy, no. If I was getting ready to buy 10,000 tee shirts and some guy that owns a print shop, put a video up of, Oh, here’s me putting out, pumping out 20,000 tee shirts, and you don’t have to explain the whole process to me, but it’d be fascinating for me to see some of the machinery at work and hear this person talk about it.

And through that experience of watching that video, I’m going to be left with an impression of that person. And their business. And you know, that’s a I, so that’s another good way for people to get started is to, you know, think about, well, what does my customer not see in my business that they might be interested to see?

those are a couple of things,

Joel Harris: I think. Yeah, you, I think you really hit the nail on the head there because. A lot of businesses, I think they struggle with, what do I film? What are I, what I talk about? and for me, there’s always something fascinating about each business. you know, even like a pink company, for example, you would think that it’s just, you know, people rolling paint on, but there’s so much that goes into, Deciding what sort of paint to use, what the paint actually does. Does it, you know, how does it protect the, the, you know, the wall or whatever? And I think the people who are in those businesses, they cause they deal with it every single day. They don’t see the value or they don’t see the interest.

And I think that’s where you can come in and you say, Hey, wait a sec. You know how, like how does this actually work? Like why do you do it this way? And then they can explain right.

Justin Booth: Yeah. And what you’re describing there to me is a paint shop that is taking their customer through the customer journey, right? It’s the journey of letting that customer know what you have to offer and the expertise you can lend to make their job easier and making the decision on what to purchase. And so those are the, that’s what you should be making as a small business.

What’s your customer journey. What types of conversations do you have over and over and over and over, over and over again with customers? What frequently asked questions do you have? Turn those into videos and it doesn’t have to be elaborate. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated. Really doesn’t to get started, you can just turn your camera around on you.

No, maybe stabilize it cause there’s nothing worse than a shaky today I’m going to answer. Frequently asked question number four, and then you just say it. So yeah, those are, those are really easy things to get started with you. FAQ is just to answer them on camera. And what you’re doing there is you’re, you’re recreating a part of the customer journey, for someone and giving them that knowledge about you, that you’re an expert.

You know what you’re talking about. You’re a personable person that they think they can get along with. Yeah. Anything to get started really.

Joel Harris: So because of the technology, because you know, I mean, the new I phone cameras just insane. It’s so high quality. I know that you are shifting your business model a little bit.

Can you talk a little bit about that? If you feel comfortable.

Justin Booth: Yeah. Comfortable at. For years I was, I was just the video producer. I was contracted to make a video for a company. I shot the video, I edited the video, I handed it back to them. They liked it, and then they took it. I don’t know what they did with it actually, and that was the part of my business that I realized was missing was.

You know, going back to all these distribution channels and the effectiveness they can have in targeting customers and actually driving real business. that’s where I’m pivoting is, is not only creating the videos, but creating them very strategically. Now with that end customer in mind and their particular pain point in mind.

and making sure that the video we create is speaking to that pain point and offering them a solution that they can visualize themselves in. And that’s a key is, is finding a way in these videos to allow the viewer to visualize themselves in the transformation that you’re selling. If you can do that, you got it.

It’s hard to do. It takes a lot of talking and digging and, and testing. And you know, as someone who runs social media campaigns, it’s all in the testing. That first few weeks. At first few days, you’ll know whether you’re on the right message or not. And, and when you’re on the right message, I believe it means because they are having, you know, sort of a.

I wouldn’t say an out of body experience, but definitely like a, I dunno, not a spiritual experience either, but a transformative experience where you know, they realize that what you’re, what you’re offering is, would make their life better. And they can see, they can picture it in their head how their life would be better if they got your product or service.

So the excitement that that creates in us. The chemicals that it releases to make us feel good and excited and want to know more. That’s what you’re trying to do as a marketer who’s advertising for businesses through social media is, is create those experiences for people. Cool.

Joel Harris: Can you tell us a little bit about what the.

So, so you said you use a phone. should a somebody be concerned about lighting and sound and what tips can you give to a business to improve, the quality of their video?

Justin Booth: Yeah. forceps, light, sound,  stabilize background. Like, make sure the light is in front of your face, pointing to your face, not behind you, pointing at the camera.

It’s the lights in front of you, the camera. We’ll show you in all your glory. If the light is behind you, you will look like a silhouette and no one will be able to see your face. So that’s the light. The light needs to be in front of you. Sound makes up a huge part of the experience. In fact, there are a lot of people, and I would probably be one of them, that, that says that bad sound will make a beautiful video.

Complete shit. so sound is really important. And so if your. Recording a video and your iPhone is 10 feet away from you, you’re barely going to be heard. If you was going to strain to hear you, they’re going to have an awful experience trying to hear you saying and your message is ruined. And so sound is really important.

So whether you get the camera closer to you or you spend $75 and buy a microphone that clips onto your lapel and plugs into your phone. those are freely, widely available on Amazon for like, yeah. Anywhere from 50, 60, 70 bucks. That’s a step that’s really important is to make sure that you have the camera’s close enough to use so you can be heard well, or you have a microphone that’s ensuring you’re heard.

Well, background. I have questionable background here. It’s kind of cluttered. it has a strange painting of my girlfriend’s grandmother. The background’s important though, background. It’s a lot about who you are as a business. And so if you’re. Recording a video and you have dirty laundry or dirty dishes, or, you know, it’s important.

And so I always recommend to have a decluttered background. A plain white wall is fine. a great wall is a photographer or videographer, his best friends. if you take a look at photos you love. take a look at what’s behind, what’s in the background. Often a wall, an interesting looking the wall will make for a really interesting presentation.

So yeah, like a brick wall or just a plain white wall. the key is just to make sure there’s no clutter and garbage behind you really. and also that no one’s going to like walk past you and interrupt you. So, you know, made sure the background that you choose is in a quiet place that’s not in a place you’re going to get interrupted.

stabilization. And that’s just, it’s really important if the camera on something to keep it still, so that your viewer isn’t, you know, bouncing around with you. So you can buy tripod. That will. Yeah. You know, except your cell phone, with, an adapter for, you know, the tripod and the adapter for like 50 bucks.

So, you know, for $100, you can buy a tripod, with a amount that will hold your phone, and a microphone, and you are leaps and bounds ahead of most other people producing their own content. And you are more than halfway towards creating professional looking video.

Joel Harris: And then what, what program do you use to edit?

Justin Booth: I just want to look up fro, but beginners, I often recommend if they’re on an iPhone or a Mac platform, iPad, iMac, I often recommend I movie. To start, it’s dead assemble. My five year old daughter knows how to operate it. and she’s just a normal kid. there’s nothing, she’s exceptional, but, you know,

Joel Harris: be careful.

Justin Booth: It’s very accessible, very easy to use, very limited in what it allows you to do creatively, but you have all the basic functions of editing in a nonlinear way. meaning you can move chunks of video around on a timeline. and you can add transitions, like cross dissolves. You can add titles. so I movie’s a great place to start and I’ve kind of lost track of the other options in the marketplace, but there are a lot of apps.

and pieces of software that will step you up a little higher from that and give you more creative options. yeah, but I movie as a sort of a very beginner way of editing video is, is, is very good.

Joel Harris: Cool. So lastly, kind of going on another topic is, but I try and ask this, to all my guests, What is there a particular and book person, or maybe, I know we talked about being, we talk a lot about podcasts, but what is there a piece of content out there, or person that has really being very influential in your life.

Justin Booth: Yeah. I mean, apart from the people actually in my life, family, friends and whatnot, I was always really inspired by David Letterman.

He’s always inspired my, my sense of humor. and my, and my outlook on life in some ways. I was a, I mean, I was a faithful, faithful David Letterman viewer back in the day. I still have VHS tapes where I recorded episodes and I dig in every now and then on the web and find clips. So, he’s been an inspiration for me, strangely.

podcasts, a podcast I love listening to. It’s definitely my favorite podcast is, how I built this. And it’s on NPR. You can get it on every, every, podcast platform available. But how I build this is the stories of success and failure of some of the biggest brands in the world. and the story is told by the owner.

and, you know, this isn’t an executive representing the company. This is the owner. and they talk about. How that business came to be, and they focus a lot on the early days and the trials and tribulations that they went through, and the times they knew for sure they weren’t going to make it. This was the end.

And then they came out the other, the other side by some stroke of luck or, or, or, you know, in most cases, it’s not like it’s a persistence. I, I find  I th yeah, I think that’s a really, really inspirational podcasts, for small business owners because. Without fail, every one of these stories and trust me, they are all a huge brands.

every one of those stories starts off in a way that each one of us can relate to. you know, struggling to make payroll, struggling to keep up with the competition. so I’ve always found that I, I go and listen to an episode just at random. If I need a little pick me up in my, And my motivation.

So highly recommend that one, how I built this, because we’re all trying to build a song.

Joel Harris: Yeah. You were the, actually you introduced that to me and, I agree. A fantastic, podcast. Is there, is there any lessons that you can think of that particularly stand out?

Justin Booth: Lessons that I’ve learned in life? Just like in general?

Joel Harris: Yeah, from the podcast.

Justin Booth: Oh, on that podcast. Persistence. Yeah. Persistence in the face of, of, of certain doom. yeah. I mean, that’s the thing that rings through to me every time I listen to that is the persistence is the failure to, to believe that failure was an option.

A strong, strongly held belief. In yourself. and I’ve always, I don’t know, I mean, I, I’ve had varying success in, in my career. one thing that’s never varied is, is my belief in myself and my ability to come out of whatever challenge I’m in. And so, yeah, I think, I think that podcast has helped reinforce that in me often where, you know, if I can hear.

I, here’s a story from someone who, who runs a business that I admire, and I can hear them talking about times in their life when they feel exactly like I felt then. Yeah, that’s, that’s all I need to feel motivated to that, Hey, this, this too shall pass. And if I keep my head down and keep working hard and keep my eyes open for opportunity and keep my mindset towards.

Possibility and abundance that all, I’ll find those things.

Joel Harris: I think one of the episodes that really struck me was, the owner of Southwest airlines. Her, I want to say herb somebody, but, how he. Yeah. Took him like decades. You know, I think he worked as a lawyer for in a law firm, and he would basically do Southwest airlines on the side, for now, for like years and years.

And, Finally, like he was able to, I think he actually wanted to stay on in the law firm, but his, the board said, no, you got to quit. And so he finally quit and did, the airline full time. But I, I agree with you because, you know, they’re all like huge. Yeah. Like, they’re all huge companies that we all know.

you know, obviously Starbucks Southwest. What’s, what’s some other ones

Justin Booth: on that five hour energy? I listened to the Casey Neistat one last night, actually, which is, Casey Neistat’s, a very successful YouTube personality. Yeah, but like that, the one thing that I think they’ve all, every story is, you know, invariably there’s like this moment in their journey where, what do they thought it was all going to end?

And they were never going to there. This is just never going to work. And, yeah. It just reminds me that like. There’s still, there’s still, there’s still lots of time left on this journey that we’re on. You know, you and I are about the same age. And, I mean, yeah, it would have been great to have overnight success.

It would have been great to have had success, you know, strike like lightning. But those stories on that podcast are not strong. Yes, they are. I ground that out. I grinded that out and I fought off all that fear and all that, that uncertainty and doubt and made it. And then eventually what happens in these stories, because these are big businesses, these people, it sounds, they often lose control of it.

And then there’s that other part of the story is letting go of that thing that you created and letting it, you know, prosper on its own for its own good. So that’s another interesting perspective to realize that. Yeah, eventually you do have to loosen the reins and, and let the team and the creation you’ve created.

Do the thing you’ve created it to do.

Joel Harris: I think that’s such valuable advice, especially, you know, cause we were talking about fear before we started. And, the tough times that everybody’s going through. I think, I need to re listen to the, some of those episodes.

Joel Harris: For sure.

Justin Booth: I will give you a kick on the bot.

Yeah, for sure.

Joel Harris: Well, thank you, Justin. I think we will cap it off there. I appreciate you taking your time to be on the show, for people who want to know more about you, to get in touch with you. Where can they find you?

Justin Booth: Yeah. A www.docvisualmedia.com doc,K  a or if you’re interested in the living legacy family documentary videos, www.livinglegacydoc.com.

yeah, love to love to be on the show again sometime. Joel is great talking with you. Always good talking with you. Thank you.

Joel Harris: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Justin Booth: Thank you for listening to publishing for profit.

Joel Harris: Please like and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. .