If COVID-19 hasn’t taught you yet how important video is for your business, you have probably been living in a cave. When it comes to marketing, especially on the Internet, no other medium even comes close to the sheer power of expression and attraction that video brings to the table. Unless you are Goethe or Shakespeare, there is no way for you to be an invisible author nowadays. If you want to generate more leads and close more deals, you need to start getting in front of that camera and get things rolling. In this episode, Juliet Clark teases out some actionable video marketing tips from Nina Froriep, a visual storyteller, video marketing expert and Chief Marketing Officer at Clock Wise Productions. With over 30 years of experience behind and in front of the camera, Nina understands the immensity of the value video can give to any business. Join in and learn more about the marketing medium of today.

—

Watch the episode here

Listen to the podcast here

Video – The Marketing Medium Of Today With Nina Froriep

Before I introduce our guest, I want to invite you to go over to YouTube and follow us at Superbrand Publishing. You can see all of these Promote, Profit, Publish podcasts. You can see the videos over there and see these people in person. They are real people. I don’t make them up. I don’t use voices. Also, don’t forget to go over and take our Promote, Profit, Publish Quiz. Find out where your skillset lies and if you’re ready for your entrepreneurial and author journey.

Our guest is Nina Froriep. She enables mission-driven entrepreneurs to grow their businesses with consistent and easy to implement video marketing through one-on-one coaching and peer learning. She’s been a filmmaker, producer and director for over 30 years and a small business owner for 23 of that. When I say that, understand she’s seen the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. She’s seen it all from the early days of independent features to big national TV commercials, corporate mega-shows, and many documentary films, including when she wrote, directed and produced about Muslim kids in New York called Abraham’s Children.

In short, there’s no film or video production scenario she has not taken care of. She’s perfect in this digital and video world we’re living in. She’s worked with stars like Sophia Loren, John Malkovich, and Wynton Marsalis. She’s interviewed Fortune 500 CEOs, worked on Emmy award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentaries and produced hundreds of videos for uber-corporate shows. Welcome, Nina. It’s great to have you.

It’s great to be here. Thanks, Juliet.

Tell us about what you did when you were a kid because I was relating to you that I wrote these wonky stories when I was a kid and look what I do now.

Not much different. At age seven-ish, it must have been because that’s when I learned to write in school, I wrote a book and I illustrated it myself as well about a princess in distress. It did feature a prince and a horse and I don’t know what the evil part was anymore. Probably a dragon of some sort. I published it. My father had a photocopier in his office. There was an edition of ten, which was supplemented with a parental grant, and then I sold them for $0.50 a pop, which back then was a fortune for me. Unfortunately, it’s out of print and it remains out of print to this day. At age seven, the entrepreneur, writer, and visual storyteller were definitely knocking on the door and saying, “Here I am.”

Video Marketing: Video conveys emotion better than any other medium, allowing you to create a connection with the people you want to attract into your business.

If you’re one of the people out there with a Nina Froriep original first edition, it may be worth $1 now.

That will be a 200% increase. Why not?

You primarily work with people who are entrepreneurs and are having to use video on the internet. Everybody has to. Can you talk a little bit about why this has become important?

I would say that if you don’t get how important it is after the COVID crisis that we have gone through, then I don’t know what to tell you about video. It is the medium now. Most of us are on video on our social media feeds and we are on Zoom all day, which is no more or less than video. We’re recording it and it’ll be a video. What video does better than any other medium and why I focus on service space entrepreneurs that have a mission is it conveys a layer of emotion. If you’re Shakespeare, Goethe or somebody like that, fine, but for the regular everyday writer, you cannot get across all that subtext that can come across with video, for better and for worse, not just for good.

You can also send messages that you might not have wanted to. It does allow you to create a connection with the people that you want to attract into your business. In the end, people don’t work with a service or a product. People work with other people. That is why I always say video is important because it’s a quick and easy way and not technically complicated at all. That’s where I come in to make sure that you don’t get tied up in a bunch over the technical aspects of it because I won’t let you. It’s a great way to establish an immediate connection with somebody where somebody can say, “I like this person. I want to work with them,” or it can also be like, “Not my style. Let’s move on.” That will save you a lot of heartache in finding out the wrong way or the hard way that this person was not the right client for you.

Not even that they weren’t the right client for you, but maybe you’re not the person for them as well. We talk about that a lot inside of our programs, how empowered you become when you can take an enrollment conversation, and decide that that person is not for you instead of taking everyone that comes along. That is amazing. You are probably trying to figure out, “I’m an author. How does this fit in? Why do I need video? I write.”

A lot of the quizzes we do, we encourage you to have that video on the front to introduce it. If you’re doing one of the free shipping book funnels, people want to see you and they want to know you. You can’t hide and become that invisible author. I know you and I talked about this before where I have a problem with my authors that are, “I want to be famous, but I don’t want anybody to know me or see me.” How do they get comfortable opening it up and doing a short or even a longer video?

You just said it. Just doing it. For me, the most important thing is for people to jump into it and start recording themselves, even if they just do it for themselves. Anybody with a smartphone in their back pocket, which I think everybody has these days, the cameras that are built into these iPhones or Androids are phenomenal and that’s all you need. The microphones are phenomenal. People who work with me, the only thing I tell them to go and buy is a tripod. Everything else, maybe down the road, but certainly not in the beginning. For me, it’s all about doing, and only by doing can you get over the discomfort of it. You can play with it. You can see how much it is awkward and how much you can make friends with it. Get over your voice and get over yourself.

I had an entire career behind the camera and if anybody would have told me that I was going to be as much in front of the camera as I am now, I would have laughed them out of the room. The first time I recorded myself to promote my own business, I was mortified. I ran to the next beauty parlor and booked a ten-session facial and I’ve never had a facial in my life before. It was intimidating. You do it for a couple of times or for a couple of weeks or months, now it’s like, “I wish I was twenty years younger and better looking but who cares?” People don’t listen to me because of that. They listen to me because I have something to share, say, and teach and to give them a-ha moment or give them an impetus to start with video. They don’t care whether I have wrinkles or not, or have gray hair or not. It does not matter.

Here’s the other thing, and please validate or invalidate this. It used to be that people would go out and they do these scripted makeup and hair productions and people don’t want to see that anymore. It’s not real.

I caution clients who overproduce their stuff or put on too much makeup against it because it comes at the expense of authenticity. Having said that, there’s a lovely woman who is in my orbit. She’s a former TV anchor and when she does her videos, she’s in full makeup and hair. That is her persona and it works. For her to show up all of a sudden without makeup and anything, people will be like, “What’s that?” For the rest of us, you want to look cleaned up. I personally don’t bother with makeup anymore. I’m wearing glasses, so you’re not going to see whether I wear eye makeup or not anyway between the glare of the computer screen and the glasses themselves. I’m going to make sure my hair is combed, I’m wearing a fresh shirt, and I’m not looking like a complete slob. It’s the content that I’m giving.

It’s my personality that comes through. It’s my smile. Whatever it is that attracts people into my orbit or my group of what I have to share. It’s not because I’m not wearing makeup. I even went as far as to start a video series called The Naked Video Series, where the only thing naked is the video, not me. The video has no graphics. I do closed captioning because those are important, but I don’t bother with graphics and I don’t bother myself with makeup because it’s supposed to be a quick and easy way to get to video on a consistent basis, on a daily basis in my case. The Naked Video Series does as well as my highly-produced and polished videos. When I look at the statistics on LinkedIn, which is where I am for the most part, there is absolutely no difference. I see a difference in the value of the content I’m giving, but not in terms of how polished or unpolished that come across.

You did put on makeup, but just lipstick on.

Video Marketing: LinkedIn is probably the last of the social media platforms where you still get your clients organically.

I’m not saying don’t put makeup on, but I’m just saying you don’t have to go through a two-hour torture with a makeup person. Some people enjoy it. It puts them in the mood and it gets some there. Everybody is different. For me, it’s a matter of practicality. I shoot video on a near-daily basis. I’m not a big makeup fan, so I don’t. If that is what gets you into the mood for doing some video and talking to your audience, by all means do, but it’s not a must.

I agree, because your audience is looking for that trust factor so they want to know you. I’ve opened up and I’ve done gym clothes. I’ve done Facebook Lives first thing in the morning back from a workout. More than anything, people want to know you and they want to know that you do the things that you’re telling them to do. You’re not just the, “Try this,” in a stiff way.

I always say if you want to create interesting content, you want to do it consistently. This is one thing I always drive home clearly is only with a consistent video, you can see whether you’re getting a return on investment or not. If you don’t do video consistently, it’s hard to get to real numbers on social media. If you want to do consistently, and you should be doing it consistently, you want to be yourself because it’s hard to be some fake personality every day in and out with consistent video. The way to maintain your persona is to be yourself because then you don’t have to fake it ever or be in the mood or whatever. That’s just you on camera. It’s easier to keep up authenticity than it is to keep up anything halfway fake or full fake.

If you’ve ever been on a dating site, you know exactly what she’s talking about.

I do compare it to that. You don’t want people to show up on the Zoom with you and go like, “Is that the person that I saw in the video? Is this the headshot that I saw on LinkedIn?” You want to be somewhere in the neighborhood of your current state of being and not go on a date with somebody who looks 30 years older than the picture they have online.

I remember many years ago when I was in real estate, there was a person that was well-known. When I showed up at her office with a contract and met her, I was like, “When was the last time you took a headshot? Twenty years ago?” You don’t want to be that person online. Let’s talk a little bit about consistency because what you said about consistency goes into analytics. If you want to know if your social media is working and if you’re getting ROI from what you’re doing, you have to be able to not only be there consistently but look at those analytics consistently.

I always say in terms of video marketing, analytics is a whole different field and I don’t get too involved in it. Having said that, I’ve gotten quite deep into the analytics of LinkedIn because that’s where I do all my posting. Thanks to a LinkedIn coach that I have, I also have this amazing software where I can see my statistics. It’s fascinating once you get into it to see how different posts perform and how the engagement is. What I learned quickly is there are vanity metrics and they are the metrics that matter. With LinkedIn, for instance, if you post a regular post just with the written word, you might get a viewership of let’s say, 1,000. The exact same post with a video might only get a viewership of let’s say 240 to 300. The conventional wisdom would be like, “Video doesn’t work on LinkedIn.” However, the algorithm on LinkedIn handles video differently from a written post. A written post counts as being seen if people scroll past it quickly. With a video, they have to stop and watch it for at least three seconds before it counts.

That is the metric why your video metrics are lower than your view metrics. It’s a vanity metric because if somebody just scrolls by your post in an awful rush, they’re not going to have seen anything anyway. Probably less, not even seen your name. Where I look at his engagement. When I started doing video every day on LinkedIn or at least three times a week, my engagement quadrupled. I’m like, “That’s the number I’m excited about.” If I’m getting 40 comments instead of 10 comments, that is something I can work with. These are people I can now engage with. I can further the conversation and I can ask them about their video experience. I can bring value to them and hopefully, engage them eventually down the road in the sales call. That is the metric I will look at. LinkedIn is probably the last of the social media platforms where you still can get organic traffic like that and get your clients organically, which is one of the many reasons why I love LinkedIn.

I love it because it’s the only one that hasn’t gone toxic on all of us.

It’s a good place to hang out. If you want to be B2B, you want to be service-oriented. The moment you’re visual, you should be on Instagram and/or Facebook. If you’re more B2C, then you’re definitely on Facebook. It’s not whatever has the coolest interface. It is by industry. There are certain platforms that perform better for that industry than others.

This means that you have to learn the one where your clients are at because that’s one of the biggest things I see when people come into our coaching programs. They’re using the one they’re comfortable with and not the one where their clients or potential clients are at. It may require you to learn some new skills. Interestingly enough, I use video when I reach out to Messenger too. You and I have discussed our LinkedIn strategies and I have a software where I introduce myself when I present an invite. It’s just a one-minute video because you can’t make it long. People get to see my energy and who I am. One of the most important things about video is that people get to see your energy in it.

Your personality and your energy, just seeing the face and the expressions. We’re adept at liking, disliking, being connected or not connected. Are you drawn to somebody who’s super authoritative and even a little threatening? Are you feeling more comfortable with somebody who feels like you and you feel like you could be best friends with them? We all have our preferences and they come across immediately on video. It makes it that much easier. I use this software called Dubbed, where it’s embedded in my browser and I can use it on my LinkedIn. I can leave messages for people and give them feedback. I don’t do it for all the invitations but I certainly use it a lot to prospects where I feel there could be something there and I want to make a bit more of an impression. I’ll send them a personalized video.

I use it for pod swaps. I want them to be able to see me on video like, “I am appropriate fodder for your show.” As part of pod swaps, I found a lot of people who aren’t perfect pod fodder for my show. I wish they’d had a video where I could have seen their demeanor and how they show up. That’s what people are evaluating as well. I have a tough question for you. How do you, when you’re recording yourself, get rid of that inner critic that says, “I’ve got to do that again?” All of a sudden, this 30-second thing has turned into two hours.

Video Marketing: You can’t be too critical with yourself because you’ll just get into an unhealthy space.

There are different critics. There’s my visual critic. My visual critic is concerned with the framing, my eye line, and the lighting. I do not allow my visual critic to say, “You’re 55. You’re heavier than you’ve ever been before. I hate the way you look.” That discussion does not take place. It’s not allowed. That comes with practice. The other critic is my content critic. If it has to be 25 takes, it will be 25 takes. With the social media videos that I do, I want to get them in one take because the pain of editing these videos that I do often is it takes too much time to edit. It’s more time efficient to spend the time to get the shot right than it is to fix it in the edit after. I will go as many times as I have to until I have a clean take but if I go off on a little tangent or I ramble a bit and if it doesn’t go over 2.5 minutes, I will allow myself that. I’m probably a little more critical about being short and succinct than other people are because I know myself. I don’t need to see myself being charming.

I have a new website. I have two videos that I had to reshoot and they’re still in editing. They’re not done yet. One video was a little longer. It was the backstory and I couldn’t get through it in one take. I broke it up into four sections and shot it in four sections that we’ll edit. That to me is different because it’s a one-time video that goes on my website and it will be seen many more times. For me, the videos that go on social media, I call them tissue videos, sneeze and throw out. Those are videos that don’t have much shelf life. I put them on YouTube and Playlists. These videos get watched on that one day I post them. Maybe my social media maven will reuse them for Facebook and Instagram at a later date, but these are not videos that are meant to be legacy fodder. These are just tissue videos. With content, I will definitely be tough on myself visually. I wanted nice framing, enough space for the closed captioning, close to the top of the frame, some space here, and a little off-center if possible. Other than that, you can’t be too critical with yourself because you’ll just get into an unhealthy space.

Tell us what you have coming up that you’d like to share. Do you have anything you’d like to point us to find out more about you?

To find out more, there are two great places to go to. One is my website. That’s my company name, Clock Wise Productions. Otherwise, I live on LinkedIn. I’m the only Nina Froriep and probably one of the few people with that last name. In terms of what’s coming up, I’m starting a new video challenge. That’s a quick and easy way to get engaged with my company and me. It’s a month-long video challenge where you post a video every day, Monday through Friday, on a social media platform of your choosing. We’re in groups of 5 to 8 people and we also comment on each other’s videos every day. Your videos also are getting a boost. You’re not just being forced to post every day, but you’re also getting social media engagement out of it.

We have a weekly check-in call to make sure that you get your questions answered. Those people do well, I’ll challenge them a little further and nudge them further down the video marketing road. I have my VlogCast Cohort, which is also group experience. That is to establish your thought leadership with video. That is more about establishing a workflow and systems and showing you how to film yourself such that you can establish yourself and your thought leadership with video in a consistent way like a podcast. It’s just that we’re doing it with video. We’re being structured about it so that you have ways to consistently do it and not get sidelined by some technical bylaws. That also ends in a group experience. For me, the most important thing is to make sure that people have a structure around their video marketing, so they don’t fall off the video marketing horse, so to speak, and then don’t know how to climb back on. We put a lot of checks and balances, and support and accountability around video marketing.

This is great because as an author who is moving towards thought leadership, these videos that she helps you do are great links inside your book where people can find out more about you. I would highly consider working with someone like Nina to get that into place so that you can put those links at the end of your chapters and give people extra consumption of you. It’s easy to read you in a book, but when they see you, it’s a more intimate experience. Nina, thank you for being on. It’s been fabulous.

Thanks for having me. I always love talking about what I do, so I always appreciate to have the opportunity to do so.

Important Links

• Superbrand Publishing – YouTube
• Promote, Profit, Publish Quiz
• Clock Wise Productions
• Nina Froriep
• Abraham’s Children
• Nina Froriep – LinkedIn
• VlogCast Cohort

About Nina Froriep

At age seven, I wrote and illustrated my first book. As far as I remember, the story was about a princess in distress, a knight, and a horse. A modest profit was achieved as the limited and signed edition of ten was sponsored with a parental grant and sold at fifty cents apiece. Today the book remains out of print.

I’ve seen it all from the early days on independent features, to big national TV commercials, corporate mega-shows and many documentary films, including one I wrote, directed, and produced about Muslim kids in New York, called Abraham’s Children.  In short, there’s no film- and video- production scenario I haven’t taken care of.

Along the journey, I’ve met many, many awesomely wonderful people and a few bad-asses. All of them worth great stories.

I’ve worked with stars like Sophia Loren, John Malkovich, and Wynton Marsalis, I’ve interviewed Fortune 500 CEO’s, I’ve worked on Emmy award-winning and Emmy-nominated documentaries, and produced hundreds of videos for uber-corporate shows.

I’ve negotiated with teamsters, clients (big and small), actors, crew, children, police officers, a few dogs, and one snake.

On a personal note, I’m a sports-nut – the kind that goes outdoors every moment possible. Central Park is my back yard and I know (nearly) every inch of it.

I’m also a certified citizen pruner which affords me the privilege to prune, take care of, and advocate for the city trees of New York.

I’ve lived in Harlem for close to 20 years, and since April 2011 I’m a proud owner of an American passport.

Fall of 2017 I finally, finally got a dog. He’s a Dorkie, a Mini-Dachshund, Yorkie-mix with the attitude of a Great Dane. Like any well-deserving dog in this time and age he has his own Insta feed: @TiggerFroriep.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!

• Here’s How »

• superbrandpublishing.com
• Promote, Profit, Publish on YouTube
• Follow Juliet on LinkedIn
• Take the Quiz!