2015 was a big year for me. It was the first full-year of being my own boss, making six figures, filming & editing hundreds of videos, and I also traveled a ton. In this video I share six things I learned specifically related to making so many videos last year.
I also wrote a full annual review with more lessons learned, stats, and financials here.
Read MoreLooking back at 2015 gives me a lot of reasons to celebrate.
It was also very trying year though too. It started with my wife Jen's third round of surgery to remove cancer from her tongue. The success of that and no further appearances has helped fuel Jen's recovery back to almost full strength again.
Her health challenges have pushed me to work harder, think bigger, make more, and take plenty of time to enjoy life, friends, and family along the way.
But before I look back on the rest of 2015, it helps to look back even further, going five years back to when I start doing work online. Each year while I do my annual reviews I read through my previous ones and I say to my former self, "Oh how little you know."
Read MoreWith all the pressures on "going viral" during an big announcement online, sales videos are becoming bigger productions and you could be leaving a lot on the table by not creating a video to accompany a launch.
However, if you are going to do it, you need to make sure you are doing it well.
In this episode we discuss whether or not sales videos are important, if you even need one, and how exactly it may benefit you and your audience. We also talk about how sales videos are just one part of a launch strategy and what else you should focus on.
Read MoreWhen I had a desk job it was easy relax. I would come home, enjoy the weekend, or go on vacation without even thinking about work at all until I was pulling into the parking lot at my job.
But when you work for yourself, there are always tasks to do and when you work from anywhere, you can always be getting them done.
In this episode I talk about creative distance and how to remove properly yourself from your work.
Read MoreWhen you're working on a video alone, it can be hard to push through a create on demand when you're traveling too much, overwhelmed by client work, or just not inspired.
In the video production process it might be super fun when your filming, perhaps with different people involved in front and behind the camera, at a fun event, in a new location, but once you get back home or to the office and need to edit that video, it can get really lonely. It is just you, the footage, and an empty timeline in your video editing program.
In this podcast episode I break down how to stay on track by pushing yourself to create, what to do with your downtime to make your creation time better, and how to stop procrastinating on those large video projects. I share four ways cure artist lonliness and the five steps for coming up with and then executing on great ideas.
Read MoreThe last five months of "flying solo" have been an insanely busy juggling act of client work, launching this podcast, shipping YouTube videos weekly, my wife's two rounds of surgery and recovery from cancer, trips around the Holidays, and more.
I figured it was time to share a bit of behind the scenes on how things are going internally at my video production studio and what's next for DIY Video Guy.
In this episode I talk with my editor Tim about what gear investments we've been making (and why), what our workflow is (including all the programs and web apps we use), how video podcasting downloads have compared to YouTube viewers for the weekly video show, talk candidly about how video production for clients has been going, and tease version 2.0 of the DIY Video Production Guide (which comes out March 24th).
Read MoreSean McCabe had become a successful hand lettering artist, with clients paying him thousands for design work, but he felt another need.
After sharing his lettering work online, he started getting emails from people wondering where to even start with hand lettering.
He put a tutorial on his website and within a year 200,000 people had viewed it. Six months in he put an email opt-in form on the page and eventually spent three months on a new version of the page to promote his new video course Learn Lettering.
Fast forward to earlier this year, 15,000 email subscribers later, and Sean launched his video course to the tune of selling six figures in three days.
In this podcast episode I talk with Sean about his making his video course, his struggles with producing it all himself, and what he is learning now after just recently launching a daily video show.
Read MoreOne question I get all the time is: why should I make videos?
More specifically, they want to know when they should make a video instead of use another format like written or audio. Often times they are already blogging, podcasting, and making plenty of other kinds of content for the web.
Each of these three mediums have their strengths and weaknesses, but I have very specific views on why video is the best for certain things (including teaching and building brand loyalty) and not for others.
In this episode of the podcast I make my case for video and why it should be a big part of your content strategy.
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