You can’t avoid video as an entrepreneur in today’s world. That’s why I interviewed two of the most prominent video experts I know, Owen & Theresa Hemsath. They crush the Youtube game by teaching entrepreneurs to scale with influence, authority, and revenue in a strategy that works without losing authenticity.
Their story and influence are incredible, I had to do a two-part series with them, and today is part one regarding scaling your brand on video.
Inside the interview, we cover the Youtube social media mix, how cancer is helping them scale their business, three significant objectives you need to solve with every video, and more.
Stop Making Momentum Your Mistress
After struggling through his second battle with cancer, Owen was forced to figure out how to manage business and life through an intrinsic approach.
The first time Owen got cancer, he was a videographer burning the candle at all ends, driven by fear and inadequacy.
Like most entrepreneurs, he was in survival mode on the hamster wheel of hustle until one day, he ended up in the emergency room with a 12-centimeter tumor and cancer. Unfortunately, nearly four years after his diagnosis and treatment, cancer returned.
That’s when Owen and Theresa decided to take a different approach to cancer and business.
They asked themselves uncomfortable questions:
- What is the root cause?
- Why is his body creating cancer?
- Why did it come back?
How can we step away from our business?
In their work, they found that grinding and hustling were the leading causes of Owen’s body shutting down and began to follow cancer survivors closely to see what they did to survive. After taking a step back and working less, Owen has only one active tumor in his body.
Their message shows us that there is no use in having a business if you don’t have a life.
Thee Objectives To Solve On Video To Scale Influence
Owen and Theresa studied thousands of hours of video and figured out three significant objectives that create authority and influence.
They look at video creation like three giant circles.
The first circle is you as the creator. This circle is where you create content that brings you to life. It’s your expertise, your story, and who you are as a human. It makes you unique and the circle that lets your light shine.
The second part is the circle with videos that resonate with people. Creating videos people want to watch through authenticity puts you in the middle of the first and second circles and builds trust-based relationships.
The last circle ties everything together. If you have been authentic, entertaining, educating, and inspiring, you have the recipe for scaling your brand via video.
Why You Need To Use Youtube Like Netflix
Did you know that 85% of polled people say they are more likely to buy from a business, hire somebody, a company, or buy a product after watching a video?
YouTube looks at this relationship and is the only platform besides Hulu and Amazon that tracks the app’s minutes watched and total time spent.
Owen wanted to figure out why Youtube and Netflix were so successful and stumbled upon the idea of parasocial relationships. It’s a one-sided relationship and an effect that the video extends to where people cannot help but continue to watch because they feel emotionally tied to the character on screen.
With Youtube and Netflix, you are given direct access to people’s lives and can binge-watch shows and movies like never before.
That means the number of personalities you can look up to and engage with is endless today.But to inspire change, you don’t need a million followers. Owen believes you only need thirty people who believe passionately in what you’re doing. And those thirty people could fuel your business for life, depending on your business model.
This is the power of parasocial relationships.
You don’t need massive audiences. You need powerful messages. When you start creating content on Youtube from a parasocial relationship, you build authority and influence at a scalable rate.
How To Create Viral Content With Authenticity
There’s an element of perfectionism that comes with entrepreneurship. But with video content, you can’t let that stop you from creating on the spot with no edits.
With access to video at the touch of our fingertips, Owen says it’s essential to include those videos that are raw and authentic. Just pick up your phone, and you shoot that video. It doesn’t have to be live, but Owen believes people want to see less high-production and more going off-the-cuff raw videos.
Don’t get this twisted. Owen and Theresa still believe you need to produce high-quality videos that engage your audience, but those who show up raw and authentic are the ones that get more views and engagement.
Why? Because people are craving the human side of production. These types of videos will build your authority and influence your audience.
Start adding some of your struggles into your content in your area of expertise. Add stories with an element of surprise and transparency. Share what you have done to get where you are in the world.
As a result, you become more relatable, and people are more inspired by what you’ve overcome versus just tryign to be perfect.
Wrapping It Up
The point of being on video isn’t to create an alter ego. It’s to be yourself and let that transmute through your content.
I think of video as a foundation and framework for your expression, so make sure you ask yourself these questions: Do you enjoy making the video? Is this video going to resonate with your audience? And is the video going to help me generate revenue?
There are two sides to creating successful videos.
The first is the production aspect. This is your ever-green content and the mission behind your brand. It includes courses and everything in between that demonstrates what you do and how you do it.
The second is the connection you create with your content. This is where you produce reels and Tiktoks that build relationships.
These two videos extend the bridge between you and your audience.
Tune in for part two later on down the road.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this episode; tag me on Instagram @itsgeorgebryant and let me know how you will use this inside your business.