Video Strategy: Dane Frederiksen on Authentic Growth | Ep. 203

Dane Frederiksen: 00:00:00

There's people, inevitably some of them go off to do other things, but then they remember us from our experience and how great that was. And so now we've created super fans that kind of cross pollinate into other organizations. And so that's been a really fantastic process for, for us.

Intro: 00:00:19

But I am the world's biggest super fan. You're like a super fan. Welcome to the Business Superfans podcast.

We will discuss how establishing business superfans from customers, employees and business partners can elevate your success exponentially. Learn why these advocates are a key factor to achieving excellence in the world of commerce.

This is the Business Superfans podcast with your host, Freddie D. Freddie Freddie.

Freddy D: 00:00:58

Hey superfans.

Freddy D: 00:00:59

Freddy D. Here in this episode 202, we're joined by Dane Fredrickson, a seasoned video strategist who helps Service based and B2B companies solve a challenge so many owners face. They know they need video to build trust and visibility, but they get stuck overthinking polish process and what to say.

From growing up in a family video production business to to leading projects for brands like National Geographic, USA Today and Twitch, Dane has spent more than 30 years mastering the craft.

Now he helps businesses create authentic, sustainable video systems that make them easier to trust, easier to remember, and far more likely to win new business.

Freddy D: 00:01:45

Welcome, Dane, to the Business Superfan Advantage podcast. Great conversation that we had before we started recording and you've got an interesting background and like to share that with our listeners.

What's the backstory? How did you get started into all this video stuff?

You mentioned that you've been doing it for 30 years and I mentioned that I played around with it when I was in middle school, eighth grade. But you've turned it into a career. So let's. What's the whole story?

Dane Frederiksen: 00:02:16

Yeah, I actually even started a little before you when I was just a little kid. I was in a couple commercials and experimental videos for my father's career in psychology.

Then shortly after, my parents started a video production company doing commercials in the D.C. area.

And so I grew up in the industry and was understandably fascinated by the, the Hollywood aspect of the lights and the camera and thought it was so cool that you could like make all these creative decisions and you like, I think when I was younger was the technology was really interesting, maybe like the way that little kids see like a garbage truck or a fire truck and they're like super impressed. Hey, look at the lights, the camera. It's so cool, so interesting.

And then somewhere along the way they got the first editing machine, which is called an Avid Media Composer.

And that just blew my mind because computers were still pretty new and to do editing, it had to be like, done in these expensive suites, which I got to see some of that happening and then all of a sudden now you can do it on a computer. That, like, blew my mind. So I was like, I want to do that.

So then I just got the opportunity to learn how to edit on their machine, work my way up into post production facilities in the D.C. area, dubbing tapes and patching wires and learning all the technology, and then just kind of work my way up the food chain from editor to someone who shoots, someone who produces, directs, writes, and eventually just started my own company about 15 years ago. Along the way, I like to think I've seen all quarters of this industry and worn all the hats.

So I now have this, I don't know, global expertise in video land. I jokingly say I don't have all the answers, but I think I know what all the questions are. This is where I'm at.

Freddy D: 00:04:02

Wow, what a backstory. That's. And how did you move from D.C. to California? What's the story there? How did that.

Because that's completely from one end to the other end of the country.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:04:15

Yeah, I like to say I completed the migration of my family lineage from Scandinavia all the way to California, completing this far as we could go. So, yeah, it was right after the dot com boom.

My friend had come out here, my best friend, and he'd been telling me all during this dot com, but you got to get out of here. It's amazing. And I'm sure it was. I heard stories, but I got here a little bit late, kind of after the crash, and I really followed a girl.

That's how I started my family and that's what got me out here. And I did a year in la. That was too much for me. Then I came up to the Bay Area and I've been here ever since. I'm loving it.

I just think these are my people. Techy, nerdy people that are, I don't know, outdoors, stuff like that.

Freddy D: 00:04:59

ce its beginning, in a sense,: 1980

And so I used to go out to the. To the west in San Jose area. There was a lot of tech companies there that I would spend some time with out there.

So I can appreciate what you're talking about. So let's go into I know that you work with a lot of businesses right now, helping businesses really leverage video to get their messaging out.

would tell customers back in: 2008

And I would say get a video testimonial right there. It doesn't have to be Hollywood. It's a fact that you're getting it right then and there. And then you can share it.

Because Facebook just popped out, LinkedIn was taken off and that was a way to create credibility, but you've taken it completely to a whole another level. So let's talk about that.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:06:20

Yeah, you're quite right to point out that like the capability for doing these things is been there for a while. I'd even argue since like the VHS days, you could do video, but to do it as like a professional quality.

There's like this standard that people, companies feel like they need to be at a polish of like how good does it need to be? The lighting, the just look at like on broadcast television, they, they got the makeup, they got all the lights, like it's a production, literally.

And I think what's happened right under our noses with smartphones also with the pandemic ushering in this webcam capability. And I'd argue necessity. Like now this is business as usual what we're doing now. Is it?

Freddy D: 00:07:07

Sure.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:07:07

It's also because of the changes with social media, kind of creating a more casual vibe that's creeped into the business universe. This is acceptable professional quality now, like in a way bigger way than it used to be.

I regularly see people on LinkedIn CEOs with their phone out and I think there's a CEO from. Is it Blackstone or Blackrock? I saw him, he's like doing phone videos while he's jogging. He's sweating.

And that's thought leadership in the world that we live in now. You saw it early that you can do this, but the acceptability aspect of that has changed under our feet.

And then there's still that, I don't know, the self consciousness of wanting to be on camera. Are you willing to do that? I never wanted to be on camera. I wanted to be the guy behind the scenes, editing, shooting.

That was where I thought I fit in.

But I saw how things were changing and I was like, hey, if I don't use this opportunity to be visible, to get out there and put my thinking, my brand out there, then I'm really just staying invisible and leaving it for someone else to lead that initiative in my space. And so I just made the decision, hey, like, what am I willing to do to be successful? Am I willing to do this? Yes, I am.

And I think there's a lot of business leaders, subject matter experts out there that really should be doing this. Like, the opportunity, the necessities there where they're going to be too shy, too uncomfortable being on camera.

Like, they don't like the way they look, the way they sound. And then there's this other aspect of I'm worried that I'll say something wrong. It'll come back to haunt me.

You post it online, it's out there forever and.

Freddy D: 00:08:55

Right.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:08:56

Are you okay with that? You have to be if you're going to play that game.

And I just kind of reassure myself that I would be lucky if people remembered the things I said right. If I mattered enough that someone's going to look back a few years ago to something I said.

And it's just, you're going to create this body of work you get in the reps and over time, it's not going to matter where you started. I think it's just you're going to have this skill, this acumen that you didn't have before that's going to be helping with your visibility.

It's going to help you build trust and it's going to help you stand out. Because all those people that aren't going to do this, well, you're different than them. I'm thinking about it.

Freddy D: 00:09:37

Yeah, no, you're right on the money. Because, for example, I'm going to be transparent here is I'm learning to speak to the camera by myself.

And it's one thing for you say, for you and I to be on camera, this, this is easy for me because it's. I've been doing video conferencing for a long time and when it first came out, I used it for business.

When I would meet with distributors in other parts of the world, we used some video. I was really early adopter of WebEx and.

But now, like you just said, to be the thought leadership, you got to grab your phone and you got to go with it and you're talking to the phone and you've got to really transform your mindset that you're actually talking to an audience. And, and that takes a skill set.

It doesn't happen like this because I've been working on it and it's it, you have to record it and flub it and then re record it and you got to get comfortable. So it's a whole mindset aspect that you got to punch through.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:10:41

Yeah, it really is. And I think you tapped into a secret hack there. Like for the people that are worried about this, uncomfortable with this, you don't have to post it.

You can just record it, watch it, complain about it, obsess about it, make some changes, do it a few times. And like with those reps, like anything, the more you do it, you're going to get good at it and look at what other people are doing. It's not perfect.

Like just start to get comfortable with the barriers coming down for the polish.

And there's a really key aspect I think we need to point out is that we live in a new world of like millennials and Gen Z appreciating authentic content, more valuing it. And there is an argument for the polished stuff that people have been doing actually can work against you.

It can make you seem fake, duplicitous, marketing talk, or like whatever you want to say. If I do something raw, unrehearsed on my phone, walking down the street, that just feels more real because frankly it is more real. Right.

You haven't reversed this. This is you being you. And then I inherently trust you more because of it.

Freddy D: 00:11:56

Yeah, that's goes back to when I said with using the cell phone for getting customer testimonials because it doesn't have to be perfect if the camera is wobbling and you're wobbling the thing and the person fumbles a little bit. You're absolutely right. It's authentic. That's a real testimonial. It's not a Hollywood produced one where someone memorized the script.

So you're absolutely right on the money that that is how you basically differentiate yourself from a competitor. Let's go into a little bit more of the things that you do because you do a lot of cool stuff.

So let's talk a little bit about how you really help elevate an organization to get their message out.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:12:34

Just full disclosure or like for perspective, like I think I've always been like an order taker for video. Like people say, hey Dane, I need a video, can you make it? And I said, yeah, I can make it. And then I help them go do that.

But what's changed is it occurred to me that there's, with all these changes we've had about video and about AI and about this sort of business, social media, culture of authenticity, all these changes.

I collected this body of knowledge, this holistic understanding of video that's pretty valuable and I need to find a way of taking the expertise and putting it into a package that can basically help me help businesses make better video decisions. And so I've created this video strategy process that I've been doing it the whole time.

Call it pre production or planning, but like a lot of that planning if you do it all at once up front, not just for the one video project you're working on, but like across the organization, like how are we going to handle social media content? What about case studies? What about should this be an animated video or should it be live action?

Like all those decisions, I'm pretty well equipped to help make those with a company. So this is the strategy process I'm starting to sell. Admittedly I've I'm new to selling strategy.

It's a weird thing because the word strategy really freaks people out sometimes. Some people are like, I don't need a strategy, I just need a plan. And like you could argue they're the same thing. I don't know, depends.

The way I talk about it is like you wouldn't build a house without a blueprint. It's basically that sure, sell, start what I'm starting to do, sell this strategy.

But then I still do all the things I used to do, which my video production company is just well positioned.

With my wide network of vendors, partners, friends, people that I've worked with for years, I can basically bring just about any video project to life. Like I do animated explainer videos, I do video shoots like on location. Case studies started to do like social media clips.

I've got a whole team that just does social media clips.

Like for example what we're doing right now, this is great content to be repurposed into one minute social clips with like captions and things flying around to kind of grab visual interest. So I've like pivoted my company to be like a one stop shop for B2B video. And I'm building my team, building my capabilities.

And I always like to say anything you need is one phone call away because I just know so many people now. You need a Nike commercial, I know that guy. I'm probably not going to be the one steering it, but I can sure connect you to that person.

And so that's where I'm at right now, evolving my online presence to communicate that I sell strategy. That's where I'm at right now never having done that before, how does that look? How do I make that into a package that people can say yes to?

Freddy D: 00:15:28

Sure. What's the name of your agency? I didn't mention it beforehand but I.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:15:33

Figured it let you a digital accomplice which a lot of people think it's accomplish with an H at the end. But it's accomplice like someone who helps you with a crime. And I thought that was a tongue in cheek fun way of talking about my company.

I was inspired by Richard Branson. The name of his company Virginia was meant to be edgy, a naughty name. So I thought digital accomplice is a fun way to think about.

Hey, I'm here to help you with your digital media.

Freddy D: 00:16:00

Yeah, no, I like it. It's a great name. It's. It resonates. So it's cool. One of the things I saw in a.

And I want to share the story because it's not really a story but it's an example because I think you can expand upon the importance of this and that was a couple years ago I was running a company that was a service based company and we scaled it by about a million in a year. And there was.

I was researching competitors because rule number one in sales is you want to understand and marketing you understand what your competitors are doing and how you're standing up to them. And it was a competitor that had a great video and what they did was they. The video was all about their customer.

So the customer was talking all about the services that they provided. So it was really the customer looked like the rock star and.

But then they would mention how this company was behind the scenes helping them be the rock star. So it happened to be an interpreting and translation company.

So they were working with in kids and different things that were not English proficient individuals. And so this interpreting company created this video and it's really about all this agency working with these kids and helping all this stuff.

But every now and then they would mention this transl. Interpreting and translation company how they were the magic behind them being able to do it. So it was really clever because it wasn't.

They weren't boasting about how wonderful they were.

Their customer was in a sense a super fan of them and they were selling them while at the same time talking about the great services that they're doing with all these kids.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:17:48

Yeah, it sounds like this is like a classic customer story but told in a just good storytelling of the transformation that company helped take them from one place that was not good to a better place. And when someone undergoes a transformation like that, it usually needs a guide. And so it seems like this company was in the sort of the.

The Yoda, the master seat to help with that transformation. And if they did experience a positive transformation, I would be very happy about that myself.

And it sounds like they've got a heartwarming story about you mentioned the kids and like improving lives and things like that. That's a little bit of a tear jerker story, but something we can all feel good about. That's what video is so good as.

Like telling these emotional stories.

You could write that on paper, you could use that with some dry language or you could go the other way and really help us feel that and get that emotion coming across. And I think that's what video does so well.

And it sounds like that's the kind of example you're talking about is a really emotional storytelling of a customer success story with. But with the company as the. As in the backseat.

Freddy D: 00:18:56

Exactly. That was, I thought that was clever because at the end of the day you go, I like that company. And it's it.

And you're happy for the, the agency that was working with the kids, me as a prospect. I'm going to, I'm going to talk to this agency because they do cool stuff.

And so they weren't talking about how wonderful they were because nobody cares.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:19:16

You made them care right. In, in that video. Like it's.

Freddy D: 00:19:19

That's it. But that's it.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:19:20

What we care about, not what does widget do. No one cares about a widget. We care about the transformation.

Freddy D: 00:19:25

Yeah.

So let's talk a little bit about how do you work with the company and then share a story of how worked with an organization and help them get a project out the door and they became one of your. What I call superfan. That told a multitude of other people of the great work that you guys do.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:19:45

Yeah. I'll tell you a story about working with Twitch, who has been my biggest and favorite client for a long time.

Probably eight or nine years at this point. And Twitch is barely that old. They were known as Justin TV originally. And in the beginning of Twitch nobody knew what that was.

That it would blow people's minds that people would watch other people play video games and that was like entertainment.

It's kind of like a weird thing that culture took off and a lot of the people that I used to work with at this magazine and publishing company called Future Publishing, they made like Xbox magazine, PlayStation magazine, stuff like that. PC Gamer, a lot of that Leadership went over to Twitch when they were just starting out.

And because I had helped them so much at Future as the video guy, I was like, the first call is the video guy for Twitch. And so we did a few projects together and they went well. And then I started to see that there was this pattern of a need that they had.

And what they would do is they would use a sizzle video that we would create that told the story of how their brand activation campaigns went.

So what that would look like is say Coke would go to Twitch and they would do, hey, let's do an influencer campaign where people on stream are playing games, drinking Coke, talking about how great it is. And then those campaigns over time they do really well.

And then we want to go back to Coke and sit in the conference room with them and, and show them how this thing performed. And in video format they can really feel that live influencer campaign.

Like the excitement, the energy, like what the heck Twitch is in the first place. For a lot of these Coke execs, they wouldn't necessarily understand that initially.

So we started to do these sizzle videos and they saw how powerful they were in showing people the real value and the success of those campaigns. So they just, they kept asking for more of these and we realized, hey, we can make this easier process. So we did a flat pricing model.

We set up a system where they could order it very easily. It would just go through our production pipeline. We had a feedback loop all set up. So it was basically just making a turnkey.

We want to make it really easy, good experience for the client. And I think we did that over time.

And that's probably evidenced by our continuing relationship making these kinds of products for them after eight or nine years. So I'd count that as success, as a success.

And over the years I've solicited a few quotes from the people that I worked with and they would say things like were their secret weapon because it basically was closing more deals for them. And who doesn't like that?

And then there's people, inevitably some of them go off to do other things, but then they remember us from our experience and how great that was. And so now we've created super fans that kind of cross pollinate into other organizations. And so that's been a really fantastic process for, for us.

And I'm always trying to replicate that. It's not always possible because not everyone has this ongoing pipeline mean.

But I would argue we're getting into a place where most companies that are doing video at all, which should be most of them at this point. You're going to need to do it ongoing. It's not one and done. You need to have it on presence. That's there.

And so we're just getting to that point where people are realizing, yeah, this is an ongoing thing. Not, hey, let's make one hero video for a website or a couple case studies and then be done. That's how it was.

Had to be done before because it was expensive and hard. It's not hard or expensive anymore. So you can and need to do it ongoing Anyway. That's twist in the story.

But yeah, that was Twitch was a really good case study, I think.

Freddy D: 00:24:48

Yeah, it's a great story. And you're. You bring up a really important point, Dan, is that you can't have stuff sit there and become stale. So it needs to be in today's world.

You need to really. You've got a customer story.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:25:04

Okay.

Freddy D: 00:25:05

It's been up there for nine months. It's a little old. You need a new one. I just worked, just talked with somebody, and I've been helping them with some of their marketing and sales.

And one of the things I told him is, you've got antique old testimonials. You need some new ones. And he goes, yeah, but I don't have the crew and all this stuff. And I says, dude, do you have one of these? It's all you need.

It's a testimonial. It doesn't have to be Hollywood. I coached a woman 10 years ago. She started in a kitchen doing pot pies. And my wife now introduced us.

And I remember she was starting from the kitchen, and I gave her some ideas. I helped her with some of their marketing and stuff. But she would go to the farmer's market and I'd say, okay. And she got great at it.

She wasn't good at it in the beginning, but she got great at it. She'd say, okay, it's Saturday, it's raining. I'm here at the farmer's market.

We got some pot pies coming in, some chicken pot pies, some beef pot pies and stuff like that. It's a perfect for a rainy day. Come on out, see us. We're here all day. And she just posted on Facebook and Instagram and all that stuff.

And today, 10 years later, her pies are in grocery stores. They're in multiple states and everything else. And she all started. So I really want to emphasize what you're talking about.

And she was doing it regularly. Every Saturday, she would post A new video.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:26:34

Yeah. This is underscoring what we already talked about, but the. The low lift of doing that.

Imagine how long does it take to talk about a pot pie in a rainy day? Like a minute, five minutes tops. If you had to do it twice, Right. Then you posted on Facebook basically free. And how does that not help visibility?

Because you're top of mind. They're seeing you regularly so they like you and trust you. You're familiar.

And of course that's going to make a sale a lot easier because trust is important. And then standing out if no one else is doing this, you're the person that does that.

I think it's a no brainer and I think your point is a really great one because it just really shows how easy this can be. It doesn't have to be expensive, it doesn't have to be hard, but you do have to do it. That's 10 years later. Look where you could be if you put it.

Freddy D: 00:27:25

Yeah.

And so one of the things that she did and I told her to videotape it and share it was they would do a chick, one of the cashier girls would do a chicken dance. So she'd be. Someone spent over a hundred dollars and she would be walking around like a chicken to. For someone to spend a hundred bucks.

I said videotape that and put it out there because it's stupid, it's funny and it's hilarious. And humor sells.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:27:49

Makes someone want to spend a hundred dollars so they get to see the thing. Like people will gladly make a. What do you call it? A non discretionary purchase. Like an impulse purchase for some novelty like that.

People do that stuff. It's. It's all over social media. People doing these little stunts for fun attention. Remember the ice bucket challenge?

Freddy D: 00:28:13

Oh yeah.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:28:14

Wanted to show themselves getting ice water on them more than they cared about the charity behind it. Right. Really kind of were attention driven people and not just for ourselves but we like to give attention to interesting weird things. So stand out.

Right?

Freddy D: 00:28:31

Sure.

Dane, share with us for our listeners because we got a lot of service based businesses that listen to the show is ways that they can utilize video to really expand their brand and then toss in how you can help make that happen for them.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:28:48

Yeah. So I think just getting started with any of this is you got to take a first step.

So I was like you talked about just take out your phone, do a little test. What you want to be doing, I think is creating some sort of content that adds value for your audience.

So let's say you're in H Vac or some sort of construction Y thing. You can show a video of you doing something on the job and sharing your insight about hey, this wire shouldn't be here, going to put it here.

Or some sort of tip that they can use that shows your knowledge and then now you've created value for them with like very low lift. And it shows you working, builds you as an expert. This is all about sharing your expertise that they care about, answering their questions.

And so no matter what industry you're in, you're going to have something like that, something visual to show. In cases where you don't know what that is, that could be you just talking to camera, sharing some sort of insight.

It could be news related, some new development. It could be do's and don'ts, it could be customer success story, could be like a unpopular opinion.

Just take your cues from other things that people are posting in other formats and just do the video version of that video is really good for repurposing. So you can take any other content that you have and do a video version. If you have a blog, just do a one minute summary what that blog is about.

Post that in your blog. Now all of a sudden it's going to rank higher, be more valuable, give people different ways to consume that and you're going to be top of mind more.

So that's like the easy way to get started is with this low lift social media stuff. There's a place for all kinds of content. Eventually you're probably going to want some other kind of format.

Like it might be a more highly polished customer, customer success story with customer testimonial. I think those are really good for late stage conversion.

A lot of people these days, they don't want to be sold to, they want to do their research ahead of time online. And so as they get themselves educated, they're getting closer and closer to a sale.

And having a highly polished customer video that's emotional really shows the success, the feeling of transformation from struggle to success that can tip someone out over into the conversion category. And so that's just a different type of content. Maybe you got some sort of product or process that's difficult to show or explain.

Then maybe an animated explainer video would do the heavy lifting for you. Because once you make that and you put it out there, people can get educated on their own time while you're sleeping.

Basically what I'm going to help people do is up with a plan, a strategy of what are we trying to do with the Business.

What are the things that could stand in our way and how can we use video to address those visibility concerns, trust concerns and standing out concerns. So that's really what video can do, communicating those emotionally.

So what I can do for you is help coach you whatever step you're at, baby steps in the beginning for free. Then we start getting into a crawl, walk, run, cadence.

So then there's going to be like the next project that feels like the priority and then over time as you start seeing some success and we'll be measuring this together. If it's working, then we'll know what the next thing is to try. So really I think of me as a Sherpa to get you up the mountain without falling down.

We're going to get you the content that's going to make sense and move the needle. Because I'm only interested in win wins. Video is not a one and done thing. I'm interested in long term relationships.

So I'm going to be that advisor to help get you there and show you why it's worth it.

Freddy D: 00:32:33

Yeah, you hit the nail right on the head because there's a lot of good stuff that you just mentioned there in a sense that how people can get themselves going and then really elevate it to the next level.

And an idea that I'm going to toss for listeners where you could really help them is we talk about grabbing video testimonials off of your smartphone. But now you've got 10, 12, 13 of those videos.

This is where your services can come in and you can take those 12, 13, 14 videos and package it into a story. Now it becomes, just like you said, that long term, longer story that people can watch on a website, et cetera.

Or the sales guy can go in there and says, hey, here's a quick five minute video. And this is all the customer stories. You can help put all that together so that business has a story that they can share.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:33:30

Yeah, as you start building up this library of content, video is great for repurposing. You can use the audio on its own, you can use the text transcripts on its own. You can take a bunch of different videos and make like a compilation.

You could ask a bunch of customers. Let's say you ask customers five questions and now you've got 10 customers all answering those five questions.

You could take 10 answers of question number one. And now that's one piece of content focused on one thing and a completely different topic.

Topic number two, you've got 10 people answering that question. So it's really about mixing and matching, leveraging, like what you've already done, getting the most juice out of it.

So that's where someone who's a video expert is going to be able to help you make those better decisions about getting more bang for your buck rather than having to learn the hard way and figure out all this technical and creative stuff by yourself. Which I've been doing this for 30 years. How could I possibly put that in a container and give that to you? It's. That's a lot of stuff to cover.

Freddy D: 00:34:31

Sure.

And the other thing that I've shared with business, service based businesses, especially in the home improvement industry, I told them that if you get the bid to do a kitchen remodel, videotape that whole process, I've shared it and photograph it. So combination of both.

And because then what you do when you do it beforehand, because most people won't take the pic, remember to take the pictures before the kitchen got destroyed. Then you know the whole process. Then you've got the whole new kitchen and nobody remembers it.

And then everybody throws their parties in the kitchen, everybody hangs out in the kitchen. And Sally comes over to Mary's house and says, man, I love this new kitchen.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:35:14

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:35:14

Remember how it looked like? No, let me show you. And now you've got that person becoming a super fan of showing the whole story.

So where your services can come in and say, okay, I can take those pictures, I can take those videos.

And even though they're the guys are doing it with their smartphones or whatever, you can turn that into a whole story that the construction company can deliver back to Mary.

And now you've created her as a sales person for AKA a superfan because she can go play a quick three minute reel that shows the whole story of high speed and everything else. So you can take what it took 90 days, you can have that customized into a 93 minute story.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:36:05

Yeah, you could. There's a lot of ways to do this. I think a time lapse is also a great idea.

You could get a GoPro, there's a buy them online, have them delivered tomorrow and you can set those up to take photos at certain intervals.

You could have someone who's working on the job like that take a picture or a video every single day or once a week and then compile that over time like you said. Like you can make a 30 second video that covers a 30 day build or a three year build and like that.

Talk about a transformation and put a little music to that, maybe a little voiceover. Someone talking about, hey, this is how we were in the beginning of the project and now we're really happy with the results.

You would feel that you not only see that but you would feel, oh wow, they're really happy. They were, they're struggling before and now, now life is great.

So yeah, that's the kind of impact that you're not going to get from a text explanation or just a photo on your website. Hey, look at the building we built. That's cool. But isn't it a lot cooler to tell that transformation story?

Freddy D: 00:37:04

Stories sell. Yeah. And you don't. And you can as a sales guy, you can just keep this quiet and go, look, this is our story and that's actually our customer story.

And then here's another customer story and customer story and deals done because the story will sell and you don't have to. The less I always tell people in sales, the less you say the better off you are.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:37:28

Yeah. And while those are be selling while you're sleeping, you put a, put the work into a piece of content like that.

It's out there working for you rather than going to presentation after presentation. It's like on autopilot at that point.

Freddy D: 00:37:41

Sure, yeah, yeah. So how can people find you?

Freddy D: 00:37:45

Dane?

Dane Frederiksen: 00:37:46

I'm on LinkedIn all the time. Dane Fredrickson. The company is Digital Accomplice or my website@digitalaccomplice.com.

Feel free to reach out if you got questions, questions about video or strategy. I really make myself available as a video expert to help share that kind of knowledge because it tends to lead the business.

So I'm always happy to answer some questions.

Freddy D: 00:38:06

Oh great. Great conversation and really appreciate your time on the show. You and I could probably talk about this for at least another day.

And do you have anything for our listeners that you, they can learn a little bit more about your services besides just going through the website?

Dane Frederiksen: 00:38:23

I post a lot of thought leadership on LinkedIn. I actually have a newsletter you can get off my profile as well. I post every Tuesday on issues around video and really about.

I've got my own talking points now about the changes in marketing. AI has really changed things.

Video has really changed things and we talked about that business culture revolution that's really just making a culture where a marketing culture where things that used to work don't work the same way anymore. And using AI and video, that's I think really the antidote.

So I would urge you to, if you want to learn more about that, check out my newsletter as well.

Freddy D: 00:38:59

Yeah, yeah, we didn't really jump into AI So still got some time I can. Let's talk a little bit about AI how's that changing the video game?

Dane Frederiksen: 00:39:08

Yeah, AI obviously opened the door to anyone making amazing content at scale, maybe close to free at this point. So that flooded the marketplace with all kinds of content. But it's not all good content.

We have a culture of distrust right now of AI because we all know it's fake, we know it hallucinates, we know it lies. We also have a cultural distrust climate right now with disinformation that's out there. So trust is at an all time low. AI is automating distrust.

Video, I really see like this authentic video is really an antidote to that because we can tell that this is human, this is authentic stuff that stands out. Yes, there's ways to use AI in creating video content, but it shouldn't be like an avatar. Right.

We want the real people thing, but you can use it for pre production planning and you can use it like we're using to script for editing and things like that. Those are great tools. But let's not confuse AI as the content itself because that is I think the road to ruin in B2B land.

Because trust is so important. Standing out is so important. And AI doesn't do very much in either one of those categories.

Freddy D: 00:40:17

Yeah, it's also you're really. There's. I look at it a little bit different. There's no B2B and there's no B2C. Just people to people.

I think that's something new I'm pushing is that we get caught up into this is B2B and this is B2C and this is be the government and all that stuff. But at the end of the day it's people to people. And yeah, I use Descript as well.

It's a great powerful tool to help edit, get rid of the ums and ahs and help clean up the show. So I see AI as a asset to help edit the stuff. But I completely agree with you.

I've played with avatars and tried to create some stuff and at the end of the day I wasn't sold. It just wasn't the same thing. And I think as you mentioned, the authentic individual is much better.

It's going to come across much better than using an avatar to share the message. What's your quick thoughts on people cloning themselves as an avatar?

Dane Frederiksen: 00:41:17

I don't know really what the use case is for that. I've seen people advocate for it and I've seen Different tools that do it. But it sends an interesting message to your customer.

You're not important enough for me as a person to show up and talk to you. It's a weird kind of message in the subtext of that. And it's also, we know it's AI, so it undercuts trust. I don't think it's the way to go.

I like to keep my mind open. That AI is moving fast. We may get to a point where that is a good idea or it's not distinguishable from real life.

But I like to think that humans still matter. And I really see that as like the ultimate differentiator. The ultimate moat for me is that I'm me and no one else can do that.

They can get close, but you can trick people. But over time, they're going to be able to tell it's fake. I think if a lot of people see it over and over again, the cracks will appear.

So I don't think it's the way to go, but prove me wrong.

Freddy D: 00:42:17

Yeah, no, I agree with you. I think it's a great. It's a great tool to help produce the video. But I think I'm with you 100%. It's still.

The better way is to do it yourself, be authentic, and then use the technology to help speed up the cleanup process and the production of it. And then now you've put out a much better product and you've cut the time and.

And that's really the biggest thing is cut the time and delivering it from what you used to have to do, what, five, seven years ago in editing. Now today with the AI has collapsed that time dramatically.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:42:55

Yeah, Keep the benefits of AI automation, but also keep the benefits of human connection and the human differentiation. AI is great for summarizing things, but it doesn't have its own ideas. It doesn't come up with original perspective yet.

Maybe it does and I'm missing it, but I think opinions matter. Like, how can you fake a human experience? Like, I've got 30 years of experience. Like that's going to come across.

And I think it's extremely valuable when everything is the same. It's all summarized summaries of summaries. Less valuable, important. Sure, but it's not special.

Freddy D: 00:43:33

Great. As we come to the end here, Dane, how can people find you?

Dane Frederiksen: 00:43:36

We talked about on my site, digital accomplice.com. I'm on LinkedIn all the time. Dane Frederickson. And I've got a newsletter. I take DMs and I'll connect to just about anybody that has a good reason to.

Freddy D: 00:43:50

All right, make sure that's in our show notes. Thank you so much for your time, great conversation and definitely would love to have you on the show down the road. Again.

Dane Frederiksen: 00:43:58

Awesome. Thanks Freddie.

Freddy D: 00:43:59

Dane really drove home this idea. Video doesn't have to be perfect to be powerful, it just needs to be real, consistent and useful.

That matters for service based business owners because trust is what wins business and authentic video helps people see your expertise before they ever talk to you. And that's exactly what I believe too. Your superfans aren't built through Polish alone.

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Intro: 00:45:30

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