How to Build Authority with YouTube with Salma Jafri

Salma Jafri 0:00
And I love the fact that you were experimenting, doing the things, walking the talk. You’re, you’re for real. I love that.

Voiceover 0:07
Welcome to The Recognized Authority, a podcast that helps specialized consultants and domain experts on your journey to become known as an authority in your field. So you can increase your reach, have more impact and work with great clients. Here’s your host, Alastair McDermott, I

Alastair McDermott 0:23
have a fantastic interview to bring you today, which is with Salma Joffrey, about using YouTube to build authority. But before I get to that, I just want to tell you about something that I’m working on right now, that might be of interest to you. So I like to help people to build authority. But building authority is slow. And the reason why we want to build authority is to generate leads. And so I’m looking at, I’m continuously tweaking and refining my approach. And I’m looking to combine those two things. So right now, I’m looking for three prospective clients to create an authority and lead generation platform that will consistently and predictably attract your best clients every week. And so I’m looking for three clients to put their hand up and say, Yes, I want to work with you on this. And this is the pilot of version two of the authority accelerator program. And the goal is to fill your calendar with conversations with your ideal clients, and to keep your sheduled booked months in advance with no spam Enos or no uncomfortable sales tactics. And we all know that in order to generate these flows of high quality leads, you need to have some sort of system and some sort of platform. So I’m looking for somebody who is an expert in your field, you have a high ticket transformative offer, that makes a huge difference for your clients business, you lead with integrity, and an intention to your clients and prospective clients interests first, so like in a fiduciary responsibility or a moral integrity, and you must also be willing to appear on camera to build your authority platform, that’s important too, because you have to go on camera to make that human connection. And I’m looking for somebody who’s willing, and able to commit 90 minutes a week for the first 60 days, and then 30 minutes a week after that. So this is a pilot of version two of the authority accelerator program, it’s going to be massively discounted, because I’m looking for testimonials and case studies to use on my new sales page. But these are proven tactics, and I absolutely guarantee results. So if you described so if I’ve just described you, then click on the link in the show notes, or go find an email from me if you’re on my email list, and hit reply on that. And I’d love to talk to you and explore and see if you’re a good fit for the program. And if it’s good fit for you. Thanks for listening, and on with the interview.

Salma, I’m delighted to have you here to talk about YouTube because it’s something I need to work on. And I think that some of the people listening to this, who are experts and want to build their authority and personal brand, are looking at YouTube as well. So I think that maybe they’d be interested in this as well. So you are a YouTube master. And in fact, you’re a certified and you teach people strategies, tactics, all of this stuff to grow personal brand on YouTube, can you tell me a little bit about what’s truly important, when you’re starting out and you’re thinking about this,

Salma Jafri 3:21
I think something that’s very underrated, but really, really important for like, building your credibility on YouTube, is to nail your audience like really, really get down to the nitty gritty of who your ideal audience is. So we call them like iaac, ideal audience, you know, client, or ideal audience avatar, or whatever you want to call it, but really, really get down to the basics of talking to one person solving a problem for that one person, and then having like a very clear strategy of why you’re talking to them, and what do they need? Where are they at? What are their pain points? What are their triggers? What will they relate to the most, I think, if you can nail that part, everything else sort of flows from there and gets like really, really, almost intuitive.

Alastair McDermott 4:14
One, one of the things that I struggle with a little bit sometimes is when I’m looking at the really popular YouTube channels, and I’m trying to learn from what they’re doing, is that a lot of those are entertainment focused and they’re kind of they’re aimed at this consumer audience. And it doesn’t really translates so well over to business education type content. Can you tell me a little bit about how you think about that? Because, like, I find that really difficult to learn from those.

Salma Jafri 4:39
We should have a conversation about this because this is something I could talk about all day every day 24/7 Because this is exactly the pit I fell into and I’m sure like when you look at YouTube as well anybody looks at they’re all the mister beasts and the Peter McKinnon’s and Casey Neistat and all the influencers and Emma Chamberlain’s out there, and you’re like wow Oh, you need like three camera angles, tons of Bureau, fast editing, lots of cuts, lots of jump cuts, as we call them in the industry. And, you know, like a fancy studio and production setup and all of that. And that that’s true. That’s all what you are going to need if your aim is to be a full time creator, which is not the aim of my audience and the aim of most business YouTube creators, I think, where we blur the lines is where we think we need to match the level of energy intensity resources time with full time content creators. But if you’re a business owner, that is not how you should be thinking, as business owners, we do not need to think of ourselves as full time content creators, we need to think of ourselves as online business owners first, and leverage YouTube for its credibility for its authority for its lead gen for its visibility, right. And so that requires a whole different strategy than the entertainment people out there. So when you look at the business, people who are leveraging YouTube, to get leads to get sales to get clients to build their authority to build their personal brands, that requires a much more targeted and strategic and intentional approach, versus, you know, just fancy productions and all the time producing content, it requires more thought, it requires more problem solving content, so that people actually see that you can solve their problem. And then it requires conversion content, where did they go for the next step? What do they do after they’ve watched your free YouTube video? Like they need help? They need to know how can I implement this, you know, so you need to make sure that your videos within the videos itself are structured really well. But then your channel is structured in a way that it guides people through the process of wanting to work with you hire you buy from you, you know, and just have that level of you know, that next level of working with you in some capacity. So I think for that, you don’t need the fancy stuff. But you do need the basic stuff. And there’s a huge, big difference. So the basic stuff is your strategy, knowing who your audience is, knowing what their problems are, and then showing up as the expert to solve that.

Alastair McDermott 7:24
Showing up as the expert to solve it. and problem solving. Are you talking about creating a lot of how to content is that the type of content that we should be doing? Well,

Salma Jafri 7:35
I would say yes to that, if this was 2016. But YouTube has changed a lot and you know how to content is, it’s still, you might still think of it as how to content but how you package it is really very different now. So the reason why I say the difference between 2016 and now is because we used to be able to rank YouTube videos, like I have videos where I could rank them in like 16 minutes, you know, because of keyword strategy and exact match searches and all that kind of stuff. YouTube used to be really, really easy to rank videos on. Because Because of SEO. But nowadays, emotional content takes priority over search engine optimized content. So when you’re thinking of how to content, you also need to be thinking of relating to the human viewer, not just ranking in search. So when you think about creating a video, let’s say how to make a YouTube video with your phone. Right? So that’s the How to content, but then you really need to get into the emotional triggers of your audience. What do you what is their problem, really, maybe they don’t have, you know, a fancy setup, or the only camera they have is their phone. So you need to kind of build that emotional arc into both the title and the thumbnail. And then obviously, the content itself. So it’s no longer just how to, but it’s how to plus emotional triggers. So that really is now the key to kind of getting that click and and getting people to look at the video and say yes, this video looks like it’s going to solve my problem. But also just going beyond just the How to and really tapping into the emotions that people are feeling in that moment of why they’d want to click on watch this particular video. So that’s the difference.

Alastair McDermott 9:29
Right? Okay, that’s, that’s really interesting. And I think that we’re going to need to dig into that a little bit more. So I have a fairly basic but solid understanding of the YouTube basics. So the first thing we’re going to need to have a really great thumbnail and a really great title that encourage people to click because the the hardest part is to get people to click to start watching your video. And then as soon as you get people watching your video, then you’ve got to try and retain them. You got to keep them watching the video. So you got to have a Like, like what we did today, we did a fairly short intro. And it’s something I have always done on my podcast because they always have those really long backstory introductions for you know, your story. So, when you watch any YouTube video on a on a really popular channel, like they don’t have a big intro segment with, you know, with titles and all music and all that kind of stuff, they get into it. So those are like, that’s, that’s kind of like the table stakes. Those are the basics you absolutely have to have. But then so I as a, you know, I come from an engineering background, it’s very easy for me to create a how to type content. And most of the people who are watching or listening to this are experts in their field. Um, so how to is is, you know, that’s their bread and butter they can do how to stuff all day, but actually bringing the emotional part into it and figuring out the emotional triggers. That part is that’s that’s where it’s it starts to get a bit messy. Can you dig into like what that actually looks like if we were creating a how to, and let’s, let’s pick something, let’s let’s pick something a little bit technical, but not not crazy technical let’s, let’s say somebody wants to write a book and put it up on Kindle on KDP, which is fairly easy. But there are some technical parts to that. Can you talk to me a little bit about if we use that as an example what that might look like?

Salma Jafri 11:15
Okay, before I get into the example, though, I just want to say one thing, when you said about the top of the titles and thumbnails being really important, I want to add one more thing to that I call it my three T framework. So it’s three T’s. And it starts with topic, title, and thumbnail. All those three things combined together is really the packaging of your YouTube video by which you win the click. So your topic is very, very important. And how you choose your topic is crucial. And then how you title it and then how you thumbnail it. So all three work together. So with that said, let me give you an example first from one of my clients, thinking about titles. So when I think about titles, and adding that emotional arc into titles, while being a how to title, I think about I’ll give you the title first. And then I’ll show you the framework behind that. Okay, so one of my one of my clients did this, I think about a year ago, maybe it was 10 months ago, or so where she has a channel for women talking about gray hair. And so she could have done a video called How to go gray, or how to embrace your gray hair or whatever. But the emotional side of it added in made that title, how to go gray without looking old. So do you see the difference between how to have gray hair versus how to go gray without looking old. So the fear is that if I have a lot of gray hair, people are going to perceive me as being maybe 10 years older than I actually am. So people don’t want to look old, which brings me to my framework, it’s called the GCFA framework. And it’s what you do is you write down goals, that’s the G challenges. That’s the C F, that’s the fears. And a that’s the aspirations. Once you nail these four things down goals, challenges, fears, aspirations, you can come up with titles that talk about the goal, which is you know, go gray or publish a Kindle book without the challenge. So what is the challenge that your audience might be facing? Maybe they don’t, they haven’t ever published before. So maybe they’re a first time publisher. So how to publish your first Kindle book, that could be a differentiating factor, maybe tech is challenging for them. So maybe the title could be how to publish your first Kindle book, even if you are not tech savvy, user, whatever that challenge is, and you know, your audience best. So you have to figure out what their challenges are, and then incorporating the fears and aspirations as visuals in the thumbnail. So that’s kind of the framework that I use to add both keywords, as well as emotional triggers into your titles and thumbnails. Let me know if that makes sense. Yeah,

Alastair McDermott 13:55
it does. I love it. So if so what you’re doing there is, I guess the fear is, is the looking old. The aspiration is to look younger or not looking look old. So it’s kind of the the inverse of that. Yes. And I don’t know if that’s a challenge or not. So I don’t know if you if it’s possible to fit all of those goals, challenges, fears and aspirations into one single, but you can probably pack you probably

Salma Jafri 14:22
you probably want to choose two for your title and two for or one for the thumbnail. So for thumbnails, either go with fear based thumbnails or aspirational thumbnails, because those are the kinds of work best people either want to avoid pain or reach a goal. And if you’re confused between which one always choose the fear based one, it always works better because avoiding pain is a greater motivator than reaching a goal. So, you know, it depends on your your topic, obviously,

Alastair McDermott 14:50
as somebody who’s been working in marketing for a very long time. This kind of irritates me that the way that the human brain works, I guess it’s something that goes back to You know, safety and security. And you know, they’re very primal, but we’re much more motivated by fear. That is true. So and that’s why marketing, so much of it is fear based, you know, it’s it, but that’s what motivates people. And so yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s kind of irritating on one level, but it’s what you have to do. Okay, so. So we, we have an idea of the goals, challenges, the fears, the aspirations, we’re creating the title and the thumbnail. Let’s go back to the first tee the topic? And can you tell me a little bit about how you think about that? Because, like, is is because in the example that I gave of, let’s say, somebody trying to publish a book or books on Kindle, the topic itself? Can you tell me how you would think about breaking that down as to figure out, Is this a good topic to cover? Or, you know, should we be taking a different angle or something like that? How do you think about that?

Salma Jafri 15:55
Well, what I’m thinking about if this is a good topic to cover or not, there are a few variables that go into it. Number 1am, I an expert in this, can I get on stage tomorrow, right now like with, you know, just a day’s notice, perhaps, and go up and talk about this topic to an audience. So that’s kind of really, I start from there, because I don’t want people to get overwhelmed with a lot of research, because then they don’t sound very authentic. So it has to come from something that you actually know a lot about. So that’s the first criteria for choosing a good topic. The second criteria really, is about differentiating yourself in the marketplace. So pretty much every topic you’re gonna think about nowadays is going to be like, Oh, it’s so saturated, there’s so much competition. And on the other hand, end of the spectrum, a lot of times my clients say, well, there’s nobody doing this, or there’s nobody talking about this. And I think they’re thinking about competition or wrong competition is just the people who are showing up for the problems that your audience has. So if you know people are showing up for that particular problem, then that’s your competition. That’s how you have to think about competition. So you have to really figure out, how are you going to differentiate, like, what is going to be the unique perspective that you’re gonna have. And that’s where branding comes into place. That’s where you know, your personal brand, your personality, how you talk about things, how you explain things, how you think about things, your unique perspective, your unique insights, your experience, maybe your work experience, maybe you’ve worked with clients before, you’ve had personal success with that topic before, you want to bring all of that into how you present a topic. And then the third thing that I think kind of helps you figure out if this is a good topic or not, it’s search volume. So I look at search volume with regards to Okay, is there demand for this? And is that demand trending up? Or down? Or is it stable, so stable demand typically, for me, it means like, stable topics, that means I’m going to probably get evergreen views on this. Decreasing trending of views probably means it was a fad or something was something that’s just going out of, you know, popularity, and I’m probably going to get fewer and fewer views on this, if I create a video on this. And obviously, if the topic is trending up, then that is potential for growth. So you always want to either choose stable, Evergreen, or trending up. So those are the three criterias for is this a good topic or not? Yeah,

Alastair McDermott 18:29
that’s something like I think, a lot of people. So the way I think about this is as an expert is stay in your lane. I know that that phrase tends to have some emotional connotations as well. But I think that for experts, it’s a good rule of thumb for what we talk about. And so, you know, that’s that’s the that’s the way I personally think about that. And everything that I talked about is typically something I could give a talk on. And I think that most people listening to this are expert enough in their field that they could give a talk on any one of the topics that that’s in their subject area. So I think that the expertise part, I think most people listening will have that covered. And then it’s just figuring out, you talked about keywords and and the search volume and things like that. What kind of tools do you use for that? Are there specific tool for YouTube? Or are they kind of more general search engine

Salma Jafri 19:19
tools? They’re both so I the specific tool I use for YouTube is to buddy. And then the more generic tool I use is Keywords Everywhere. But I think, you know, my like I have a SEO background. So I’m like talking a lot about that. And I have a content marketing background. So I talk a lot about organic growth. But to address your point about you know, being in your lane. I think it’s yes, it’s being in your lane, but it’s also showing your personality and I think that’s the part that most people miss about YouTube, putting the you in YouTube, you know, putting yourself it’s not just the topic when I get on sales calls one of the first questions I asked people before I decide to work with them, is why me? And the answers are almost always like your style. And like how you explain things, I’ve heard the same thing from other YouTube educators. But when you explained it, it made sense to me. So I think this is the part that a lot of experts, myself included, was not building upon as much your personality, that’s the missing ingredient on on YouTube, it’s not just the topic, it’s not just the fact that you’re an expert, but it is how you come across on camera, how you showcase your personality. And that could mean like, you know, if you’re a mom talking about, you know, maybe the home work environment with kids, and how challenging that might be. Or if you’re somebody like me, who just moved countries and migrated to this gorgeous island that I live on now, maybe including that in my backdrop and doing outdoor shoots and bringing a little bit of, you know, my lifestyle into the videos. And so it’s really about showcasing just a little bit more than just the topic, it’s what are the things that are important to you, maybe you have pets that are really important to you, maybe include them in your videos, you know? So so it’s just that putting that little bit of you into it, that makes all the difference between why somebody would follow you versus all the other experts out there?

Alastair McDermott 21:28
Well, I have two very cute kittens here that I could bring it on video, but I’m not gonna do

Salma Jafri 21:33
I think YouTube and cats go together. So Alastair, yeah, this, take this as a challenge. Figure out how to get your cats on camera.

Alastair McDermott 21:44
Yeah, well, I think they do like to come in and destroy the office. While I mean, in terms of personality, I think that some people who are listening or watching this might be thinking, you know, oh, I don’t know, if I have the personality for that, like, how can you tell if you have the personality to go on YouTube and do stuff like this?

Salma Jafri 22:02
You can, that’s the troubling part, right? Because you’re like, you’re looking at all the other people and you’re like, oh, they can dance, they can, you know, be comedic, they can tell great stories, but I can’t, I’m just a normal, boring person. But you’re not, you’re probably very different. When you’re in a group of friends, you are probably very different, you know, in, in a different social environment with people you’re actually comfortable with, you’re probably very different with your partner, or with your kids, or with your best friend, or with your office colleagues or with you know, relatives, you have all these different sides of your personality, you just have to figure out which one is going to be the one that you’re going to showcase on video. That’s the challenge.

Alastair McDermott 22:49
That’s that’s a great answer. And, like, I know, this is something that I wasn’t very comfortable the first time I got an video and yeah, you know, I’ve done 140 episodes of The Recognized Authority at this point. And I’ve done countless other podcasts, my own and others. So I’ve probably been on camera between live streams and everything, maybe six 700 times, maybe more. And so, you know, I’m really used to this. Now, one of the things that I found that works for me, is I just try and be me, and not not trying to put on any kind of act, not trying to look anything like, you know, we wear certain masks in different environments and different groups. And I think if you can unmask yourself and just be the real true you, and that all test authenticity, we’ll come across something, I think that that’s really crucial for me, because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to do this. And I think it’s something that that I see with the people who I talk to is

Salma Jafri 23:48
also that, sorry, I kind of cut you a little bit there. But just I want to actually add to something that you were saying when we feel like we’re being boring, or that this is a this is a comment that I often get on my YouTube channel that you you weren’t explained it slowly. You took your time, and I appreciate that. So it really depends on the kind of audience that you want to attract, you know, but obviously your personality and the way you explain things or the way you talk about things is going to attract a certain audience. For me I’m very happy attracting an older audience. I’m very I’m totally happy with attracting a much older audience than some of the other YouTube educators do. So that works for me it works for my store style it works for my delivery it works for I take my time I think through things I toggle but slower than some of the fast talking Americans, you know, in my area, but But yeah, it really is all about not undervaluing which you’re, which you’re good at. And when if you’ve done like six 700 Did you say six 700 episodes Let me let me turn the tables on you and ask you a question here. During the thing, what part of your personality Do you think comes across on video? What do people say they like about watching you on video? You Have you received any comments on that yet?

Alastair McDermott 25:16
This might be damning with faint praise. But I’ve been told, I seem like a nice guy. I really do wonder about that one. But yeah, I think people like the way that I ask questions that I dig into topics, and that I asked follow ups. And if you see me looking down into the side, I have I have notes down here, I take notes during every interview, I have pages and pages of notes. And so I wrote down, for example, for what we were talking about earlier, goals, challenges, fears, aspirations, problem solving, emotional content. So I have like I wrote down all of those keywords that we talked about. So

Salma Jafri 25:55
by the way, if you want all of that in a nicely packaged will Resource Guide, which we can give at the end, both to our viewers and whoever. And you can use it as well. Yeah,

Alastair McDermott 26:05
awesome. And in fact, I really like your website for the YouTube playbook. That it’s it’s, it’s the number one thing that you can do on your homepage. Yeah, so there’s a

Salma Jafri 26:16
lot on that website. I need to fix. But yeah, I’ll take that when.

Alastair McDermott 26:21
But yeah, so So I think, you know, the authenticity thing, I think, is is pretty important. And there’s part of that, I think that just comes through time and and doing reps doing repetitions, doing it over and over and over again. Because when you do something over and over and over again, you get more comfortable. And like the two of us, I think, are not looking at each other on screen. We’re both looking at the camera. And that only comes from when I’m looking here, then I’m like, yeah, yeah, exactly. But you know, like, you train yourself into these things over time and doing it. You know, yeah,

Salma Jafri 26:53
you made that point that it is really hard at times. I mean, when you’re first starting out, you’re like, How can I talk to an inanimate object with energy? It’s like, how do you do that. But I find that as an introvert, this is perfect for me, like talking to the camera. And even like being up on stage and talking to an audience, I kind of relate that to my introversion energy, because I don’t need to make small talk. I don’t need to wait for the other person to answer. I don’t You no need to I can have a conversation later in the comments. I so if you’re an introvert, or you feel like you are a little bit camera shy, actually, video is perfect for you. Because there’s nobody judging you, in the moment really well, unless you’re doing a live stream. But if you’re doing recorded videos, it’s like you say your piece, you know, do your thing, and get comfortable, be stupid, if you need to be amazing, or whatever you need to be and just get it out there. And then you can decide, okay, you know, it’s there. For better or for worse, this is who I am. I’m just gonna put it out there that takes courage, hit publish. And then lots of good things happen after that. Usually lots of good things happen once you once you get that courage. So

Alastair McDermott 28:11
I have some kind of bigger picture questions about channels rather than just videos. And I know that the in the in the world of YouTube, like the the algorithms change all the time. And you know that, you know, what’s what’s good advice this week might and be good advice next week. But my understanding now is that you can have a channel with very few videos on it, that gets a lot of views. So you get a lot of views on a small number of videos, you don’t have to have a video every single day or every single week. Is that the case?

Salma Jafri 28:42
Well, I mean, look at my channel as an example. I actually have I’ve been doing a lot of live streams lately, but I haven’t published a recorded video in about five months, I think. And to be very honest, I’m making way more money right now, even though I intend to get back into publishing, but it’s all about priorities. So what I’m recommending now with the new algorithm changes, and with all of that happening is if you can have a quarterly schedule. And as business owners, I know we’re all really, you know, short on time, and we really want to get as much done in the time we have available. So this strategy really works if you are short on time, and you want to prioritize video production without having a video out every week. So what you do instead of thinking on a weekly schedule, think in terms of quarters. So every three months, think about what are your big goals and objectives. Let’s say I have a specific product I want to sell during that particular three month period, or a coaching program or a digital download or whatever it might be right. What do you want to do is reverse engineer what kind of content you want to make that will drive people to sign up for your lead magnet that can then get them to buy that particular product. And think about making a series of videos, it could be anywhere between five to 10 videos. And then your focus becomes creating those five or 10 videos or anywhere in between that. And using that three month period to publish those videos. So you batch create them, batch write them, batch record them, if you can do that, that will be really great, save you a ton of time. And it would be, it would be bingeable. Because it’s a series, every video links out to the next video. So you get a lot more watch time. And also you build trust really fast, because if people watch one video and then log out of your channel, that’s not building trust. But if they watch one video, and then another and another, and they watch three 510 videos in one sitting at the algorithm loves that, and be you build trust a lot faster, and they’re more likely to take the next step with you. So I find that thinking in terms of quarterly objectives, creating bingeable series videos is a really good strategy for business owners to build authority really fast, and get out of the content, middle of weekly production.

Alastair McDermott 31:06
Let me ask you, then, about channel strategy overall, because I have a channel where I have done shorts, I have done live streams. And then I’ve done pre packaged produced videos and not not produced, not highly edited just a lot of talking heads and maybe a little bit of B roll but not a whole lot. So I have a channel here that’s been around for a long time, has quite a few videos on it. But very, very few views. Should I look at starting again, from scratch on the new channel for some of this? Or can I take my existing channel? And use that? How would you think about that,

Salma Jafri 31:40
you can take your existing channel, if it’s got the same audience that you want to build on even more. So the only time I suggest a new channel is when it’s a different audience. But if it’s the same audience, then you can absolutely use an existing channel. However, if you feel like you’re creating a lot of content, but not getting enough traction, not growing as fast as you want to grow, and you’re like thinking, oh, what kind of content should I be creating, there’s there’s shorts, and then there’s long form, and then there’s lives, I’m actually gonna go a little bit against the popular opinion. And I’m gonna say don’t do shorts, if your objective is to build authority. I’m gonna go the other way. And say if your objective is to build authority, do targeted live streams, not interviews, necessarily, but teaching live streams where you are getting your people to come on board, and engaging and figuring out what their issues are in helping them get to the next step. So it is really a deeper form of engagement. And that’s what you’re looking for to build authority fast. And that’s also ironically going to grow your numbers, because the more people are engaged with you, the more you’ll have those loyal people coming back to view your videos, when YouTube when the algorithm sees that a lot of returning subscribers are coming back, it’s then going to start to show your videos to a larger audience base to newer people. So it works in reverse it, you have to think about it from the perspective of okay, how can I go deeper? And if you go deeper, you will then go wider?

Alastair McDermott 33:25
Brilliant. Yeah, absolutely. So the I think that for me, personally, I think that that’s a good idea. And I like I’m quite comfortable going live. And it’s something that I do regularly. So that’s probably going to be my next step with the YouTube channel is to do more of that. But again, even with the live streams, I’m sure that I still need to bring in the things that you talked about earlier, the goals, challenges, fears, aspirations into the packaging for the livestream, right? Not

Salma Jafri 33:54
as much, because live streams have a slightly different marketing strategy. And for live streams, what’s really, really important is to choose the right topic. And for that you want to just pull your audience, right literally just you know, give them three topics, and ask them to choose which one would they show up for if you were to do a live stream on that next week. And then you just go with that. And then the rest of your topics are going to come from the live stream itself. Because as you you know, enable live chat and you have conversations, you are going to go deeper and deeper into what are people actually really struggling with? Is it you know, like for you it might be what are the really struggling with in terms of building their authority? Maybe they feel impostor syndrome? Or maybe they feel how can they stand out from you know, other people in their industry who are already very established or whatever their fears are, you go deeper and deeper into those and then that guides you to what the next livestream topic could be about that, Oh, next week, let’s go deeper into this particular thing. And then packaging for the livestreams is not as necessary, because you’re really focused on engagement. Rather than, you know, just getting mass viewership. That’s the purpose of a live stream is really engagement, you just want to have a two way conversation, which you don’t do in recorded videos and recorded videos, it’s very one way, right you speak, you’re the expert, you give your advice. And then it’s by. But in live streams, you’re more accessible. And so I feel like that’s a very, very good format for building authority really fast. Most people would say, do more YouTube shorts, but that’s a very, very, that’s a good strategy for building short term visibility. But it’s not a good strategy for building your authority. Because people watch shorts, like 100, shorts in one sitting, scrolling up, up, and then they forget all about you. Whereas if they’re engaged, think about retention, like a podcast, live streams give more retention, the longer somebody is engaged with you on a live stream, the more into you they are, the more into your content they are the deeper you go with them, the more engaged they are, and that makes them a better quality viewer. So that’s just, that’s just maybe one that

Alastair McDermott 36:14
really interesting. And, you know, I realized, we spoke about this a little bit at the start of this as well, because we talked about like live streaming is hard. There’s like your, your your life. So there’s the pressure of being live. There’s the technology, child challenges, there’s the multi multitasking. And, you know, one of the things that I was doing on this live stream was taking myself out of the picture and highlighting you. And you know, doing that while you’re doing it and things like that. But, you know, you’ve got so many different aspects to it. But

Salma Jafri 36:48
I think like a DJ, almost like mixing and matching. And if you were oh my god, it’s a lot of buttons.

Alastair McDermott 36:56
If you’re if you’re willing to do that, though. And I think that it’s, you know, it’s fun, like, the reason why I started live streaming to record my podcast episodes was very simple. I wanted to stop procrastinating about not using video, because what I found was, when I pre recorded my interviews, I was audio only, I would do the edit. But for video, the editing was very expensive. And I didn’t want to put it up without editing. Yeah, and then, you know, I was procrastinating about it. But I said, Okay, well, if I just hit Go Live, there’s no take backs. So that’s

Salma Jafri 37:29
a really good reason to do live, but I’m gonna tell you to go one step further. And apart from the interviews, because I feel like interviews are still very safe, because you don’t have to do all the talking. Right. So I would say do live streams just on your own, to engage with your audience, like if you change the like, still do the interviews, and the podcasts and all that, because obviously, that’s something that is also really, really Authority building and good to watch. But also just to livestream to engage more with the audience. So just you and your audience, just, and it doesn’t need to be very complicated. In the beginning, yes, we can use all the live streaming software’s and, you know, push buttons, and all of that. But honestly, when I started, it was just, I think it was native on the YouTube platform, just me hit live on the YouTube platform, and just talk to my audience just cut out all the middlemen and software and everything, because if that’s the problem, then you know, you’re using tech as an excuse, then just cut that out, just don’t use that you can you can build up to that you can build up to all the stream decks and, you know, fancy Elgato decks and all that stuff. But you don’t need to start from that, you have to start with connection, what you’re going to build that connection with your audience. And even if two people show up, I remember there was a live stream I did once on Facebook, nobody showed up. And I still went ahead, and I had that this little 510 minute thing that I wanted to talk about. So I just talked about it, even though nobody showed up and that might be your reality in the first few episodes. So learn to clap for yourself, have something prepared and just do it. And there is no shame in you know, no audience in the beginning because that’s how we all start. All of us start this way. So I think it’s it’s just you just need to be get get over that awkwardness and just be comfortable with my I might sound like a crazy person saying this, but get comfortable talking to yourself alone on camera.

Alastair McDermott 39:41
I don’t think that’s crazy. But then I’ve been doing this for a while. So yeah, I do think though there is a huge, huge benefit in just doing it over and over and over again. Because the more you do it, the better you’ll get and Mr. Beast talks about this. Like he made 1000s of videos and So if anybody doesn’t know, Mr. Beast, he’s a multi multi multi millionaire, probably a billionaire at this point from YouTube. But he, you know, he gives away Ferraris and hundreds of 1000s of dollars on his YouTube videos. He is somebody who knows knows YouTube very well, because he still needed for years and he made 1000s of videos and experimented. And I’m not saying that you need to go and make 1000s of videos but certainly you will need to put in the reps is the way I think of it, you have to put in some work to to get to understand how the channel works, how cameras work, how all of the different bits fit together, you just need to start you know and

Salma Jafri 40:40
and you know something else Alastair? It doesn’t even need to be on YouTube to start with like, when I started going live, it was actually on this different platform now. It was Periscope. And this was what 2017 2016 2017 Something like that. You could start with Instagram, if that’s easier. You could start with Facebook, if that’s easier. You can start with LinkedIn, wherever you feel more comfortable. The idea is to get comfortable. The tech can come later the platform you can decide okay, I’m going to do this on YouTube versus Instagram now. So I started on Periscope moved over to YouTube. That’s it’s just getting comfortable. Like like Alastair saying getting the reps in and just getting comfortable with pressing record or pressing live. And then just talking to the camera. That’s that’s the confidence move.

Alastair McDermott 41:27
So I didn’t ask you beforehand. Are you okay to go for another five minutes over the top of the hour? Do you need to go?

Salma Jafri 41:33
I’m okay with five minutes. Okay, cool. So

Alastair McDermott 41:35
I do have a couple of last questions that I want to ask you. If you were to give somebody one tip on building authority, what would be the number one tip that you give somebody who wants to build their authority?

Salma Jafri 41:48
Let me think just one tip, because there’s so many.

Alastair McDermott 41:53
I’ll let you give one tip and a bonus.

Salma Jafri 41:57
One tip on building authority. Okay, so I’m gonna say that one of I’m going to give a tip on building authority really fast. Okay, that’s that’s going to be if I have to just do one tip, it’s going to be how to build authority really, really fast. And one of the really, really fast ways to build authority is borrowed authority. Let me explain. So borrowed authority is when you kind of piggyback on somebody or something that already has authority in your audience’s eyes. It could be a person, it could be a website, it could be a book, it could be a software, it could be an app that has authority already. And you build your perspective on how whatever that person is saying whether what that app is doing already, and you offer your perspective on that. So one of the earliest ways that I build authority was this video that I did on how to use to buddy to buddy already had authority, people will, there were already lots of customers using it. And it was one of the premier tools for YouTube. And I did this video, which was just a tutorial on how I personally like to use this product. And what happened with that video was brand deals, affiliate sales, immediate authority as people seeing me as a YouTube educator, because I’m teaching how to use a YouTube tool. So borrowed authority, again, it could be Person website, book resources, apps, if there’s something in your area that already has authority, add your perspective to that. That’s an immediate authority builder. That’s gonna be my one tip. Awesome.

Alastair McDermott 43:41
I love that. And, and as a podcaster, and somebody who talks to people about using podcasting, this is something that I do myself. So for example, I have you here talking. So now your audience are going to see me as more of an authority because I’m speaking with you. I’ve had Alan Weiss on the show, David C. Baker, Mark Schaefer, Michael, Marcus Sheridan, I’ve had all of these very, very well known experts in their fields. Yeah. And what does an interesting thing with when you interview those people and talk with those people, is you’re elevated by the audience to be at the level that they are, even if you are not, I find this fascinating how the psychology of this works, but because you were talking to these people, and you seem to be talking, it does increase and elevate your authority. So in the same way that you just talked about, so yeah,

Salma Jafri 44:33
by association, yeah.

Alastair McDermott 44:35
Yeah. Love it. That’s a great answer. So thank you. You’re welcome. Okay, so we’re nearly at time. So I’m just going to ask you two very quick final questions. Is there a business book or resource that’s been important for you or that you would recommend to people?

Salma Jafri 44:58
That’s fine. If you’re in marketing, you need to understand psychology. And then this is the book that helps me understand psychology. It’s called Influence by Robert Cialdini ClD. Me not sure how it’s pronounced, but that’s the book. That’s my very short answer. Do I need to say more on this?

Salma Jafri 45:26
Okay, I think we’re still alive. But Alastair might be having some issues. So I will say a little bit more on this, you do still want me to,

Alastair McDermott 45:33
I forgot to hit that button that we talked about earlier.

Salma Jafri 45:38
I figured I was like, okay, the counters too long, we’re still alive, that means we are

Alastair McDermott 45:41
still alive. This, this is the joys and I’m not going to edit this. So all of our podcast listeners are gonna get this. And that’s why. So we talked beforehand, like

Salma Jafri 45:49
a huge retention bump on that. And we’re like, what happened?

Alastair McDermott 45:54
We talked beforehand, because this is the first time that I’m actually taking myself out of the picture and spotlighting the guest. But actually, when you take yourself out of the picture, it also mutes you. So I forgot that I was on mute when I do it that way, because it doesn’t show so interesting. So that is my probably my favorite book in terms of marketing and psychology. I think it’s a super, super important marketing,

Salma Jafri 46:14
you have to study psychology, it’s like there. You can’t do marketing without psychology. Can No can do.

Alastair McDermott 46:22
Yeah. And so that’s the book that you know, popularized the ideas of repor, socity, and scarcity, all of the all of the other really crucial marketing principles. So Cellini super great, great book. And then the final question for you is do you read fiction? Is there anything that you love and recommend?

Salma Jafri 46:41
I haven’t read fiction in a long time because I realized that okay, but if I were to recommend No, I don’t think I could recommend any fiction. Right now. I don’t have any really recent examples. Okay.

Alastair McDermott 46:54
Do you do you watch TV and movies? Is our or Yeah, what do you went to?

Salma Jafri 46:59
The crown on Netflix, which is coming back? What else? Guilty Pleasures like sunset selling sunset real estate stuff, which is totally trash TV. Which when I’m absolutely done with work and I cannot do not want to think about it for another second. Yeah. Then just regular movies and stuff. Whatever’s latest coming out. You know, Oppenheimer Barbie all that stuff. Which, which I guess everyone’s watching. Yeah,

Alastair McDermott 47:28
yeah. I went to Barbie and I have to say it was a lot deeper than I was expecting. It was it was

Salma Jafri 47:34
it was like a little bit. And now I’m getting to watch the new Beckham, documentary. That’s next on my watch.

Alastair McDermott 47:40
Okay, cool. Yeah. Well, I also think so I do the equivalent. I don’t watch too much trash TV. But I do read a lot of kind of trash science fiction and fantasy books.

Salma Jafri 47:50
Yeah. Good to have that guilty pleasure.

Alastair McDermott 47:53
I think you do. I think I think there’s something like I use I use a lot of my, my, my brain cycles on work. So I don’t want to have to use them when I’m when I’m not working. So I think it’s important. Yeah, yeah, that’s,

Salma Jafri 48:06
that’s exactly the function that does for me is like, I need to shut my brain off, but I can’t. So something else has to come in and occupy that for a little while, so I can stop thinking about work. Yeah, I type a weird personality quiz. Okay.

Alastair McDermott 48:19
So I’m gonna where can people find you if they want to learn more? Absolutely. So

Salma Jafri 48:22
YouTube would be the first place so it’s youtube.com forward slash Salma, Joffrey, my name. So it’s, I’m at Salma, Joffrey everywhere, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and then my website. And then the playbook that we were talking about downloading for the GCFA framework, and also for thinking through the authority topics that you want to create is@majority.com forward slash playbook. That’s my YouTube playbook that takes you all the way from thinking about what topics to create videos on to having a monetization strategy with the first 10 videos on your YouTube channel. So it’s really about building authority really, really fast, and in a very strategic and intentional manner.

Alastair McDermott 49:03
Awesome. I love it. Sama, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and being on the livestream with me today.

Salma Jafri 49:10
Thank you for having me, Alastair. And I love the fact that you were experimenting, doing the things, walking the talk. You’re, you’re for real. I love that.

Alastair McDermott 49:21
Wow. So that is an amazing conclusion. So thank you so much. I really appreciate you saying that. And it is something that I care about a lot is is walking the talk, walking the walk, walking the talk, and experimenting, and continuously refining and tweaking my own approach and the work that I’m doing with my clients. And so I mentioned at the start, I’m looking for three clients who want to create an authority and lead generation platform that will consistently and predictably attract your best clients every single week. And that is something that I really believe that will massively impact on your business, your cash flow, and the way that you have come recession is what your clients. So if you want to fill your calendar with conversation with your ideal clients, and keep your schedule booked months in advance with no spam Enos or uncomfortable sales tactics, and with results in 60 days and no spamming no ads, then talk to me. I am looking for three clients for the version two of the 30 accelerated program, it’s going to be massively discounted because I’m looking for testimonials and case studies. It’s a new program, but these are proven tactics, and I’m guaranteeing results. So if this sounds like it might be a good fit, let’s get in the call and see if that’s the case. hit reply on any email you’ve ever got from me, or click on the link in the show notes wherever you’re listening to this. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.

Voiceover 50:48
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