EP:39 Lead By Example With Your Content

SPEAKER_01 0:31

The goal is for you to walk away with at least one or two things that you didn't show up with today, knowing about storytelling, uh, about podcasting, or about leading by example. And I and I don't want to brag or boast, if you will, about leading by example, but I mean, hello, here we are. I'm on Facebook Live, engaging with my Facebook community to a certain extent. I'm not jumping on and liking comments and commenting back. I'm primarily focused on being able to capture a podcast episode while delivering value to my Facebook community. I believe Facebook Live is in an unpredictable um space right now. Those that are my peers in the digital marketing and social media space seem to think that live has taken a bit of a dip, and I think that it has too, as Facebook starts, or rather, not starts, continues to tweak the algorithm to improve the overall user experience. Again, Facebook just wants to create solutions that are in the best interest of the user. So television news, local news, radio, breaking news, anything live, award shows, concerts, these are all things that uh we like to consume as human beings. We also live in a very convenience, I want it now, I want it yesterday, I'll pay 40 bucks for a whatchamacallit bar society and world. When with technology continuing to increase um and make our lives even easier and easier and easier and easier, it's only our our our our need to consume is only expanding. Thanks, thanks, Owen. So if you're listening to the podcast, I'm talking to a few people on Facebook Live, so not making an awkward. I probably should make a habit of that though, because my podcast is like, who's Owen, dude? You were talking about podcast. Listen, let's just square a couple things away real quick. It's my show. If I say look squirrel, well, then there may or may not be a squirrel up there. So, anyhow, um, and by the way, great example when someone gives you a compliment on a Facebook Live or one of your videos or what you're doing and you don't respond and you just like the comment, well, you're being grossly negligent to that community. You need to say, Oh, I don't know. Thank you. Very, very important. Back to what I was talking about, which I completely forgot, and that's the downside to engaging with your Facebook audience while recording a podcast episode, is you could find yourself deep down in that Facebook Live podcast recording rabbit hole. So we're just gonna start right from the top, uh, which is I'm here today to talk to you about what I've been talking to a lot of people about lately, mainly through the keynote talks I've been delivering. Um if you're a meeting planner that's or an event planner that's listening to this and you're looking for a dynamic tornado of enthusiasm to either be the MC for your event or to speak on the topic of digital storytelling with podcasts, holler at your boy. Um, when it's your show, you can do things like that too. They're called shameless plugs. I'm not pitching you, I'm just letting you know what I do. I have no idea who's watching this right now. No clue. And I don't know who would watch this because it goes to YouTube after this, and then it gets shared to multiple different outlets on Facebook, and then I turned it into a podcast episode. So strange things have happened. I became the MC for Digital Marketers Traffic and Conversion Summit because I sent Ryan Dice a tweet, and I didn't even know who Ryan Dice was. I responded to an ad from Digital Marketer for traffic and conversions. I followed Digital Marketer on Twitter, and Twitter recommended that I follow uh the CEO and co-founder of Digital Marketer, Ryan Dice. So I did, and then I just I just sent him a quick tweet and he got back to me right away, and I quickly learned what a total badass he was. He hired me on the spot, and the rest is history. So social media listening, social media conversations, social media left hooks and right hooks are very, very effective when properly executed. So I've been talking about storytelling lately. I've had a few local gigs here, a few organizations and groups and associations and whatnot. And by the way, as a professional speaker, having done this for the past nine years, and I'm just getting started, I allocate 12 events a year that I do pro bono. That means free. So if you're looking to get in your speaking game, I get asked a lot, Sebastian, how do I get book to speak? How do I become a keynote speaker? And I tell them one simple answer speak as much as you possibly can, wherever you can. I don't care if it's show and tell, PTA meetings, associations, chambers, councils, organizations. Just get out there and speak. But make sure you're talking about something that has some value. Don't pitch an audience. Make sure you're showing up to tell your story. And and then and then help people understand how your story has helped your business become what it is. So for example, I started my podcast in 2011 as a hobby. Then I stopped. Then a year and a half went by and I started it again. And then the app I was using that I absolutely loved went belly up. So I I stopped recording my podcast again. And that's a great deal of thunder in the background. It's not a sound effect. And my golden doodle is about to lose his noodle over here because dogs don't like thunder. So you hear a dog bark, that's why. And that, my friends, is what makes podcasts fun. And unin a completely unwelcomed sound of thunder in the background. I could have had like a key, like could have been like land in the plane on a key point with that thunder. But I do 12 pro bono events a year, and I did a few local, back-to-back local ones here for Chambers as of late. And uh I brought the thunder. Funny enough, the guy that introduced me said Sebastian is here today to bring the thunder. So there you go. You see how that works out? And the topic, and you can find it on YouTube, it was for uh the Greater Uh Kendall Business Association. It's on my YouTube page, youtube.com forward slash socialbuzz TV. And storytelling starts, obviously, with your story. So how do you tell your story? Well, you sit down and you outline exactly where you started. Where did the story begin? Good, bad, or indifferent, and how did it lead you into present day where you're at right now? I often tell my story where it backs up to 2010, and I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and frustrated. And I decided that I was gonna do something about it, that I had been in the social media space since the inception of 2004, and I was gonna figure out a way to monetize this. I was, there was a lot of buzz around social media, social buzz TV. I conceptualized that name over dinner with a mere stranger who encouraged me to launch a YouTube channel. I rode my skateboard and bus around town. I started networking and just telling people I'm going to launch the biggest, baddest social media company on the planet. It's gonna educate people about social media, it's gonna share social media content, and it's gonna help you better understand what you don't know that you don't know about social media. I parlayed that into networking events and then joining other people for networking events. And then next thing you know, people are knocking on my door because they say, hey, listen, I've seen your events, I've been to your events, I've seen your content, I've seen your bow tie, I see what you do. Can we have a conversation about you wearing our product, using our product, drinking our water? And that's what really started to happen. Knock on the door, Peri Ellis with five bow ties from their new spring collection. And the reason that happened was because I had a conversation with the marketing person for Peri Ellis because of a picture I posted on the beach one morning that he thought looked like another Peri Ellis had. He that he then told me that the spring collection is gonna be coming out soon. I said, I hope there's bow ties involved. He said, How'd you know? I said, I didn't, but bow ties are my game. So if this brand has continued to evolve over the past eight years of social buzz TV and me being able to not even purposely, but I have intentionally launched my personal brand as a speaker, as an event MC, as a digital storyteller and influencer. Um and then my brand is a new media outlet that provides content for the world. And it also creates content through our agency for businesses and brands alike. So storytelling starts with your story. Now, the next step after you've figured out what your story is and how it's led to present day and what you're doing or what you're going to be doing, actually scratch what you're gonna do. No one cares what you're gonna do or what you've done. Care about what you're doing. So, how does your story relate to present day and where it's led you? For me, if I go back to eight years ago, it was a bus pass skateboard networking events and selling people on the dream. And their dream started to unfold as people started to pay me to do things that I had no idea people would pay me to do, like set up their YouTube channel or create content for them, or help them create content, or teach them to to use a uh a uh flip cam back in the day before smartphone technology came over and this became the new camera. That's when it really started to click for me. Is when my phone started shooting HD video. I thought, whoa, this is a game changer. I got mad love for videographers. I really, really do. However, comma, they're not they're not the most they're not the most cost-effective way to knock out, I mean crank out consistent video content on a weekly basis, small snippet, high quality content. I figured I'd a hack. Hack was iPhones and iPads with studio gear that connects to them. I found the hack. And then there just scale the agency out. And we've got clients across town that we create buzz videos for attorneys, chiropractors, uh general contractors, local businesses, yoga studios, yoga instructors, health coaches, breathing coaches, you name it. So um and that leads me right into, and I'm gonna wrap things up because I'm well under 15 minutes, which is a that's just a darn tootin' miracle, I tell you. Um but I lead by example by doing exactly what my boy Brian Fanzo encourages people to do on stages across the world as he shares his message, and that is just press the damn button. Right? That means pick up your phone. It's probably already you probably already have it open anyway. It's probably already in your hand anyway. Open up the audio recorder, hit record and start talking. Open up the video camera, put it on a selfie stick, hit record. Just push the button. Get started today. Right? And if you can't, then hire somebody who's gonna push you to do it. That's the only way it's gonna get done. Because the only thing working against you right now is time. So you've got a story to create if you don't already have one, and if you've already got one, you're being negligent not to tell it. Telling that story is easy when you pull out your phone and just push the damn button, the audio, the audio recorder on your smartphone, hit record, start talking for 10 minutes. Open up a video, stop the story in your head of what you think you look like on video. Or what you sound like on audio. You are not the one consuming your content. FYI. You're not. I know you like to think you are. You want to be your biggest critic. Everyone gets bogged down on these the mundane details of I had the same shirt on during the video. Who cares? You shot all the same videos in the same day. It was a striped shirt series. Don't get bogged down in the details. Lead by example. You know, if you're in the insurance industry, health insurance industry, maybe you you sell health insurance plans to people. Lead by example in your industry by creating content. Saying, yeah, I'm a top rep with the company. I'm a top producer with the company. And you lead by example because you don't just consume the marketing the the company does for you. You're simultaneously figuring out a way to create content and build your brand while bringing business in. I just had a conversation with a young immigration attorney this morning. Uh, I visited another BI chapter uh here in Miami. And this individual said, Oh, I'm just getting started. I'm working with a larger firm, I'm focused on immigration law, yada, yada, yada. We're getting into that. A lot of that. We're getting into that. The social media stuff, we're kind of getting into that. I mean, hello, people. This is 2018. Everywhere you turn, you we are so digitally addicted and brands are so engulfed, and your life is so layered into the world of the digital space. How you consume so much of it. So I'm I'm just trying to find the disconnect where you think it may not be important for your business. Now, hear me clear. I am not here to convince you that you need to be adapting to the digital landscape that is social media. This stuff's been around for 15 years, and chances are it's not going to go anywhere. And if it does, if it does, it's just going to be the next best thing. But Mark Zuckerberg is one smart human being, and he's got a team around him of some of the smartest individuals on the planet. And they have created a platform called Facebook for us to connect with our friends, family, and the world and for businesses to level the playing field to be able to actually compete and develop new business and relationships in the same atmosphere. Leading by example. No one in your industry is doing things like Facebook live shows and uh podcast episodes and buzz videos. None of that's happening in your industry. It's a great indication that you might want to get on it. Lead by example. Listen, podcasts suck if you don't know what you're doing. Actually, social media sucks if you don't know what you're doing. Podcasts suck if you don't have one. And for those of you listening to the podcast, um, I'm rocking the podcast sucks t-shirt right now. And by the way, for those of you tuned into the podcast, um, if you've got questions about telling your story through a podcast, um, we've got a solution that helps individuals and brands just like yours go from zero to launched with their very own podcast. So if you want to schedule a call with one of our podcast launch specialists, just head on over to podcastsuck.com. That's podcastplural. Podcastsuck.com. You can schedule a time to speak with a podcast launch specialist and find out if your idea or your story is even relevant to a podcast. Maybe it's not. Maybe you need to be doing buzz videos, maybe you just need to be going live. Maybe you don't belong on video at all. But I'll be the judge of that. Our team will be the judge of that. We're very honest with helping people understand that you need to get in where you fit in. Not everyone's a fit for live. My goodness, have you seen some of these live videos that go out? Anyhow, I'm not giving any specific examples. You just do you boo. Okay. So um thanks again for tuning in. Episode 39 of just having a quick conversation while I go out live on Facebook about storytelling, about how launching a podcast, creating weekly buzz videos can really help you tell that story, extract that story. You never know who's gonna see the video, you never know who's going to uh listen to the podcast, you never know who's gonna watch the replay of your Facebook live video. Listen, remember, things aren't slowing down at all in this digital space. They're only getting faster, they're getting more expensive. There's you're you're you're increasing your learning curve that every day you continue to put your digital strategy on the back burner. Or it blows my mind the amount of people that I talk to on a daily basis that do not have a Facebook page set up for their business. Blows my mind. I'm not sure if you are aware or not, but that's but Facebook is free. Free, like it doesn't cost anything to set up a Facebook page for your business, nothing. And if you wanted to attract, I don't know, two to three thousand people within a square two miles of your local business, you can do that for ten or fifteen dollars. Right now you can. The Facebook ad platform is grossly underpriced right now. Grossly underpriced why because it's not mainstream yet. When large brands start taking their TV radio budget and start just completely going all in on Instagram, on Facebook, on YouTube, whole different ball game, ladies and gentlemen. The times right now, the stuff's been around for 15 years that we're still getting started. It's still in its infancy. What does that tell you? You still, you're almost like, almost like first movers advantage. In fact, if no one in your industry is creating content like a Facebook Live video or a podcast or buzz videos on a weekly basis, if no one's doing any of that in your industry, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, that may be a great indication that it's time for you to get started. It might be a great indication to pick up your phone, pull out that audio recorder. Actually, go to Amazon real quick, buy the lavalier mic that hooks into an iPhone. It's like 12 bucks. Plug that in because everyone loves good audio. Plug that in and start having a conversation when you're in the car for an extended amount of time. Upload it. See how people respond. That's called a podcast. Did you know that? Some people were confused. I had someone tell me the other day, God bless them. They said, uh, I saw your podcast on YouTube the other day. Now, technically, that could happen because we do take audio and just put an image up and create a video, if you will, air quotes, video, and then post it to YouTube for SEO purposes. So that technically could happen. But in the context of this conversation, I clearly understood that this individual did not have a thorough understanding on what a podcast is. So any questions? Hit me up, srusk at social buzztv.com. That's my email address. If you want to schedule uh a time to speak with myself or somebody on my team about getting your podcast launch, you can do that at podcastsuck. That's pluralpodcastsuck.com. All this information for those of you tuning into the podcast right now, all of this information, links, and important information that I've talked about in this episode are included in the show notes. If you're wondering what show notes are, that's exactly what you see when you pull this episode up in iTunes. It gives you the title of the show, and then it gives a description of the show. And there's live links in there that you can go. So another tip for those of you tuning in on either the podcast or Facebook Live. You can in fact put live links and all the information you need. But remember, the title of the episode is what people are searching and seeing, and they're getting updates. The Seb Rush show on Social Buzz on Air has another episode live in that title that pops up as a pop notification. Major key. Anyhow. All right, friends. Well, that does it for this episode of the Seb Rusk show. I'm Sebastian Rusk signing off from our studio in a very rainy Miami. We'll talk to you next time.