In this episode, I get to dive into the importance of video advertising with James Manning. From YouTube to the other social channels, he shares expert tips on how to get the most from your videos. This will help you grow your following and increase the engagement between you and your followers.
Listen to the Audio
(Scroll to bottom of page for the full transcript)
Conversation Notes from this Episode
- Learn to fail often to get a head start in business
- Your services need to be borne out of real world needs
- As a startup, you need to have a game plan… figure out what your goals are, focus on one thing and fine tune how you can accomplish that one thing
- Tips on creating better videos:
- Just start, put something out there and then improve upon it.
- What resonates on YouTube is authenticity. Unlike TV, the YouTube audience is not captive. You have 5 seconds to keep them there. Talk into the camera directly.
- Get to the point as quickly as possible.
- You don’t own your audience on social media. As an example, you have to pay to connect with your audience on Facebook. You don’t get to control who sees your stuff. (For this reason) It’s so important to get started with your email list as soon as possible. If you can grow that list and really provide value, eventually – when you have something to offer – you won’t have to pay to connect with them
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About James
What does being YouTube-certified mean? It means YouTube-trained James Manning to help brands grow using video.
He has over 7 years of video production, podcasting, and SEO experience and is a leading video SEO strategist and evangelist. As the founder of Royal Deca, James helps businesses of all sizes drive meaningful results using online video and audio.
Website: https://royaldeca.com/
Full Transcript:
Jason Wright (host): What’s happening Inspire Nation. This is episode number 73 – it’s all about your videos with James Manning.
What is going on everybody! This is Jason Wright, your host. I’m having another great week. Hope you are as well. I wanted to start off today by saying check out our new podcast page. Phase 1 of 3 is done. You can see that on the website. I’m proud of it. I think you guys will enjoy that. The show notes have been expanded and look really good so I’m happy. If I’m happy, everyone else is happy, right?
I want to start with a random story for you guys today. And it really doesn’t have anything to do with the episode but that’s why it’s called a random story but it might be some comic relief for you. So once upon a time, I bought a reasonably nice car for myself to drive. My wife had the older car, and I was enjoying the newer car. Back at the end of last year, she was in an accident – by no fault of hers – and her car was totaled so we got an older car and somehow she ended up with my nicer car and I have the older car so I’m driving a 2003 Toyota Camry, 176k, it runs fine. Brakes aren’t the best but they are not horrible I can fix those, but it has no air conditioning. So I’m in central Indiana, summer is upon us, I’m talking low to mid 90’s and a little humidity and it is miserable. It is hot in that car. If you get in that car all four windows are going down and staying down. But here’s what’s funny – I refuse to fix the car. For two reasons. One, it’s not worth putting the money in it. The compressor is out so I don’t want to put a new air conditioning compressor and spend more money than the car is worth – it doesn’t make sense. And two, it’s a great opportunity for me to stay super, super focused on what I’m trying to build here because every time I get behind the wheel it’s not that comfortable. The other car is great but I like to stay uncomfortable and out of my comfort zone even in my car cos it keeps me focused. When I decide I deserve a car, I’ll upgrade but I’m not there yet. Kinda a weird way to approach things. But man, if you have something in your life an opportunity to stay uncomfortable physically like a car that has no air in summer, try that – maybe it’ll get your butt in gear and you’ll get that book done or those courses done or whatever you’ve been putting off. So, that’s my random story for you.
So today as always, I’ve got an incredible guest on the show, James Manning, and I will tell you about him during the conversation but really enjoyed this, man. Real cool laid back guy but the content is so valuable and rich – I know you guys will love this. So without further ado, I’ll let you check that out and we’ll talk again after that.
What’s happening everybody. I have got another phenomenal guest with me today – James Manning from Royal Deca. Let me tell you a little about James. Obviously, he is an entrepreneur, he is a podcaster of the skate to create podcast, he’s a YouTube-certified marketing guy, does video campaigns, digital media, e-commerce, business development and so much more – if I read it all, you’d lose your mind. It’s awesome. James welcome to the show, man!
James (guest) – Thank you so much, Jason. I’m happy to be here.
Jason – So tell me your story man, where did all this begin? I was lost in a good way on your site in the last 2 days. There’s so much there. Sometimes when I get on a site like yours, I feel like “Man, I’m doing nothing compared to these guys” so I can’t wait to hear this. Where did this all begin?
James – Thank you very much and of course thank you for having me on the show. I was really happy to get that invitation. So, we started a few years ago, and as you mentioned, I’m YouTube (YT) certified so bringing that to the table for a few years now. But when we started, we started podcasting. And we started because we went to a podcast convention called Podcast Movement and there we actually met John Lee Dumas who was on your show a few episodes ago, great guy. And we really had the bug for podcasting and that was where we started and, as John Lee Dumas was mentioning on that episode, we decided to just start and go with it and we ended up getting clients and making a lot of connections and we didn’t really know where it was going to take us but it eventually led to doing this particular work in this particular niche which is YT and Facebook (FB) advertising specifically with video. I know that was a very, very compact way to get there but…
Jason – Lemme ask you this, your site was telling me that YT analytics are pretty phenomenal as well. Which would you say is higher right now? Would you say its Facebook as far as having the more detailed analytics or YouTube?
James – YT has more analytics but I mean that’s where you’re able to dial in what’s happening, but Facebook has more targeting capabilities so you’re able to have a few more knobs and levers to maneuver how you’re going to access an audience through Facebook. But whenever it comes to the analytics and trying to figure out what’s going on, YouTube has that covered basically.
Jason – Very nice. I love the integration in your business of skateboarding and business because it’s all about passion and about saying how do I make these two things and make it one thing and beautiful.
James – My partners and I, Travis and Daniel, we grew up skateboarding and whenever Travis started hanging out with us, that was something we had in common. So whenever we decided to do a podcast – we basically said: “we have this skateboarding thing in common” so that got us talking about what effect that had on our lives, so that was the genesis of our show. Basically, reaching out to other skateboards, reaching out to them and letting them know that if you skate, it gives you a head start on starting a business because you learn to fail very often and it’s very much built on self-improvement and so whenever that translates to business, we were thinking that’s the perfect way to have a podcast, have it connect to our philosophies and our business because we’re trying to inspire skateboarders and since then, it’s branched out to other areas but we still have client sin the skate community, we have a skate park in Houston that are clients of ours that are very near and dear to our hearts always.
Jason – I never skateboarded but I connected in the same way in basketball and I think back to when I was a kid, when I first started- I was terrible but I can remember playing in the rain, and in the snow and saying “I refuse to give up.” And you’re right… a sport like basketball or skateboarding teaches you a lot about life and business, and if you’re not failing, you’re not doing anything. Failure is a barometer for how much you’re trying. So it’s a beautiful thing, what you just said.
So like I said you and your partners, you offer a ton of services so if you’re going to think about the startups, let’s say in business less than a year, what would you suggest we focus on in the realm that you’re in. It can get overwhelming. I was at a mastermind meeting this morning, and one of my mentors and a buddy was saying how he gets overwhelmed with online marketing, so many options, feels like he needs to be everywhere 100% and it’s overwhelming. What would you recommend to a start up?
James – Yeh well, the services that we offer are born out of real world needs that our clients have so we got a lot of word of mouth advertising, and a lot of people were spreading the word about our company – which was great. People were coming to us as small businesses saying “these are the things we need help with… we’re overwhelmed.” So I think just starting off with figuring out what your goals are, how to really focus on just one or two goals- because a lot of times, small business … there so many things to do already. When you start to add multiple goals and multiple ways to track those goals, it becomes really daunting. For example, a company we are working with, one of their goals was to have more local search ranking. And so we helped them with getting more Google reviews because that boosted their local search ranking in the Google algorithm. But then we also focused on organic content and making sure that they were able to put out content that was free but full of keywords that would lead back to their website. So just having that one goal of wanting to improve in local search or wanting to get more subscribers on YT or wanting to, maybe it’s a download situation with a podcast – I think just starting with one thing and then honing in on how you can accomplish that one thing, and there are obviously many different ways but that’s where we start and usually, there are enough things that complicate that already so it’s a great starting point.
Jason – That’s really well said, man. It just got me thinking – just for folks on social – what social platform or platforms do you feel are best for people to start with and I know that’s a super broad question but are there a few platforms you feel are best for growing an audience and trying to build that platform?
James – If building an audience is the actual goal, it kinda depends. So we focus on YT and FB because those give two definitive different benefits. So the benefit of FB is the instant gratification, it’s the short term – you know, you get to be on people’s newsfeed and if you have a good post, let’s say you’re posting on FB once or twice a week, and you find that people are responding to a post – you’re getting more engagement on that particular post – well, then you can add $5 or $10 to that and get it seen by more people. So there’s a lot of short term – you can put stuff out there and have it really drive an immediate result with FB. But as far as long-term, that’s not really what FB is about. It’s kinda just in and out. But let’s say you want to drive an audience and have a long term strategy where over the year or two years, you’re continually ramping up and building that audience. Well – that would be YT because you can place a video on YT and tag it correctly and make sure people are able to find that video whenever they search for it. Making sure if connects to your business. And over the next couple of months or years, you’re going to see exponential growth on that if it’s done well. Kinda like how a blog works, You basically rely on those keywords searches to lead to that blog and then hopefully that leads to more views on your website.
Jason – So would it be safe to say that FB is maybe the better platform of the two if you’re goal is to interact in real time with your audience? Is it better for that engagement, and relationship building?
James – It can be, but YouTube comments work just as well, I think it comes down to the goals and number one, if you don’t have video as a capability – YT is not an option for you. So if you’re small business and you don’t have video using images on FB works really well.
Jason – Speaking of video, would live to hear three tips from you for the audience about creating better videos on social media in general.
James – Sure so I think just like with any online content, you want to just start and put something out there. A lot of people think that they have to have a really polished video for it to represent their brand and to seem professional, but what resonates on YT is authenticity so the more authentic you can be and I would also say, the more upfront you can be – so what I mean is – many times people upload a video thinking that it works like a commercial or a TV show but it doesn’t. The fundamental difference is the YT audience is not captive so if they land on your video and it’s not pleasing to them in the first 5 seconds, if they feel there’s not going to be any value to this, they are just going to exit. And this is different to when you’re watching TV or something else where you’re tied there and have to endure that bad content. So really putting a face to the video and talking to the person as if they are looking at you, you know, talk into the camera directly – those works very well on YT. So put something out there, making sure you start somewhere, then try to improve as you go along, and then you want to be authentic as much as possible and get to the point as quickly as possible – as a quick rule of thumb
Jason – I love everything you just said but two things stood out to me. And one is a recurring theme that I hear and see all the time, and feel like I can’t emphasize it enough – and that’s: just do it, just get started, do something. You know, people get pinned down, frozen with fear and keep thinking it’s has to be perfect. Perfect for whom? People will not produce videos or start businesses or try sports or take risks because they’re so worried about it not being perfect. But if you guys don’t remember anything else, remember this – do something. Take a chance. You can always improve upon it.
James – Actually using your smartphone is a great way to create a video. Honestly. You can set it up on a tripod, on top of some books or something… just talking into the camera directly and you’d be surprised how good the quality will turn out on most phones.
Jason – It’s funny, my wife’s got an iPhone 6 and its pretty good quality-wise. And I have a 5c and the video quality is horrific. And I don’t know if it’s that model, or if it’s just my phone or what but it’s like some seriously old school footage. I don’t know what’s going on and if that’s normal!?
James – The iPhone 6 is just a cut above. Actually, I used Android pretty often. I’ve used it all the way up to this last phone which was an iPhone 6. And I got the iPhone specifically because of the camera. Everything else is basically the same. I don’t really like iPhones, but you can’t beat the camera. 240 frames per second. It is awesome quality.
Jason – The second thing you said that I really liked was the authenticity piece. You know, the way I’m talking to you right now, this is how I am everywhere. I write this way. I talk to you face to face this way. I speak this way. And it doesn’t matter. Don’t compare me to James, or James to you or me to you – be yourself. Everybody’s got their own – some people think “there’s nothing special about me” – but actually there is, cos you’re the only version of you so that authenticity piece is so big whether it’s video, building an audience, positioning yourself as an expert. I’m just getting fired up in a good way talking about it because it’s so important.
James – I talk to a lot of companies where they wanna go all out on their first video and then it really doesn’t end up working out the way they want it to and they’ve wasted all the time and money, when they could have done 3 or 4 videos in that amount of money with just being a little bit creative and being authentic and just not trying to put on a front. That ends up not even relating to the audience, you know, in the first place. And that’s the whole goal – to get engagement from the audience. So you want to do what works well on YT – and that’s authenticity.
Jason – My son who is 11 is obsessed with YT. Do you know who DanTDM is?
James – I don’t but there so many YT celebs out there, I can’t pretend to know all of them
Jason – So this guy does the gaming/ Minecraft kinda stuff He has 14 M followers. He went on tour. We went and saw them, and my son says he wants to be a professional YT and so we brought him on to our team. He said, “Are you gonna you pay me?” I said “I’ll pay you but it’s hot water and lights, son. I will kick you out on the street. Don’t take that for granted!” But he’s really doing that himself and he’s got a Mac we set him up with and he has the equipment to do the same thing. And he’s learning about it. And he’s got a YT channel. And he’s learning. And then we’ve invested in some cartoon marketing (PowToon) but it’s something different. It’s neat because you can use templates, you can do full voice over or create your own. But that cartoon element introduces something super unique. I was wondering if you’ve seen anything in YT or have you messed with it yourself?
James – There’s so much going on especially Minecraft is a huge part of what people are watching on YT but mostly what we do is advertising so it’s based on trying to connect with a particular audience that’s looking for particular product or service and making sure there’s a video that informs them of that product or service and making sure it connects with them in the first place. That part of YT is huge – the entertainment part. Have you ever heard of VidCon, the video convention that they have every year? It’s huge and most of it is kids there to get autographs from their favorite YT stars but it’s just a huge, huge event and you really get the scope of how many YT stars there are, and how many different niches there are…. And so all that to say – I have no idea what’s going on in the Minecraft world but we tend to focus on the business side of video and advertising. I hope that answers your question.
Jason – Yeh, no problem. Now you went to Podcast Movement. What’s funny is I’m in Central Indiana and I believe last year, it was in Chicago which is only 4 hours away. And this year Podcast Movement was in California at the end of August. What was your experience with that? Was it worth the trip?
James – Well actually we went. Our whole company was volunteering for PM for two years and it was prior to Chicago so the other two years that it happened was in Dallas and Fort Worth. So since we are in Dallas we attended those and it was great. I mean, it was a lot smaller than it is now but you can see how many people were getting into podcast and how the medium was maturing, and people were figuring out how to monetize it was amazing. We met so many cool people, got so many cool guests out of it, and learned a lot.
Jason – This is a little change in direction but some entrepreneurs, and I’m going to stereotype and say the young guys and gals, some of them try to do everything – the whole business thing on social media only and some people are ignoring the importance of a website.
James – I think the website helps you a lot because it something that you own, whereas you don’t own your audience on social media. I know “own” is a weird word to use but you have to pay to connect to your audience on FB really. Its a pay to play game right now. Otherwise, you know, when you put out a post and you have 1000 fans, only a small fraction of them are going to see it unless you boost that post and then more of them will see it. YouTube; same thing – you don’t really get to control who sees your stuff. Now, if you have subscribers they can automatically see it – that’s no problem but I really recommend is getting your email list going as soon as possible because that is the audience that you technically have access to at all times and I’m sure you hear this a lot, if you get started with that as soon as possible, your email list can grow and your website develops, as your social media content develops and you really get your true audience- the people that are really engaged with you, they are going to stay on that list esp. if you provide value and if you can grow that list and really provide value, eventually whenever you have an offer or something you ask of your audience, you don’t have to pay to reach out to them because they are on your email list already.
Jason – That’s really solid advice. I hope people get that. The social media stuff is fun but you’re essentially building your business on rented land, and that rent can go up, or that land can be taken away at any time.
Jason – Well James, when you think about the rest of the year 2017, what is next for you and the company?
James- We’re really excited to offer these, it’s kind of a new service where were are niching down on video ads, focusing on ads on FB ad helping business really connect with their audience, but we’re just going to be shooting a lot of those and there are some passion projects but I can’t really say anything about that quite yet but there’s, I don’t know, kinda like the podcasting boom started again, I’m really noticing a boom in people understanding how advertising works online and we’re just really excited to focus on that and help a whole bunch more people be able to connect with their audience and not get so discouraged with trying to build a business online.
Jason – People definitely put a lot of pressure on themselves, don’t they?
James – Yeh, they wanna get started right away and sell stuff from day one… but it takes a little bit… it’s a little bit harder than that but totally something you can do and you know, starting out with listening to podcasts about how to do it for free is a really good thing so your podcast is a huge to those people I’m sure and podcasts like yours where you’re giving them a lot of free tips and hopefully that keeps them going too – but then really just trying to have a game plan, having those goals and being able to find the help you need online. A lot of its free.
Jason – Absolutely. What the frequency that you guys use for your podcast?
James – Well, we actually haven’t done that podcast in some time. We stopped with that one in order to facilitate some other podcasts so we ended up starting to produce other podcasts like tune talk and shetler show but we haven’t released an episode in a while. Again, we just wanted to focus on client work and stuff like that. This next podcast that we’re going to come out with is going to be weekly and it’s going to be focused a little bit more on specific help in specific areas that people have questions about.
Jason – That’s funny, cos I should’ve done my homework better so I look like a big dummy but I’m going to leave it cos I like it real.
James – No problem.
Jason – I’ve got something for you to try the next time you do a podcast; I want you to say “I own you.” See how that goes over for you!
(Laughter) James – Probably not good, but we’ll try it.
Jason – What is the best way my audience can contact you?
James – Well, we are offering a free consultation, so that’s a free 30-minute consultation if you have any questions. You can get to that at royaldeca.com/boostonlinesales. That will take you to a page, where you can get a free 30-minute consultation. Other than that, we’re on Twitter and you can contact me on LinkedIn and Facebook. Royaldeca are everywhere.
Jason – Guys if you’re listening, I would take advantage of that. It’s only going to help you and give you more options.
Jason – Well I appreciate you coming on, my friend. It’s been great. I hope you’ve had a great time as well.
James – Thank you so much, Jason. I really appreciate it. I love the show already. I’ve heard a few episodes and I’m gonna keep listening. Thank you so much.
Jason – Alright, we are back. Told you it was good stuff
Alright, we are back. Told you it was good stuff
James, thanks, man. Appreciate it. Reach out to me anytime and would love to keep in touch. If you guys want to check out the show notes for this episode, you can go to our new fancy podcast page or you can go to http://intentionallyinspirational.com/episode73-videos-with-james-manning/.
I have something new on the homepage. I’ve got a little a spot where I posted a FB live last week called “Ask Jason”, just to see what happened. We’re going to plug in paid promotional podcasts that we are doing now. So when guests come on the show, they get a look at my Calendly calendar page and there are a couple different types of meetings, and they can pay and promote products and things. The show will still be good from your standpoint. It won’t sound like a commercial or anything. Part of that package is getting featured on the homepage, an extra player linked to the episode, and a lot more social pushes etc. But if you’re interested, under the podcast page on the homepage, there’s a little spot for “Guest Promotion”. That’s all brand new as well. All kinds of fun stuff happening with the podcast, It wouldn’t surprise me and shouldn’t surprise you if you see 2 -3 episodes a week starting in August. We have so many podcasts in the pipeline and already recorded, it’s insane. It wasn’t my reality 2 weeks ago, if not 3 times a day. Crazy fun stuff and it’s all because of you.
But if you’re interested, under the podcast page on the homepage, there’s a little spot for “Guest Promotion”. That’s all brand new as well. All kinds of fun stuff happening with the podcast and it wouldn’t surprise me and shouldn’t surprise you if you see 2 -3 episodes a week starting in August. We have so many podcasts in the pipeline and already recorded, it’s insane. It wasn’t even my reality two weeks ago, now it’s almost a daily occurence, if not 3 times a day. Crazy fun stuff and it’s all because of you.
Thanks for listening. We will catch up with you in the next episode.
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