How to Build Trust & Attract Your Dream Clients Through Video with Alex Sheridan

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, content, video, repurpose, customers, talking, podcast, build, linkedin, entertainment, consume, question, youtube, business, conversation, tech, psychology, audience, skit, long

SPEAKERS
Alastair McDermott, Alex Sheridan

Alastair McDermott  00:02

So hello, and welcome to The Recognized Authority podcast. My name is Alastair McDermott. And today my guest is Alex Sheridan from Impaxs. And I’m gonna be talking to Alex but all things social video. So Alex, welcome to the show today, you suggested the title of how to build trust and attract your dream clients through video. Can you talk to me a little bit about how you think? How you think about that as a topic? And, and why video is so good?

Alex Sheridan  00:28

Well, it’s the back, it’s like the backbone and the ROI of why a company would want to do video, you know, and so I always like leading with that when people ask me what I do, I’m not like, oh, we do video marketing. We do video content. You know, I always say, we create video, we help companies create, build trust, and attract their dream customers through video content, because that’s what it does, right? So if you think about the old days, before we had the social media, video content, even the internet, how did you build trust, you had to call on people, you had to if you’re selling cars, you’d have to have people come into the dealership, you’d have to send them mail, you’d have to send out a newsletter, you’d have to, you know, put something in the newspaper. And what you’re doing even back then, is building trust with customers through credibility through sharing stories, through sharing, you know how you’re unique. And so all that now is just trends. It’s just a different medium, it’s the same stuff. It’s the same fundamentals, everyone would agree that we need to build trust with our customers, that we want them to be educated. Now, if they’re doing research, we want them to consume research from us. We want to be transparent and deliver the answer the questions that they have openly and honestly. And if we do that, we’re going to build trust, and we’re going to, in the process attract our dream customers. So it’s funny how like the mediums changed, whether it’s LinkedIn, tick tock Instagram, versus what it was 20 years ago when there wasn’t all of this, but the fundamentals of attracting a customer. And what you need to do with that have really not changed.

Alastair McDermott  01:50

So when I see you doing some really entertaining funny videos, like I saw you, I think you were you were acting like an NFL player like Gronk Gronkowski, or somebody like that. I can’t remember exactly. You reminded me, I think you were or maybe you were doing like Bill Belichick or something like the coach. But I know that you did some kind of fun videos where entertainment seems to be a big part of it. Can you just talk to me about like, where’s the? Where does entertainment fit in? Because I know like you’d like to make your videos fun. So can you talk to me a little bit about that? Because I know that people want to come across as experts and authority in their fields. And I’m not sure where entertainment fits in the mix there.

Alex Sheridan  02:31

So there’s also a difference between entertainment and edutainment. So edutainment is what I really love to do. And what we’ve kind of build the backbone of our brand off of is in terms of how our content gets delivered. Edutainment meanings means you’re combining educational messages or inspirational messages. There’s something there of substance, and you’re combining that with entertainment. So you’re just making your message more entertaining. And there’s a ton of different ways you could do it from very simple ways of changing your scenery and your background, your delivery, telling interesting stories in a unique way. It could be the way you edit, it could be a skit videos, but all of that ties back into there’s something important that I want to deliver it to my audience. And that’s what we that’s what we kind of that’s what we prefer versus pure entertainment.

Alex Sheridan  03:17

But I do think pure entertainment has its place to so long as you don’t only do entertainment, right unless that’s your entire goal is just to entertain your audience and build followership.

Alex Sheridan  03:27

But as a if you want to build authority, and you want to build a real brand as a company, in most cases, you’re not just going to entertain the entire time because sometimes people do need to be educated they need they do need to have their perspective shift, they do need to hear a customer success story. So you want to make sure that you’re not just doing entertainment, entertainment, entertainment, but a people want to be entertained, people want to be entertained. There’s if all you’re doing is ultra boring content. People are scrolling the feed, it’s getting more competitive, there’s better creators now there’s better technology, there’s better editing. And so your ability to find like what’s that little sweet spot where we can kind of edutainment or entertain our customers. And to your point like it’s not like you’re gonna lose credibility because if you’re doing it in a way that is on brand, and that is serving your customer base, it’s going to probably work. Got some questions, so some people, edutainment rocks.

Alastair McDermott  04:17

Cool. Robert Robert Barry, and we got we got Sarca Aleksey rockin so clearly you’ve got some like this, this is this is what I love about, you know, video and lives and and things like this as we you have clearly made a connection with those people. You know, people are want to come on and say, Hey, Alex II rock.

Alex Sheridan  04:46

I appreciate you guys. Yes.

Alastair McDermott  04:48

So. And that, to me kind of speaks to the trust and the connection that you’re making with people. So do you have like, do you have like a ratio when you’re talking to your clients about how much entertainment, or edutainment, versus kind of straight up ed-educational content, you talk to them about like, where the line is what the ratio is of that.

Alex Sheridan  05:10

It’s not, it doesn’t really come up, because I’ll tell you what most people are not out there trying to put out five pieces of entertainment or entertainment content a week. For most cases, people are trying to put out educational content or inspirational content value add content, they’re just trying to figure out ways to make it more engaging. So that’s where it’s like, the entertainment kind of uses it, right. So for example, it’s like, you know, you want to talk about a customer success story. But you saying like, hey, check out Johnny, he’s found success. And it’s like, people were falling asleep. And it’s not getting engagement, versus you doing what I did yesterday, which is sharing the customer success story, where it had a really interesting hook. And it was engaging, and it had a picture of me and my customer. And I’ve done this on video, too. It’s changing up the delivery.

Alex Sheridan  05:55

So the message is one thing, if you could break content down, I always break it down to three compartments. The first one is consistency. So you have to be consistent over a period of time. Otherwise, anything you do is not going to work, just like working out or getting fit or, you know, building a new skill, you’ve got to consistently work at it. That’s number one. But when you get aside from that, in terms of actually creating the content or the videos, you’ve got a message, and then you’ve got the delivery of that message. Some people have a great message, but they just can’t deliver it in a way that works for LinkedIn, or works for Tiktok or YouTube or the podcast. Some people have a their message needs work, or it’s like the message is just there’s no substance to it, right? It’s not making an impact on the audience. It’s not shifting perspective. It’s not teaching them something. So the message needs work. And sometimes it’s both. So that’s how I look at content in terms of like, it’s not necessarily Hey 30% edutainment or attainment 70% educational, it’s just how do we make better overall content that is more engaging, that actually gets likes and engagement and inbound leads and things of that nature on the platforms. And some of that is storytelling. Some of that is maybe unique editing, some of that is switching up your scenery, some of that is doing some skits, or some edutainment, a lot of different ways you can deliver a message

Alastair McDermott  07:08

Really interesting. And okay, so you’re talking about the different types of of content that people might be putting out inspirational, educational, pure, pure education, and then this kind of edutainment kind of mix. The the increasing engagement, that’s something I’d like to kind of dig into a little bit more. Can you talk to me a little bit about what changing that delivery looks like? What, like how you actually think about doing that with, with your clients and with people that you’re talking to about this? So?

Alex Sheridan  07:42

Yeah, I mean, if you go from just a back step, a real quick on more of the high level psychology portion of video, that’s the psychology of video that I think more people need to know, is, there’s a couple different types of content, right, and I would just, let’s just bucket it in three, three different buckets. Number one would be the “What”, and they’ll get to the tactical stuff. Number one would be the “Why” content, you need to go out there and explain you’ve probably got a narrative or a unique perspective, or you’ve got customer results, you need to go explain to your audience that you want to reach your potential customers, why doing it this way is beneficial for them. What is it for them? What is the ROI, right. And so that’s more of the “Why” content where you got to open up their mind, you got to get them to see a different way, perhaps, or a different perspective. For example, if I’m just talking about, here’s how you make better videos, here’s how I make better videos, here’s how you make better videos. But then I don’t talk about why video even matters in the first place and what it can do for their business and how it can bring them in revenue and transform their entire workplace. Well, I’m gonna miss the mark, because there might be some people saying cool, ya know how to make a video now, but I don’t think I need to do video. I’m a software company. Why should I do video? I’m a CEO. Why should I do video, right? So I gotta build explain the why.

Alex Sheridan  08:50

The second bucket would be the “How” content, the how to. And that’s, I’ve convinced them now that it makes sense to do this. But now I need to show them how to do it. So when they go to do it, they can see that ah, yeah, I see what he’s talking about here. This actually works, right.

Alex Sheridan  09:05

And then the third kind would be more of the relationship building content or relational content. And I would say that’s more of the entertainment stuff. That’s more of the personal journey stories, the things that you want to share that maybe are outside of your direct niche. So from a high level standpoint, strategically, that’s what you need to be focused on in terms of what you’re talking about. But if we get tactical. I mean, it’s really, really basic, right? So like, if you think about a video, whether it’s Tiktok or LinkedIn or YouTube shorts, you the first thing you’ve got to do is you’ve got to grab their attention and hook them in. You’ve got to grab the audience and literally pull them into you. How do you do that? You can start off with a disruptive opinion, or something that an unpopular opinion or a bold statement, you can start off by telling a really compelling story, start to a story. You could start with a skit. There’s a lot of different ways you could start with a value tease, which would be something along the lines of like, here’s the reason that you’re LinkedIn video content is not converting to customers, or here are three ways to do X, Y, and Z. Or here’s how you overcome this problem. Here’s the solution. Right? So I’m kind of teasing out the value. Once you got the hook in, then you’ve just got to deliver a compelling message that makes sense for your brand and your company and your audience. So I would just bullet point that maybe two, three or four things that you want to accomplish in that video, what are the points I really need to get across to the customer? What do they really need to hear right now, and bullet point those out, record the video, if you want to have a call to action or some type of ending that you want to make people feel a certain way or you want to move them? You can do that. But that’s that’s the kind of the three parts from a tactical standpoint, hook, compelling message, and then some type of call to action or ending to the story or a message.

Alastair McDermott  10:43

I love it. That is such a concise masterclass, you just gave there. Thanks.

Alastair McDermott  10:49

Okay, so let me let me get a little bit tactical on some of this stuff. Because I think that the I think the the, the strategy is, is essential to get right. But also with the, with the tactics. There’s a lot of detail here that people can do differently. So one thing that I wonder about is, you mentioned, LinkedIn, Tiktok YouTube shorts. There’s different lengths of videos that people can do. Would you recommend that people keep to those super short video clips, like of three minutes or one minute? Or do you think that that long form video has a place where is that place, I’d love to know a little bit more what you think about that?

Alex Sheridan  11:29

Yeah, long form video absolutely has a place it is extremely important because you can literally make an a such a deep impact on your customer, they can like for a podcast, which we have for YouTube videos long form, which we have, that’s an opportunity where people can can if they’re interested in a topic, and maybe they saw a short form video of one minute of you talking about something. And then they found out that this was a clip from a podcast. And then they go to the podcast, and like that was the trailer from the movie. And now they go to the movie, and they’re in love with it. And they start binge watching your content or binge listening to your content, your attachment to that person. And that potential customer just became 50 times deeper, you’ve built way more trust with them way more credibility with them, they’re so much more bought into you. So they’re more likely to schedule a call versus just seeing a couple of short form videos from you.

Alex Sheridan  12:17

So both are important, but both play hand in hand with each other. The short form and a lot of ways, as they say is the gateway to the long form. And the long form only gets built if you create the short form. Because how you’re going to promote your podcast or long form videos, you need to take micro clips, and you need to get it in the feeds of LinkedIn and TikTok and YouTube shorts, and get people then to come to the long form. So they both have the role in terms of length of videos, it really doesn’t matter as much. I would say it just think about where you’re at in the video content creation journey. Are you good enough where you can create a three minute video that’s really engaging and insightful and people want to consume the entire thing? Or are you just starting off and you think, hey, maybe a 45 second video, a minute video with a good hook and a good message that’s gonna do that’s going to do pretty well right now. So I would probably say shorten the time, get your message concise, build some skills, and then work your way up. But if we’re talking about long form video content, or you know content in general, then that’s a whole different topic, then that’s probably at minimum going to be five to 10 minutes, and then the back end, you know, perhaps 45 to an hour to an hour and a half. But again, the contents just got to be good. So I don’t look like how long should it be 45 seconds versus a minute and a half. I don’t think it matters as much. I think it matters how good the content is and how you deliver it.

Alastair McDermott  13:28

Yeah, and so this, so what we’re doing here, it’s very easy. And there’s over 100 episodes that people can can check out in the back catalogue of this podcast called The Recognized Authority. This, this is a going to be like a 40 minute episode or so given today’s timing. What, what I’m what I found, personally, if I’m very easy to do, is to have a conversation for somebody for 545 minutes to an hour like we’re going to do today, to have that conversation. What I found very difficult to do is have those solo videos where it’s just me, and have those be longer than five minutes, maybe eight minutes. So when you’re talking to people, you know, are they are they able actually able to create those longer solo videos? And will people consume it because there’s also something about watching one person speaking for eight minutes, that’s very different to watching two people having a conversation like we’re doing.

Alex Sheridan  14:23

So I’ll start I struggle with the same thing, right? If I’m going to make this if you told me to create a 45 minute video, and you gave me all the questions that I just had to go through the questions, that’s going to be harder for me than having this conversation with you. And the reason that is is if you dig into the psychology of the human is, we’re having a conversation. This is very natural. As human beings we have conversations every single day. What we don’t do is sit in front of a camera. I mean, some of us some of us do, but most of us don’t sit in front of a camera and look at a topic and record look at a topic and record. That’s not as natural, right? That’s not we were we were telling stories and having these conversations fifty thousand years ago. So it’s like literally embedded in our brains as a human being.

Alex Sheridan  15:04

So it’s funny you say this because I literally posted a video today, I was like, the easiest type of content you can create is this is the in person or the virtual conversational content, it’s documenting the things that you’re doing. You’re a guest on a podcast, you’re hosting a podcast, you’re in a live event, you’ve got a team meeting, you’ve got a customer meeting, just put your phone on, record it get a good mic. And now that content is going to start to flow. And you have to worry less about it being awkward, or Oh, my gosh, I got to start over. Because if I just answered the same question by myself, there would have been times when I’ve been like, I messed that up, I gotta restart. But because we’re live, and there’s something about that psychology of like, this is just a conversation. And there is no like, hold on, Alistair, like pause the show, I’ll come right back and retake this in five minutes. Like, that’s not going to happen, right? So there’s almost that like, intuition that you have that you just need to go with it. You just need a role, where if you’re by yourself, you know that you could hit stop, you know, that you can stop the video and try it again, or do a different take. And so I think, yeah, I would encourage people that if you’re just getting started, and it feels weird to make a video by yourself, then get a colleague or someone else is going to create content with you, or a customer or someone else. And just record yourself as you’re having these conversations.

Alex Sheridan  16:13

Now, if you want to get a little bit more intentional and tactical, and you want to make that strategy work better, then you need to think about how you’re answering questions. Because for it to become short form video content. And here’s a great example. You asked me a question of what’s the number one mistake companies are making with video right now? And I answer it not knowing how to repurpose content from longer form as an amateur I would answer and say, Well, I think it’s a couple things. You know, I think it’s number one, it’s this isn’t this now, how am I gonna repurpose that? What am I gonna start to clip off and say, I think it’s a couple things. I think it’s number one people are gonna like, what the hell’s this guy talking about? Instead, a pro at taking long form and moving it to short form would repeat the question back or make sure that there’s an embedded hook in there. So I might say back to you, you say, Hey, Alex, what’s the biggest mistake companies are making with video right now. And I say, the biggest mistake that companies are making with video right now is X, Y, and Z. And let me tell you how this is impacting their business. That is a tactical thing that not it’s, it’s an art form a little bit, but it’s simple. But it takes practice, that if you can start embedding that stuff, as you’re documenting, as you’re recording these live events and virtual events, that’s going to give you a lot more runway with the short form content, which means you’re taking one session like this, and you’re making eight to 10 clips, versus one to two that you’re struggling to get out of it, which means you’re getting 100,000 plus views, versus a handful of a couple 1000 views, which means you’re taxing the lead opportunities, you’re taxing the brand opportunities you’re taxing, you’re getting in front of your audience. So So learn how to like repurpose, and work that, but I think this style is fantastic.

Alastair McDermott  17:50

Yeah, and again, like what you just told us about there is that’s that’s really, the mark of a pro is I’ve noticed something else that you’re doing is you’re looking directly at the camera. Even though I know that I’m off screen for you. I’m down to your right. And so this is something I tried to do myself is look right at the camera, and you’re like just out of shot. But it’s all of these little things are things that you will only do I think by putting in the reps, which is why it’s so important to actually to just start and just start doing this.

Alex Sheridan  18:23

And you know, what’s funny, man to that point. I’ve had I’ve been on live events and sessions and people go, you know, Alex, you talk about repurposing content all the time. And it’s so important, and everyone should repurpose their content like bullcrap. You don’t ever, I don’t ever see repurpose clips from you. And I go do that. That’s because the way we repurpose videos, you almost don’t even know what’s repurposed. And that works so well, right? It’s the way we shoot the videos. It’s the way our setup is, is the how I look into the camera. It’s how I’m standing right now. There’s different elements that it’s how I answered the question specifically to know that I’m going to turn it into short form content, that all goes into it. And so are there certain settings where you’d want it to look like it’s a conversation and you’d want to show your guest? And that’s absolutely right. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Alex Sheridan  19:07

But the problem is, most people start these podcast, and they pay no attention to the art, to the creation, to how people are going to consume the content in the feeds, they completely disregard it. And so they think they’re up there like Joe Rogan. And they’re creating this masterpiece of a podcast, and it’s like, show the clip and they repurpose the clip. And it’s like, so you know, you’ve been in the blink blink industry for a long time. Now, what are your thoughts on so and so it’s like, the audience has gotten that you think they’re sticking around to figure out what your where you’re going with this? I promise you they’re not because the next video is an extremely engaging video or textbooks on LinkedIn or whatever it is. They’re moving right past that. So your ability to like take the art of like, think like a creator and think like a consumer. As you repurpose. It’s so important.

Alastair McDermott  19:53

I’m interested in how you think about the way that people are actually consuming video on those social feeds. Talk to me a little bit about, you know, like, have you done any studies on this? Or is this just through experience with your clients? Can you tell me a little bit about what people like how that actually impacts on what you do with video?

Alex Sheridan  20:14

Well, if you just look at the way, if you look at, like what happened with Tiktok over the last two, three years, completely changed the landscape of how we consume videos, how shorter form, which will it was, it was still around before, but now vertical, right? As long as our cell phones are like this, and not like this, that vertical is going that style is going to be around for a long time, right? Because there was more tic tock videos, and people had to naturally up their video game, because there was just more creators, and the style was a little bit more punchy, a little bit more fast paced. It’s impacted how everyone consumes content, which is why Instagram reels copied them, which is why YouTube shorts came around and created their own real version or their own Tiktok version.

Alex Sheridan  20:56

Think about how big that is Instagram, Facebook, the largest social media platforms in the world. Combined, definitely. But even Facebook, I think, is still number one, at this point, YouTube, the number one video search engine in the world. So how big Did you like, that’s how big short form vertical was that they had to come out and say, we’re going to create this entire division that is short form vertical videos like that, to me, when I saw that happening, I was like, Man, this is a big, big, big deal. And if I don’t figure the short form vertical out and Tiktok, and it’s going to translate, it’s already translating the LinkedIn to if I don’t think you read this out, for me, and for my customers, I risked getting lost left behind. And I think that’s the so that’s how I think about it.

Alex Sheridan  21:41

Like just if you look at the evolution of video two, three years ago, on LinkedIn, it was square videos, remember, horizontal, but now it and there’s still some of that, but it’s gotten a lot more vertical. Because people are just like they’re now used to it. They’re on Tiktok, they’re on Instagram realtor on YouTube shorts. So when they go on another platform, it’s kind of like, I don’t want the slow like square video that like takes me forever to figure out what they’re talking about. Like that doesn’t align with how I consume. And consumption on tick tock is different than LinkedIn, no doubt about it different than YouTube shorts. There’s contextual differences to each platform. But I think it’s shaped the way that we consume video, it’s gotten more competitive, there’s better creators, there’s better editing. So it’s like, if you’re not stepping up your game from two to three to four years ago, you’re probably not relevant anymore. You’ve got to continue to evolve and get better.

Alastair McDermott  22:28

So if somebody is just starting out, what we what would you recommend that they do to get started because like, they’re, you know, that the mindset of I’m sure you’ve talked to these people, and they’re kind of a bit scared of doing video? Because there’s so many different things, lighting and audio and the camera and all of this kind of stuff. Like, what would your advice be to somebody who’s just starting out with video?

Alex Sheridan  22:50

If they’re scared to get on video, what would my advice be?

Alex Sheridan  22:54

So you’re asking if there’s a beginner video. So I think, look, and you don’t have to start with video, you could start with text or picture, audio podcasts, that kind of stuff, right? So if it’s really like petrifying, you dip your feet in other types of content, that’s better than doing nothing because you’re scared to make videos. But I would say that videos is the best opportunity in terms of how it scales to different platforms and how you can repurpose it, there is nothing that’s going to be as good as video no doubt about it.

Alastair McDermott  22:54

Yeah.

Alex Sheridan  23:21

But in terms of getting started, there’s a couple of things that I would say if you’re scared to put yourself out there. And video number one is, there’s a psychology element to this, like, let’s be honest, right? There’s insecurities involved. There’s ego involved. It’s okay, we all have it, right? You’re thinking about, Oh, what if it doesn’t perform? What if I look ugly? I’ve literally had people tell me that. I’m like, what, like, you’re not ugly? Like, what if my video doesn’t perform? What if people make fun of me? What if it just, it fails, right? And so you have to like, figure out what those mental hurdles are. And for some people, this may take them on a very deep journey that they didn’t expect to go on, because now they start thinking about the psychology of why they are the way they are. And that’s probably good. And maybe you need to go talk to someone about it, too. And that’s fine, too. But there’s those psychology, psychological hurdles that get in the way of people. That’s the biggest one, if we’re being totally honest here. It’s less tactical and strategic than it is just people just literally get in their own way. Because they get in there, they get so wrapped up here. So I would I would think about that stuff first.

Alex Sheridan  24:21

Once you get beyond that, you have to understand that this you’re building a skill. And this is just like playing basketball, or football, or it’s like, you know, becoming a better interviewer. Or it’s like, if you’re gonna go try to swim tomorrow, and you’ve never really swam before in a pool. You’re not going to be amazing at it in the beginning. I mean, go back and look at my first 20-30 videos. They weren’t good, right? So it’s like, you have to kind of come into it saying, I’m gonna fail. I’m gonna make some mistakes. My shits not going to look great right away. You know, I’m going to fumble through some things. I’m going to forget some things that I was going to say that I really wanted to say. But that’s okay. Because I’m here to build skills. I’m here to get better are here in six months from now, I’m here to look back and say, Man, I’ve made a lot of progress, my videos are a lot better.

Alex Sheridan  25:06

So that’s kind of how I bucket is like the mindset, the psychology piece first. And then the other piece is understanding that this is a journey. And you want to, you know, have the tactical advice that we’ve we’ve talked about have the strategy in place that part of that we’ve talked about, but also know that this is a game of reps. And you know, you would never go into a gym a basketball gym and expect to be Michael Jordan, or LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, after three weeks of playing basketball, people would look at you like you’re crazy. If you’re like, I don’t understand why I’m not as good as Michael Jordan. They’d be like, how long have you playing basketball for three weeks? That’s totally unrealistic. That’s not even freaking in the right universe of possibilities, that you could be that good in that short of a time period. What those people would tell you J MJ, Kobe and LeBron, as they would tell you it took months years have dedicated themselves towards getting better at this. And so I think it just you got to beat on the craft a little bit.

Alastair McDermott  26:01

Yeah, absolutely. And Anna Marie just just commented to say so much to think about, there’s also tech challenges as well. Absolutely. There is there is a lot.

Alex Sheridan  26:10

What are the Tech Tech, but I think that’s that’s a little bit of a cop out, though. Because what are the tech challenges? Like, if you’re just getting started, you’ve got a smartphone. That’s all you need for tech. If you want to upgrade and get a mic cool. Like, but there’s no like, I understand there might be some issue, but I don’t like throwing that out there. Because I feel like I don’t have the right setup the right tag. I don’t know what the record on dude is 2023 You’re gonna you pull out your phone, you hit record, you’re making some videos, right? 95% of my content is from my smartphone. I’ve just upgraded the mic. We’ve got some good lighting now. But you got to start somewhere. So take that idea of like tech issues. No, there’s no tech issues. The tech issues are what you say when there’s something probably psychologically going on that you haven’t addressed yet. And so you’re using the tech issues as a reason to not get started.

Alastair McDermott  27:04

Yeah, this is like not having the right trainers, to where when you’re free to go to the gym. So

Alex Sheridan  27:10

you gotta go look, it helps to have training, it helps to have support, it helps that if you can afford it, cool, get it. But you have to throw all the excuses out and say there’s no tech, there’s never been a tech issue. I’ve made a trillion videos, I’ve never there’s no not been one time that Tech has stopped me from making videos.

Alastair McDermott  27:25

The other thing is, you know, you can learn how to use all of those. You know, those tools, just just like the first 123

Alex Sheridan  27:33

Like, I there’s tech everywhere, like everyone’s using tech, like you spend a half an hour you’ll learn something about tech, like I don’t know, if you didn’t know what Chat GPT was right now. You could go Google or YouTube for two or three or four or five, six hours if you wanted to, and your spare time, and you can learn enough about it to start using it.

Alastair McDermott  27:52

Yeah, yeah, I got to start to wrap this up to get you away on time, I have a couple of questions that I always ask. One is what is the number one tip that you would give to somebody who wants to build their authority.

Alex Sheridan  28:03

If you want to build authority, you have to put out content as as much as you possibly can towards helping people providing value, whether that’s the edutainment, the educational, the inspirational around the thing that you want to showcase that you’re an authority in.

Alex Sheridan  28:21

So it sounds super simple, but it’s like if I want to be an authority figure and leadership, then I need to put out content as much as I possibly can, let’s just say Monday through Friday, you know, once a day, that’s, that’s a good place to start three to five times a week, I need to start putting out content that helps other potential leaders or leaders become better leaders. So I need to share stories, I need to share maybe some failures that I had, and lessons that I learned from them, I need to share stories about me working with other leaders, I need to share tips and strategies, I need to share why becoming a better leader even matters in the first place, what it does for you and your company and your opportunities. So it’s really as basic as that you want to be an authority figure, go prove it, you got to prove it, you got to put out content starts there. But you got to talk about the things that are going to position you as an authority. You know, if I get on here and talk about these are my services, and this is what we do. And then the no one’s gonna think I’m an authority. I’m an authority because I come on here and I live this shit every single day. And then me and my customers and I talk about the stuff that I learned that I pick up this isn’t me I just like read an article before this podcast like I everything I’m talking about now. It’s like years of like making mistakes or failing or winning or this or that or seeing what works and what doesn’t work. And so take all of your experience and your stories and your wisdom and just start putting that out and content written audio and video.

Alastair McDermott  29:41

Love it. You know I do actually ask about mistakes. Can you tell us about a business to take or failure that you’ve experienced what he learned from it?

Alex Sheridan  29:50

And there’s, there’s been a trillion I mean, I think that’s the one thing that people need to know regardless of your level of success and where you’re at making mistakes and like failing along the way. is just an absolute part of the success journey. And even when you start to find success, you’re gonna fail in other ways. I mean, there’s a ton of ones, if you’re talking just business, I would say, to be honest, I, from a content standpoint, I wish I would have gotten more serious about YouTube earlier, I wish I would have gotten more serious about tick tock earlier, right. From a business standpoint, I in the first year of being an entrepreneur, or just being a new entrepreneur, I didn’t master recurring revenue. And so I had, you know, periods of time where like, it was amazing. And then if you don’t have recurring revenue, you know that you have periods of time where it’s not as amazing. And so, you know, and I saved and was smart with my money and stuff. But it taught me a valuable lesson that you can’t constantly rely on new customers coming in every week. That may be great for a while. And there certainly that can be an aspect of the business. But you need to build reoccurring sustaining revenue, you need to find ways to service your customers over and over and over again, and continue to add so much value continue to help them get better results. So building that and kind of the business model for us was was big time.

Alastair McDermott  31:03

Yeah, I’ve been there bought that T shirt too. Is there a business book or resource that’s been important for you?

Alex Sheridan  31:11

Business Book, you know, to be honest, I’m not a reader. I do do I listen to an occasional podcast? I would say that, you know, we talked about Marcus Sheridan in the beginning. It’s funny enough, I Marcus Sheridan has been a pretty big influence on me in terms of his philosophy on how he thinks about content. And, you know, the whole they asked you answer philosophy, I’ve really adapted a lot of that in my business. I think he’s a great person, too. If you’re not already following him on LinkedIn, YouTube, you know, wherever else he is, picking picking up his book, “They Asked, You Answer”. I haven’t. I can’t say that. I honestly read that book. But because again, I’m just not a reader, not because I don’t want to read it. But I’ve picked up enough from conversations with him, and from consuming his content. And now I’m going to get to see him in person next month, which I’m really excited about, I think, fine. You know, it’s very important to your point is like finding resources and mentors, even if you don’t know them, or their distance, or their you know, maybe they’re, they’re famous, finding people that really align with you from a business standpoint, but also from a personal standpoint, and really learning from them. Because they’ve been there. They’ve been doing it 10 years longer than you have or 20 years longer than you have, they’ve made those mistakes. They’ve been where you’re at. They know what it takes to get to the next level. And I think learning from those people is is really, really valuable.

Alastair McDermott  32:25

Yeah, I had Marcus on episode 50 of the day. Yeah,

Alex Sheridan  32:30

It was a great one. I’m sure. Yeah.

Alastair McDermott  32:32

Yeah, he was. He was super so. Yeah, he he, he came on and talked a whole lot. And yeah, he is his book is “They Ask You Answer”. It’s really really worthwhile checking out if you’re into content creation. So last question is just about fiction. And if you don’t read fiction, is there is there a TV movies funny real? Are you really into?

Alex Sheridan  32:54

Yeah, I don’t definitely don’t read the fiction, but I’m one of my into TV shows. Breaking Bad was like one of my all time favorites. I’m really into like, Game of Thrones was good. What am I recently into? The Mandalorian? You know, for the Star Wars series? That’s a good one. I really so since I do the edutainment skit videos, as you know, part of that involves writing scripts, and you have to figure out characters about, you know, that kind of stuff. And so, for me, when I watch stuff, I really pay attention to the nuances of the script, or why did they film it that way? Or why did they they, you know, intentionally did not tell you something about that character? Or they asked him a question, and they didn’t answer it. They just walked away, like, ah, and you had to decipher how they took that, you know, or maybe they did tell you certain things and certain parts. And so, I really look at the script and even how they deliver it, how they act. You know, I’m always looking at it. I’ll watch somebody deliver a line, and then I’ll try to deliver the line back and see if I can do it, like my own style, or better, you know, and like the whole process of movie creation, TV show creation, telling stories. I just love it, man. I’m in love with it. So when I’m watching the show, I’m enjoying it, but I’m also enjoying it and looking at the art and seeing Wow, the scriptwriter is so good that they he or she put that in there? Or Wow, the way they ended that or I really like admire that stuff.

Alastair McDermott  34:11

Yeah, I think it’s great when you can take what you’re doing. And it helps you to see what’s around you in different ways. Yeah. And Irina says my husband works in Game of Thrones. He was a promo editor. So very cool. It’s a small man. It’s a small world.

Alastair McDermott  34:26

Well, Alex, thank you so much. And I’m sorry, I’ve held you a minute over time. Where can people find you if if they want to learn more?

Alex Sheridan  34:33

LinkedIn is a great place I’m on there daily. You can go to our website if you want check out what we’re up to. I do have some exciting new things dropping with. Typically we’ve worked with just like b2b companies, and we do a lot of done for you services mixed with strategy and consulting. And now in the next probably 30 days, I’d say maybe 45 days at the most I’m launching a virtual course that’s gonna be really good. We’re really doing a nice job with this. I want to make sure if I was like, if we’re going to do it, it’s more of a passion project for me. I’ll need to do this too. And I’m like, if I’m gonna do it, we’re gonna do it right. And then we also got some done with you stuff that’s a little bit more hands on, but that also has kind of the virtual material in there as well. So I’m really excited about that. So more to come on that but hit me up LinkedIn, Tiktok. Check out the podcast Brand in Demand. And the website’s got all the information.

Alastair McDermott  35:19

Awesome. And I highly recommend following Alex because you’ll learn so much just by watching your videos. Watch what you’re doing. So thank thank you so much for being on The Recognized Authority podcast.

Alex Sheridan  35:29

Thanks, Alastair. I appreciate you having me on.

Alastair McDermott  35:31

Thanks, folks. We’ll see you in the next one.