SHOW TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is automatically generated by Descript.  Any errors or omissions are unintentional.

Jeff Sieh: [00:00:00] Hello, folks. Welcome to Social Media News Live. I’m Jeff Sieh, and you’re not.

Paul Gowder: And I’m Paul Gatter, and this is the show that keeps you up to date with what’s happening in the world of social media and more.

Jeff Sieh: Have you ever wondered how to harness the power of live video to scale your business? Maybe you want to learn the strategies that can take your brand from ordinary to extraordinary. Or maybe you’re ready to make your mark with live content that truly resonates with your audience. If you’ve been thinking about that and it’s crossed your mind a little bit, you’re in for something special because today we’re excited to bring on a guest who has mastered the art Of live streaming and brand building.

JP Hitech, a global branding and media expert, will be sharing his story, his strategies, and his top tips for using live video to grow your business. So sit back, clear your schedule, clear your mind, and get ready for this week’s episode of Social Media News Live. jp, how are you doing today, my friend?

JP Hightek: Hey, what’s happening, Jeff? Appreciate you having me here. So excited, uh, that we’re talking about one of my favorite subjects, right? How to [00:01:00] build your brain leveraging live video. I mean, this is so powerful, especially in the world that we live in today. I mean, live video is something else and I can’t wait to dive into it.

And here we go. You know, just share my expertise, my background, how I got to where I am today, how I’m still leveraging that, um, you know, to keep growing my company and, you know, closing more deals. And that’s what this is all about. I kind of think creators, cause creator economy is massive. Right. And, uh, we’re here to learn how to really dive into it and pull our part of it and, and make money and, and grow from there.

So yeah, excited

Paul Gowder: Let me introduce JP. He is a global branding and media expert, accomplished Amazon best selling author, and the president of Reveal TV Networks. Has over 15 years of experience in media, tech, and IT. As the founder of Perfect Zone Productions, um, a top media and branding agency in Tennessee. I’m Paul Gatter, has redefined personal branding, helping individuals and businesses discover their unique identities.

His leadership has been featured in major news outlets like CNN, Bloomberg, and ESPN. JP [00:02:00] also leads Content Creators University, which empowers creators to leverage technology and content for business growth with a mission to help businesses rapidly scale and dominate their industries. Impressive, man. I can’t wait to talk more about this.

Jeff Sieh: So, I, you, I mentioned it at the, the beginning. I, JP has this incredible YouTube channel. Uh, and his branding really is, folks, spot on, so as soon as this shows over, you want to jump over there and subscribe to his channel because it, it really is really, really great content. He’s got really great guests.

One of the things that he does talk about on there, he has a, a kind of a recent video where he actually showed you, uh, How to use Ecamm to go to multiple destinations like Instagram. He’s got a great little tutorial on that. And I thought that was a perfect segway because Ecamm is who sponsors the show today.

You can find out more about them at ecamm. com forward slash Jeff. If you use the code Jeff15, you’ll save 15 percent on your first purchase. They have a really great new integration with Zoom. So if you’re a Zoom user, it’s a great way to actually, Increase [00:03:00] what you can do with Zoom. It’s actually saved my bacon numerous times.

One of the times we had Judy, uh, Jodi Kringle on, one of our guests. She couldn’t for some reason connect. We were able to fire up Zoom and she was able to come on with no problem. So, if you’re a remote producer or whatever thing like that, make sure you go to ecamm. com forward slash Jeff. And here’s a little secret.

If you like it, use that code JEFF15 to save that 15 percent on like the pro like yearly plan because it’s going to save you a bunch of money. So anyway, thank you for Ecamm for sponsoring the show. So let’s drive dive right into it JP because you really you wrote a book about it. It’s an amazing book.

It’s an easy read and we’re going to get into some of that later because you have some great examples in there. But let’s talk about The power of live video and how you actually have a background in traditional media and branding. And now you’ve kind of kind of not pivoted, but use that expertise with your live video.

So talk about that motivation for you to kind of pivot from traditional media, start your own company and focus heavily on on live [00:04:00] video. Right.

JP Hightek: my story, if you didn’t know that, I started as a regular cinematographer, right? Very, very long time ago. Um, and when I started my company, Perfect Zoom Productions, I was offering people cinematography. At that time, I was working on small movie sets in Texas, Dallas, Texas, specifically.

And so, Everywhere I will go, right? Customers will be asking me, Hey, do you do graphic design? Do you do web design? Do you, do you do photography? And, and all those additional things. And of course, uh, back then being a one man band or I’ll tell him, yeah, absolutely. We do that. Right. But I didn’t really do it.

Um, but I was the type of person that will love to offer the best that I can offer to my customers. And so I went back, learned, uh, two classes, learned how to do coding, Python specifically, and started offering software development, mobile application development, all that to customers. Went back, learned how to do photography, started offering that, and, you know, extended, expanded the offerings and, and the, you know, limitations of my company.

Now, [00:05:00] while I was doing all of that, I was still in college, right? University of Texas, Arlington. And my focus was to maximize and make as much money as an entrepreneur, right? That I could, as I was working, running my small business and going to college. So I decided to dive into YouTube. Now, if you know my story, you knew I grew one YouTube channel all the way to 126, 000 subscribers and YouTube accidentally deleted my YouTube channel. If you, if you follow me, go to my YouTube channel. Check out my story there, they sent me emails, I apologized and all that said, Hey, I did it. I’m still waiting on that. But that taught me a major lesson is you need to own your content. You got to own it. And you need to understand the rules of engagement when it comes up to building your brand, because you will lose it all.

Right. That time I was really relying on YouTube, really relying on social media, all the platform, but But I forgot one aspect. They could remove and [00:06:00] kill my business anytime they see fit. So I went and read the terms of service and they said, even if you did not violate anything and they believe they needed to take you down, they did not have to explain themselves to you. Well, every single content creator that was on YouTube, I buy by that. What? Think about that for a second. Yeah. Yeah. So the whole thing was gone. And so I decided, you know what? Time to change things a little bit. Time to come back. Right. So I took a year off, focused on my business, grew my business. All that.

I didn’t even know I was going to come back. And this time, when I came back, I came back completely differently. One, I understood what I was getting myself into. Two, I knew that I had to just leverage this platform, redirect the conversation to something that I own so that I can expand and grow my business.

And even if anything were to happen to my presence on any of those platforms, it would not hurt my business. And one of the ways that I’ve decided to do that is leveraging live video. Why? Because live [00:07:00] video is a way for me to quickly, rapidly share the information that I want to share, qualify the leads, organic leads that I’m looking for, have them come, foster a conversation in a specific time frame, right, in the world where I’m fostering that.

Which in return is causing, um, that fear of FOMO, right? Where people want to be part of a specific thing, and it causes them to jump in. And depending on the quality of what I’m presenting to them, I will either retain their attention, to cause them to want to learn more than they’re going to go follow me or go outside of YouTube or those platforms.

To learn more, which I have a free lead magnet for them, or I have a straight, Uh, on apologizing product for them to go ahead and purchase a service. And now they become part of my community, which is what this is all about. And so that’s how I was able to navigate from traditional media, which I still do by the way, right.

But then grew my brand here, understanding that COVID changed the way we approach things. Now we’re, uh, 2020, everybody understood that, Oh, online [00:08:00] was the way to go and do certain things. And so there I started offering certain services when people saw, Oh snap, this guy, right, he understand breading. He knows what he’s talking about.

He’s taking the time to establish his authority, which is very important. Live Streaming allows you to do that, right? You’re the expert. People will know once you do it right, they know you’re the guy, you know, for, for the job, right? Based on how you’re having the conversation, which is why we’re doing this morning.

Right? And so from there, if you really present your offering correctly, you have that clear structure for your live stream, then they’re going to want to continue the conversation with you or try to ask you for more help. And you’re selling, you’re making money. It’s natural and not organic.

Paul Gowder: What you said there about lots of clients. Have you seen live video transform your clients businesses?

JP Hightek: Absolutely. As a matter of fact, let me take a client that was on your show, Tanya Smith.

Jeff Sieh: Oh, yeah.

JP Hightek: Tanya Smith, of course, Tanya Smith, right? She was doing amazing stuff already. [00:09:00] When we met, I looked at her branding and I suggested a couple of things. One thing led to another. She became a client. She said, you know what, JP, you said I’d be going around.

Can you and your team help us elevate our branding? Well, if you know, Tanya Smith from Streaming Like a Boss, go ahead and check her brand out. Go ahead and see the amazing things she’s doing now. She. Elevated already the amazing conversation she was doing by having the proper overlays, the amazing structuring for that, and how she’s bringing the guests in and all the amazing presence, the custom looks and all that we created for her.

Completely transform what she was already doing correctly. Why is this important? Well, let me put it to you like this. There was this study without doing a promotion to a third party. There was this study of, um, this baker that wanted to sell chocolate cake. So the study was about the packaging. Right? So one hand, the called the group of people, about 10, the offered the same.

You know, uh, chocolate cake and say, here [00:10:00] it is. Uh, how much would you guys pay for this? People barely said 10. The same product that took it, they repackaged that differently, right? The work with the professional packaging company packaged that really nice and the brand, the information was clear. Um, they knew who it was, gluten free, whatever.

This is for you. And then they called this, uh, uh, the same group, right? They say, Hey, this is a different product. It was the same, by the way. They said, how much would you pay for this?

They were hoping if they could spend over 50 for the same product. What does that tell you? Apple mastered this thing. And I talk about that in the book, Apple mastered this thing, right?

The same product, depending on how you present it to the target audience will determine How or how much you’ll pay for it.

Jeff Sieh: That’s

JP Hightek: And that is what we did with, with Tanya Smith.

Jeff Sieh: Yeah, her brand is stellar. I mean everything from Her shorts that she does to her live video. [00:11:00] It is very cohesive and, and JP, I mean, I’m sure that you had a lot to do with that because, uh, she does have an incredible brand. I want to do some, uh, shout outs to, uh, some of, it looks like you brought your fan club with you, uh, JP.

Uh, James Hick is, is here saying JP is the man and James is coming on the show, uh, in, in the future. So I can’t wait for that. And then, uh, friends cast ahead, Chris Stone saying, yay, PJP. What’s good, everybody? Eh. And, uh, this is what I love about this show is the people in the comments, uh, it’s amazing and welcoming each other.

And, uh, Chris says this, he goes, JP has great vision for excellence as it relates to visual content. Many try to copy him and fail. So, um, that’s, that is very, very true. I’ve seen it out there on the interwebs, people trying to do that. And you even make a point in your book saying, Take inspiration from people, but don’t copy them.

And I think that is one of the key things as well. And then we have my good friend, Peg Fitzpatrick, saying, Hey friends, here to [00:12:00] learn. Thank you, Peg, so much for showing up today. So, um, JP, I wanted to ask you, as we continue this conversation about the power of live video, What are the differences between the audience engagement between live video and other content forums?

You’ve really kind of gone into live video while you do it. Um, what are some of those key things that, um, really make live video stand out?

JP Hightek: man, this is fantastic. All right. Uh, one example that I take a lot of times, uh, if you live in the United States, depending on where you’re watching this from, cause I have some of our community members that are outside of the United States, London, UK, all of that, right. Amazing stuff. Well, in the U S we have something called the Superbowl.

Well, the Superbowl is an event that’s broadcasted live every year. Question though, why live? Why can’t they just do or hold this same event pre recorded or off of the world wide web? Well, here’s the thing. Whenever you broadcast something live, people, [00:13:00] which is aka your community, right, are people that feel part of what the conversation you’re trying to have.

Whenever they’re not part of that, just like your favorite TV show, which is available on demand on a lot of those streaming platforms, people still tune in on live TV or cable TV to watch it whenever they can. Why? They know they’re not the only people tuning in. They know there’s a bigger community, something bigger than themselves, that they want to be part of.

What is that doing for you? What is that doing is allowing you, right? To share a specific information And make money off of it, creating a certain mood. Branding is all about the messaging you’re sending. What type of emotion, right? Are you creating in the person that’s trying to purchase your product or service?

Which is why if you watch the Super Bowl, there’s so many companies that will pay millions of dollars to advertise their product and content live. Why? Because of the message, they know people right here are ready. They trust the brand. So here’s the [00:14:00] thing. Whenever you broadcast people that are joining me, trust you.

So any information you’re sharing, you’re 50 percent in their pocket already. Why? You’ve already established yourself. So when I go live on like on demand, there are certain conversations that I’m fostering that I can only foster during that time. People, when they know that you value them so much, like right now you were calling names, you were giving shout outs, you were reading comments, and you made it special where any question that anybody will ask, now, It’s different from when somebody comments later, because now you’re giving them a unique attention where they feel special.

Whenever people that want to purchase your product or services feel special, feel like you are taking the time to really provide them with what they’re looking for, the value of the product that you’re offering skyrockets. And that’s very important, right? What’s the value of what we’re offering to people?

That is what’s going to separate you from everybody else because you can see a photographer right [00:15:00] now. And I talk about this in my private mentorship programs, where I’m like, listen, you’re a photographer. You’re barely charging 500 when you come to JP, even if you were to give me 500 for free, I’m My company is not doing it.

Why the value of what we’re giving you is higher. How’s that perceived. Well, it is perceived on how I present the value to you. That is where a lot of people are missing the boat. Right? And I do that with my live stream. We can have the same conversation without any of these overlays in the screen. I guarantee you, Jeff, the value of this live stream will change.

Actually, it will decrease. Why? The people that are watching it are enjoying themselves. It’s also entertainment, right? And another, another aspect of this is I always say, whenever you watch TV, there’s a reason why. Cinematography, I’m a cinematographer. They don’t just use one angle when they’re, you know, recording you.

They use multiple angles. Why? [00:16:00] Because people get bored fast. That’s why you have Reel 60 seconds and all that. Why Attention spin is short. So they use different angles. Here we use overlays and we have different animation, different things on the screen. Why is this important? It’s helping you stay and keep watching.

And if you understand YouTube, you know that retention is more important than the number of views that you get because that’s what’s gonna allow you to become a YouTube partner. And this is value that you’re giving people. The attention span is the subconscious is staying because of the different angles and the different animations and different ways we’re presenting the same content to them.

And it’s helping them, right? Take note and know, Oh, this is what’s happening, right? Focus in class. My wife, she’s a college teacher. And this is one thing she always say, repetition and knowing how you deliver the same information to your student matters. It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it.

When you see it and how people also are consuming what you’re giving them. So that’s what live stream does for me, which is completely different from what on demand pre [00:17:00] recorded videos do, right? There’s a different audience for that. But what I’m looking for is this data that I can only get when I go live.

Remember, a live video is still a video broadcasted live, which will be available as on demand later. Why not tap into both worlds versus just record and release? That’s the whole thing.

Jeff Sieh: That’s, that is, that is a mic drop, uh, answer to that question. That is amazing. I’ve got some really quick, some, uh, people are talking. Let’s see, I love how people are, hey, are saying exactly what your point is, is that the community is getting involved in engagement, and then Peg’s saying, uh, she’s obsessed with watching the Olympics, which my wife is too.

Oh my gosh, the volleyball has gone crazy. Um, and, and like, this, this is what, you know, A community does. So what’s been, they’re asking questions, watching the show, but also having their own conversations, which I really love. And then Angela has this to say, she’s watching over on Facebook, says, Great thoughts, so people feel special and see the benefit in what you’re offering and the value goes [00:18:00] up, which is very, very true.

So Paul, I know you had a question, uh, next.

Paul Gowder: Yeah, you mentioned retention. as I start doing more live videos, what am I looking for? What metrics should I be watching and how do I improve those?

JP Hightek: All right, we’re diving into the things that I teach. And this is a great question, man. Thank you. Like I told my community, I said, listen guys, join in because it’s going to be a free masterclass, right? Because this is why we do what we do. When it comes down to retention, right, in your metrics, you’re looking at how long are people staying when they’re watching.

And of course, if you go into your backs and you will be able to see that. Now here’s the thing. The question you want to ask yourself is, okay, how long are they staying one second while they’re dropping off at, for example, one minute, two minutes, three minutes. What you want to focus on is the length of the video that you’re releasing, right?

The retention, I’m Jeff Sieh, you will have, or the way it works on a five minute video is different from a 15 minute video or a one hour conversation. Same way for, let’s say, a YouTube [00:19:00] short, right? Because the amount of time that you’re offering people, you know, differs on the length of the video. Why is this important?

Well, for example, in a YouTube short, right? A YouTube short, you have 60 seconds. So you need to make your point in one second in order for them to stay. So it’s harder, but in a 60 minute video, It’s 60 minutes. I have 15 minutes to make my point. So now when you’re looking at that, you look at that percentage, ask yourself what type of video was, was this?

Was it a long, short or real? Now with that, what am I missing and people are dropping off in the first minute or in the first two, first one to two second or in the first 15 minutes. A lot of time I tell people, listen, regardless of the length of the video, one thing you want to do is remember that people are joining the video for a reason.

Everyone is looking for a solution. Let me say that again. Everyone’s looking for a solution. Let me say that again. Everyone is looking for a solution. So, what solution are you offering? [00:20:00] If you have a solution you’re offering, how long is it taking you to actually talk about the type of solution you have to offer, make it clear the expectation on how long it will take them to achieve what you’re promising, and third, how are you making that clear on for them, on having them, you know, go ahead and purchase or acquire that solution that you have.

Whenever you’re too long winded with those things, at least in 2024, 25, 26, and moving forward, right? very much. The world has changed, right? If you take too long to be clear and offer this information, people will drop off. If you’re too long winded, they’ll drop off. If you do not have any social proof, well, it will be hard for you to convert.

That’s one thing that I’ve learned. I tell people all the time. It’s not about the amount of views that you get or amount of comments or likes. It’s about the amount of people you convert. I know creators that have way more subscribers than me today, right? But are not making as much as I’m making.

They’re barely converting [00:21:00] anybody. My question to you is, why do you prefer money in the bank account or people liking you online? I mean, let’s be real here. I’d rather have a thousand subscribers. And make 5, 000 a month versus having 5, 000 subscribers and making 5 a month. I don’t know about you.

Jeff Sieh: That’s great, you know and on that note JP, it always kills me when these creators say Yeah, I make six figures, but they’re probably a lot of them are spinning seven just to have what you know, they have they they’re not actually making money. They’re spending it on they can, you know, you can anybody can buy likes now and get bots and like, I mean, and and game the system.

But you’re right, like, The authenticity and actually making money by promoting your product. And you don’t have to be super salesy. I mean, I’ve watched your videos, you promote your stuff, but it’s not like you don’t feel like a used car salesman, right? It’s just organic. It’s the, it’s the community. So I want to dive in because [00:22:00] your book talks about this and, um, you, you have done this yourself is I want to be talking about your book.

Branding your live stream, right? Like the, the, how you’ve started to, um, do that. And then we’ll talk about some scaling stuff, but are you a graphic designer? I mean, you, you did cinematography or did, is that, did you hire that out? I’m like, because it is on point. It’s, it’s your own brand and it’s stellar.

So talk about your branding a little bit.

JP Hightek: Yeah, man, this is, this is awesome. This is awesome. Yes. I, uh, designed it myself. If you remember my story, right? I’m all about talking about something that I know. So I went back to learn how to do graphic design, right? Master graphic design and started designing before I hired my first employee, right? In 2015.

Uh, I knew what I was talking about. Of course, Uh, our sources and all of that, but for my own stuff, yes, sir. JP sat down, designed every single aspect of it. Why? Because I knew exactly what I was trying to [00:23:00] create. And that is very important, right? We need to brand ourself correctly. Some people will tell you, well, it’s not that important.

Well, if it’s not that important, tell me why the number one company in the world, Apple, spend so much money in branding. If it wasn’t that important, why is it Tesla spending so much money in branding? I can keep going,

Jeff Sieh: Right, right,

JP Hightek: The top companies in the world spend millions of dollars in branding and advertising.

Why? Because depending on how you brand yourself, it will either increase or decrease your net value. And something that I always talk about is you need to increase the net value of your brand. So let’s talk about it. Whenever you are offering a premium presentation to people that are here to enjoy the stream, They separate you from the competition because they know you first taking the time to spend money on your own products.

So I take time and [00:24:00] time understanding that depending on the amount of time that you spend is also money you’re spending time, investment, energy on making sure that the brand is stellar. What is the mission of a brand? The mission of a brand is to make it clear to the target audience, what you’re all about.

People, whenever they watch a stream, especially anything that’s more than 10 minutes, the question you want to ask yourself is, what is the one thing you want them to retain? What do you want them to remember at the end of your presentation? Well, guess what? Your brain does a better job at making sure they remember what you wanted to remember versus you repeating them verbally.

They might miss what you said. They might be like, Oh, I have to rewind it. When it’s live, they have to wait until the end. And then at the end of the live, they might have somebody call them. They might have an emergency and all that while your brain is in front of their eyes, it keeps sharing that information over whether it’s an overlay, scrolling thinker, right?

Whether it is a lower third animation. All of that matters. And that’s why I personally use Ecamm, [00:25:00] right? Because Ecamm allows me to bring on a level four to five, which is a TV broadcast level experience to my viewers, which the other ones do not do, but that’s perfectly fine. Depending on where you are in your journey, you can use a level two, right?

Web based. You can use that. You can start there. But the goal is don’t stay there. Don’t stay there. Because a lot of people ask me, JP, how is it that you’re converting so well? Well, I’m taking the time to really have a premium brand established. I cannot do that on StreamYard, but I use StreamYard. If I’m traveling sometimes, I might use that and broadcast something, right?

There’s nothing wrong with it, but know what each platform gives you, know the limitations, and leverage that for the best, uh, depending on the conversation you’re having. And trust me,

Jeff Sieh: Right.

JP Hightek: you need to elevate. It’s just how it goes.

Jeff Sieh: One of the things, uh, our friend Doc Rock says, um, he says, yeah, you can, you can drive to the Grand Canyon in a Pinto, [00:26:00] but wouldn’t you rather be in a Cadillac? You know, that’s

JP Hightek: you go.

Jeff Sieh: So, I mean, it, it’s, it, it is all about perception and ease of use. And yet there always is a learning curve when you’re up.

Sampling your stuff as you’re as you’re increasing your excellence and your branding and It’s okay to start like you had mentioned in your book those different levels But, you’re always, I think it was, um, like, get 1 percent better each time,

JP Hightek: Yes.

Jeff Sieh: and, and that’s for something. And, uh, Peg, who is a branding expert as well, and she says, uh, snaps on this branding conversation.

It’s, it’s, uh, it’s all up her alley. She loves, her brand is on point as well. If you go to pegfitzpatrick. com, her website is, uh, on point.

JP Hightek: Before you ask any question, can I add one

Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Right.

JP Hightek: few times. Um, people will ask you, Hey man, I know how to, you know, I know how to go on Canva. I know how to, you know, create my own overlays. Why should I have to spend money? Great question. Great question. The fact that you [00:27:00] own a bike, can you be part of a competition of pro racers? Oh, the answer is no. Oh, so the answer is no. Yeah. The fact that you have a camera does not make you a professional photographer at all. Yes, you own it. We live in a world today where we have access to all those things, but go back. Take a step back and ask yourself, man, let me look at JP’s branding, let me look at mine.

He knows something I don’t. Yes, I do. Why? I’ve been doing this for over 15 years. This is what I do for a living. This is my expertise. me, even though I can paint a wall in my house, when I built my house, I paid somebody to come and do professional painting job in my house. I’m not gonna mess it up just because I know how to use a brush.

Come on, people. If you want elevated premium established brand, you’re gonna hire professionals to get it done for you. Now, if you do not want to do it, Well, go back to college, take 2, 4, 5 years, master [00:28:00] this thing, then offer it if you have the time. If you don’t, you really want to just jump ahead, well, hire somebody to do it for you and you keep moving and do what you do best.

Run your company, offer the things that you offer and have the amazing conversations that you’re having because you are the expert in the things that you’ve mastered. Understanding that expertise takes time to establish. We’re not expert in everything, man. And I’m definitely not. So there you go.

Hopefully that answers some questions that some people might have watching this thing today.

Jeff Sieh: So, so Gary Stockton says, tell my wife about painting skills. Like, I guess he’s been roped in a couple of times. Um, and, uh, Peg says, uh, branding is a hundred percent the place to spend the money. And then even your, your personal brand, you know, everybody’s going in the com, in conversation, where can I buy a pair of those amazing glasses?

And, uh, Peg’s like, I love those glasses too. So yeah, there you go. That’s. Uh, no one ever says that. Hey, where can I get that beard? Um,

JP Hightek: Appreciate that, man. [00:29:00] Appreciate that. If you notice Jeff, I took it off. I had these black ones when I joined. Right. And I’m like, you know what? I remember having white here. Let me go ahead and put the white and black intentional. Um, and I’ll, I’ll let Jeff know offline. So when I promoted them on the other live stream, but definitely really affordable stuff, high quality, amazing stuff.

Love

Jeff Sieh: awesome. That’s awesome. And Peg says, I do a, um, a ton of my own branding, but she paid for her logo. So, yeah, you can, some of the stuff, if you have the talent, and Peg does, to create your own designs and stuff, that’s great. But you also know your limitations. A logo is a whole, is a whole other beast that we could have an entire show on there.

We had Mar Mar Marshall Fox on the show, who’s an amazing designer, and he does really great, uh, logos. Uh, and so, um, yeah. So, that’s really cool. Like, you know what you, you can do, and then you pay for what you don’t want to do, or you don’t have expertise in. So, uh, Paul, did you have any questions?

Paul Gowder: I love what you said about, um, photography and cameras as a photographer. That’s so, that resonates with me because so many people [00:30:00] nowadays are doing photography. And so I love, um, uh, but so if I’m a business and I’m trying to integrate this into, um, integrate more live video into my business. So what’s, what strategies do you have to, you know, help, help integrate this into my, my business plan or my broader business goals?

How do I, how do I get this going?

JP Hightek: right. All right. Y’all ready for this? Okay. Okay. Let’s go. First thing, right. And I tell every new entrepreneur, first thing, understand a live stream in itself is a product that you’re offering. A

lot of people get surprised by this. I’m like, listen, it is a product. It is an experience. Then it is a product because it is a product.

You have to approach it differently. So if you have a company, understand that live stream will become one of the products that you are offering as a company owner. So as one of the products that I’m offering to people, how am I making sure that my offering makes [00:31:00] sense to the target audience, right?

Because they’re going to have to purchase, buy in. Why does that buy in? It’s people joining your community. The all, the ultimate focus, whenever you’re doing live stream is to build a community. If you do not have that as a focus, you’re missing the goal. Why? Because your community will be your self ambassadors that will push the edge of what you have doing live stream to places you never even imagined it would go.

And that is what’s going to help you have those organic leads and convert as many people as possible. So question, do you intend creating a community? A community of people that will love the product and service that you have to offer. If not, this is the time you have to think about the community before you even start going live.

Second, how do you want people to purchase it? What do we mean JP? How? Well, how, how many times you want to go live in a month, in a week, all of that matters, right? What [00:32:00] date of the week do your homework? Because depending on the type of product you have to Doing that on a Saturday morning might not be the right time for folks.

Now, let’s continue here. After you started doing that, whenever you go live, how long are you live stream and what type of structure do you have? Is it a head talk where you have people do a Q& A? Is it having a guest holding this type of conversations like we’re having right now on this podcast? Or is this something where you want to do how to?

There are different types of videos you can release. You need to choose the one that aligns the best with the type of conversations you want to offer them. Okay. And after you’ve done that, now you’ve established that you already have a product and a way to redirect the conversation. Understanding that whenever you go live, That’s when you start having the conversation, not where you end.

So you want to make sure that you reiterate that, you make that clear to people when joining in. [00:33:00] Hey, and if you want to continue this conversation or you won’t have any questions or you want to join the private community, this is where you go, right? And also remember, unless you can establish your authority, And yourself as the expert and have social proof, it will be very hard for you to sell your live stream as a product and then upsell people based on the product and services you want them to join.

It will be very hard. So make sure that you have those things created first. And like I always say, you always want to make sure you have the blueprint before you start building the house. A lot of people will start building the house and they want to go back and look for a blueprint. It doesn’t work like that, right?

Make sure you have the blueprint. You know what you’re building. I can have a three bedroom house. It will be different from your three bedroom house. I want my walls to certain colors. I want different things a different way. Well, you got to make sure what you want. Make sure you have that blueprint and build up on that, right?

Sometimes you may end up five years and having a pool in your [00:34:00] backyard, but you knew you wanted a pool. My live stream I knew I wanted to have a conference, right? Creators Unleashed. Some folks were surprised. Well, my conference, every single time we did a conference, all the seats were sold. Ha! But I had that in my blueprint.

Before I even started. And when I started every single thing I was doing was leading up to something special. So do you even have a strategy? Do you have a blueprint for the next two, three, five years in order to grow your brand? Or are you just swinging it as you go? If you’re swinging it well, you want to work with someone that can help you establish some good stuff so you can make money.

Jeff Sieh: Paul in his blueprint has a whole room just for his Star Wars collectibles. So, uh, it’s very, very different than mine.

JP Hightek: I love it, man.

Jeff Sieh: um, uh, Chris Stone asked a great question here over on YouTube. He goes, uh, can you talk about audio branding as well? Uh, I know that, uh, you do the same as me, as there’s a video podcast, but also there’s audio for people who just like to consume the audio.

So, talk about [00:35:00] audio branding and the importance of that, if you would, JP.

JP Hightek: Yes. Amazing stuff. And in this world that we’re living in today, right? We understand that there are different mediums that you can use in order to share or broadcast your message. One is video. Another one is audio. So for audio, we’re talking about strictly audio podcast platform, you know, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, you know, all of that, you name it, all those platforms.

What you want to do is make sure you’re also fostering the same conversation there, but you tweak it a little bit. What I personally do for my brand is I extract, right, the audio. Look at that. I extract the audio of the podcast. Then we have a different intro, a different outro for the audio that was already pre produced.

And then we edited a different way, keeping in mind that this is the audio only community, right? And so you want to produce that and you want to make sure you distribute that to the audio streaming community so that you can expand the footprint of your brand. [00:36:00] Everywhere online, and that will actually help you out.

Now one, one thing that is amazing is even though plus places like Spotify or audio, you can upload your video. My podcast became number five last year. In business podcasts worldwide from Spotify. Why? Because I was uploading the video and my podcast was categorized among business podcasts, which that gave us a lot of streams, a lot of traffic to our businesses.

Right. And understanding that when it comes out to audio podcast, you have to brand it correctly. I’m talking audio branding, working with a Audio engineer working with a producer, somebody that knows what to do, and that can help edit the audio portion where it’s dynamic the same way you’re thinking, because remember when it’s audio, you cannot add visual overlays to an audio.

Marker

JP Hightek: So now how are you editing? How dynamic is it? Right? And if you listen to some of my audio podcasts, you will see that I come in very strong at the beginning. I’m I put a clip of something that [00:37:00] Uh, a guest said, that’s very, very enticing at the beginning. Then it goes into my intro. Then I come back, I’m gonna ask a question and then we roll into the actual podcast.

Then he stops at a ad break or something, talking about something very dynamic and I bring it back. Why? Because whenever you’re in somebody’s ear, that is a very intimate experience.

Jeff Sieh: I totally agree.

JP Hightek: Remember that. And work on those skills. Don’t just copy paste your video and just send it over, man. People know this was just a video that was put in audio.

They’re not going to like it. It’s like, again, going back to the same thing, you’re not taking the time to make them feel valued the audience when they know that, trust me, they’re not going to want to continue the conversation with you.

Jeff Sieh: I started doing that for this show. Um, if you go listen to the audio version of it, doing what is called that cold open, where you go grab that hook. from something that they’ve really, really said, put that at the beginning and do the same thing. And I’ve noticed that has increased, uh, my, my downloads and all that stuff.

So even constantly tweaking, [00:38:00] once again, we’re going back to that, become 1 percent better each time. Uh, I think that is really, really important. So Paul, do you have a question, uh, coming up for, for JP?

Paul Gowder: are you seeing any emerging trends in social media right now?

JP Hightek: Social media.

Paul Gowder: well, with live video?

JP Hightek: Yes, man. Yes, man. One thing that is working a lot right now when it comes up to live video is going live. Call format on YouTube. I’m telling you YouTube shorts. If you really want to bring in a lot more, uh, new viewers, a lot more traffic for people to discover one thing that I do when I go live, I’ll go live traditional landscape, like we’re doing right now, but I’ll also broadcast the same thing and I show a tutorial how you can multi, somewhat cast different format at the same time.

On my YouTube. So yes, you can have two live feed, the same one going out to YouTube at the same time. So I’ll broadcast the landscape traditionally, and then I’ll rebroadcast using my laptop or different uh, device. Sending the tall feed to YouTube. Now the tall feed is showing in the YouTube shorts now. [00:39:00] YouTube shorts is why YouTube themself are pushing the most.

So, so many people would jump on and click Curious and say, who’s this? Why? Because now you have a livestream showing. And so we’ll click on it and then they’re like, Oh, what is this? Now you have new people that will be discovering you every single time you go live. And that’s going to help you grow, right?

Your YouTube channel and your YouTube presence that you have. And that is something that’s been working for me and for so many other people, which is fantastic. So I want to encourage you to do that. Go ahead and broadcast if you can. To stream out and leverage a YouTube tall, uh, which is a YouTube short.

Now, after my livestream is over, I will simply delete the YouTube short version of it and keep the landscape. I’m just leveraging to, you know, track and bring more people to discover my channel. That’s the purpose of YouTube. Short, leveraging that for people to discover. Then using the long form traditional landscape format to retain people on your YouTube channel.

And that is [00:40:00] working fantastic, right? And now on the flip side, now you create several reels of that same podcast that you release, right? And then you just go and distribute that across every social media platform. Do not share the URL for YouTube channel in the description of the video. Simply add it at the end of the actual video, tell them where they can go and watch it.

And that is going to help you grow. A whole lot family.

Jeff Sieh: Wow. So that is, uh, gold because I had not thought about that. I know some people are doing it with Instagram, and I think your tutorial is actually on for Instagram, if I, if I remember right, on your, on your YouTube there, JP, but, uh, that, uh, Now I have what I’m going to do this weekend. I’m going to be messing around with that.

Um, one of the things, so that’s a great, uh, strategy, uh, for social. Do you have any more, like, branding strategies to make your live stream stand out, uh, from the competition? Because a lot of people are just, just going live. Some people just with their phone. But I believe that you have made your mark is because of your branding has made [00:41:00] you stand out.

So are there other things that people can easily up level to make them stand out from the competition?

JP Hightek: Yes, of course. And please stay with me. I know in the comment section, we have some pros already have this, but some people listen, there are different levels of live stream. Understand that today people are not as patient as they used to be when it comes out to the quality of your content, the quality of your presentation and the quality of your delivery.

Understand is always recommended to not use your window. As the source of lighting, right? Lighting is very important in cinematography. The type of light will determine the type of audience you have because you’re creating a unique mood. If you want that to be a very moody, like, you know, a scary show, well, okay, change the lighting for that.

But if that’s not the case, be careful the type of light you’re using. So shut the windows. Close it. I actually have it blacked out in my studio here and use a dedicated light source. Understand that using something called a ring light is not recommended because that’s made for [00:42:00] makeup. Makeup, right? It’s not a videography lighting.

Um, make sure you’re purchasing a videography light, not a ring light. And also understand that depending on the type of light, you need to add diffusion to that. If that is going to be too harsh on your face. Add diffusion, add the right video light. Okay. Go to my YouTube channel. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, learn what is true video light is and have the proper lighting.

If you wear glasses, make sure that you have at least two or more light. I have four. All right. Why? Because you’re going to have bags underneath your eye, position your light. Above, slightly above an angle down towards your face. That’s very important. Make sure you do that. Make sure you have an external microphone, okay?

The external microphone’s gonna help you. If you wanna do what we just talked about, extract the audio and produce and distribute that on other platform, people will enjoy that better. versus your onboarding webcam, onboarding microphone on your laptop and stuff like that. You need to spend that money and do that.

Now when it comes down to your branding, make sure that you go [00:43:00] online and look at your favorite cable tv show. If you watch sports, all of that go take a look at how they’re branding it. I’m just giving you the blueprint right now, that’s how I inspire myself. Sometimes right, I’ll go and watch You know, a basketball show or, uh, you know, football game or something on TV or a talk show, look at how they’re branding it.

Whenever I approach my branding and my designing, I always bring it from a TV broadcast, uh, approach versus a podcast approach. And whenever you do that, you will always up level because the way they do it, This paid somebody millions of dollars to help them achieve that. Well, just Inspire yourself. Don’t copy.

Look at the structure. Look at how they’re doing it when it comes out to different segments of their podcast. What are they doing? What are they putting on the screen? Are they announcing something coming up next? Right? All of that matters and And create that for yourself as well. Think of what you can do to up level the conversation and to help [00:44:00] people retain the information you’re giving them.

That is branding, family. And you need help. Get the help you need in order to get this done. Now, finally, I’m going to tell you this. You gotta own your content. And one of the ways that I own it is I have my own Roku TV application. Use a solution called RTN streams, rtn streams.com. You don’t have to code, you don’t have to do anything.

If you know how to upload a, a video to YouTube, go to rtn streams.com. Upload, get an account is a paid CDN account, but that’s gonna allow you to have a Roku TV application. Why? Because now you’re on tv. You’ve graduated from being a podcaster to being a TV host, so now you have a TV broadcast that changes things whenever you wanna work with brands or have brand deals because you’re letting them know you have a TV broadcast.

Separate yourself from the competition. Most people are not on television. Now you will be on television and you will charge more for the brand deal, which I do. And now you can guarantee a lifetime on your shelf. You can’t do that if you’re just on YouTube, Facebook, social media, [00:45:00] Instagram, they can delete it anytime, but I can promise why.

I own my Roku TV application. I can tell them it will be there for 10 years. As long as I maintain my CDN account, it will be there. Now you don’t have to talk about your numbers. That is gold family. Make sure you implement this in your business. I guarantee you, your brand is going to increase in value.

Jeff Sieh: That’s awesome, man. That is awesome. Thank you for dropping all these bombs. You mentioned different levels of live streaming. Once again, I want to do a big shout out to our sponsors, Ecamm. JP mentioned that he uses Ecamm. We use it here. Ecamm. com forward slash Jeff lets you save 15 percent on your first purchase.

And you know what I did when I started setting up this show? And mine’s a very basic show. It’s nothing like JP’s, but it worked for me. This is actually I did exactly what JP said. I went to, uh, broadcast, I went to, like, Fox, I went to CNN, I went to all the news channels, and looked how they were doing multiple guests.

And I actually took screenshots and built it from there. I, because I could figure out the proportion, yeah, I mean, yeah, so you, you just do that, and [00:46:00] then you, you, you see what you like, and you’re like, I could do that, and I could change out the background, and I could do whatever I want. But that was how I structured the show graphics, as I saw what they were doing on those big news channels, and I said, okay, because this was a news show, and, uh, anyway, so, uh, that’s great stuff, uh, JP, for that, um, and, um, one of the, I wanna, I wanna do this, we only got a few more minutes left, but, uh, I wanna talk about how you two scale with live video you’ve given.

I mean, this whole show’s been around that and you’ve gave given some great tips on it. But, um, you know, Paul has done the same thing. He started streaming powwows, uh, how many years ago was that, Paul? Um, 2004. And he has built a business, like that’s his business. He says he, he told us before the show started, he’s got four different.

Uh, teams out there streaming powwows this weekend, so, uh, he has scaled his business. So, what, what are some ways and strategies businesses can adopt [00:47:00] to effectively integrate live video into some of their broader marketing plans, JP?

JP Hightek: Man, great question. This is something that I’ve implemented myself and I implement this for our clients. And one thing you want to do. Remember when I say you want to look at it as a product? Remember, we talked about Superbowl is an event. What does the Superbowl do before the Superbowl even start? The Superbowl makes sure that they have commercials. They’re promoting the event. They have tickets for you to purchase all of those things. So I want to encourage you. Don’t just go live. One, schedule your live stream.

Jeff did it. Why? That helps people get ready to know you have an event at a specific time. People are busy, they have live, they have other things to do. Give them the opportunity to join you. Right. So schedule that. Typically, you want to schedule that at least three days prior. Okay. And you want to share that to your community members, your friends, your family members, people in your private circle, that is going to [00:48:00] allow you to share the word and market that.

Now here’s another tip for you. Even better, have a lending page on your website. And whenever you promote, send people there and have a free uptent. For them to tapping into the same conversation that you’re going to have on YouTube live. So now you’re growing your email base. Why is that important community?

You’ll be able to upsell those people. So if they want to stay with you, I’m telling you it’s free. If they really want to be part of that conversation, they’re looking for that free masterclass or conversation that you’re trying to have, they will sign up. Now you’re growing your email list. You’re growing potential clients and customers, future customers.

And now you’ll be able to. Sell them things later. That’s going to help you grow your business because this is a business, right? And you don’t have to change anything. All you’re doing is just promoting a dedicated link, but this is also helping you in your branding. Why? It’s easy for somebody to remember jphotech.

com forward slash live. Don’t remember a [00:49:00] YouTube URL. I can’t memorize a YouTube URL for a scheduled live stream.

Jeff Sieh: Right, right. Yeah.

JP Hightek: but remember repetition is key and what people remember is everything because as they leave they’ll be like, Hey, there’s this guy called JP. Uh, he was live. Yeah, just go to I believe jphattick.

com I think for such live. Very easy, right? If they don’t remember all of that, at least they’ll remember jphattick. com When the goal there, there’s a link, a button, click to watch our latest live stream. BAM! Now you’re redirecting the traffic to you. Why? Because you control the experience. If you go to the mall, you’re looking for a t shirt.

There’s so many stores that sell the same t shirt. Why send people to the mall when you can send them to your own store where you’re the only person selling and guess what? They’re going to end up buying from you regardless because you control the experience. That is what this all about. When you do that, you will grow and scale your business, understanding that this is a business [00:50:00] and in order to scale, you have to establish it as a business.

Right. Jeff will tell you there was something he signed when he was looking into becoming a guest on my podcast. Understand folks, this is a business and you’re going to make money. You’re going to have partners and brands that will sign contract with you. Are you even legally registered? Oh, you’re not?

Well, you may want to rethink those things. It is a business.

Jeff Sieh: Right.

JP Hightek: Yeah, I’m gonna stop right there. There’s so much into this, but

Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So this, I want to have this, this last question because we’re running out of time and JP, thank you for your time today, but you have dropped so many great knowledge bombs on this, but, um, and I want to get, because both of you guys have scaled your brand and I’m really interested in how small businesses leverage their live video to compete with some larger established brands.

So, uh, Paul, I would, I want to know how you did it really quickly and then I’ll go to JP to kind of wrap things up because, uh, he wrote about a lot of this in his book, but I know you have done the same thing, Paul, with, uh, powwows. com. So talk [00:51:00] about the. As you grew the brand deals you were able to maybe get with your video.

Paul Gowder: He mentioned this earlier, but I think one of the really important things with live video is building that community experience. One of our, our very first live stream, we, um, the powwow broke for a few hours, and I streamed them setting up chairs for three hours. And, but people were engaged because we had this community aspect.

We had the chat. And if you foster that community, then you can scale it. You can compete against the people. And it’s, it’s all about the people that are watching and that experience you provide them, not just the video.

Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So JP, how, how would you tell small businesses the best way they can compete? Because I mean, a lot of times they feel like, I mean, I’m never going to be like that influencer, or I’m never going to be Nike. I’m never going to be, you know, the, the red bubble t shirts, like you mentioned the t shirts before.

How can small businesses use live video to maybe even the playing field a little bit?

JP Hightek: Oh, they actually can. Oh boy, they can. And I’m gonna [00:52:00] tell you right now, one thing, one mistake that a lot of small businesses do is they lack consistency. I know you’ve heard this before, but I’m going to reiterate here. You have to be consistent for a certain amount of time. Let’s take YouTube, for example.

Did you know That in order for YouTube to trust a brand new channel in order for them to start recommending your channel, your videos to other people looking for similar things, you have to consistently release content about the same similar topic for at least six months. And that is the algorithm that’s doing that six month.

So listen, don’t start something that you cannot sustain.

All right. That’s why I said, if you can do it once a week, do it once a week, once a month, do it once a month, but you’ve got to be consistent because people will not follow. If you’re inconsistent, that’s very important, right? And you’ve got to make sure you are solution driven.

So ask yourself a small business owner, right? What are most of the questions that I, [00:53:00] as a consumer, cause you gotta be your first consumer, your first client is you, right? What are the first questions that I really want to ask myself and make sure that most of all of your videos that you’re releasing is solution based.

Because most people go on YouTube nowadays, looking for a solution on how to do stuff, how to change oil, how to fix this, how to buy this, how to, you know, how, how, how, how, how, make sure you do that. Those are one of the easiest and scalable videos you can release, especially when you do a live, people want to learn from you because you’re giving knowledge.

And whenever you become one of the go to database, giving people the solution, On how to do stuff. It does not matter how large a competitor is. You’re offering most of the solution. Guess where they’re going to go? To you.

Jeff Sieh: right.

JP Hightek: And that’s going to help you scale so fast. And after that, now you can start doing other stuff.

But when you’re starting solution, solution, solution, and I’m telling you, people will navigate, gravitate to you and you’ll [00:54:00] be mind blown because they want to learn and they have that problem. And that’s how you’ve been growing your regular business. While you’re offering a solution to a problem and by offering it, they’re like, Hey man, he really knows his stuff.

I’ve been trying to find a solution to this problem for the longest. Ah, he’s talking about it. Let me learn how to do it and research, research in your industry. The problem people are having and take that and make videos on it as a solution. I’m telling you, you’re going to grow fast. You’ll be mind blown.

Jeff Sieh: Oh, man, this has been such good stuff. Uh, thank you so much, um, JP, for all this knowledge today. People have, and so, um, Eden Lewis here, she goes, Consistency is my top challenge. Uh, Eden was a guest a couple weeks ago, so if you haven’t caught her episode, make sure you go watch or listen to that. She does a great job.

A great job. And Chocolate Quilt says, This may be the most valuable video of 2024. So, thank you so much for that. That is awesome. So much value [00:55:00] today. But JP, before we break away, I want to give you a chance to tell people where to find you, all the stuff that is you, your community. So, the floor is yours.

JP Hightek: Hey man, um, first thing first, thank you so much for having me on the show. Really enjoying myself and the time that we spent together. Again, family, I love networking. I always say networking is the, you know, it’s the new currency. So let’s network, let’s connect, go to my website. Uh, if you’re watching it, you can see it on the screen, jphightech.

com. If you listen to the podcast, that’s jphightech. com. That’s my website. Let’s connect, let’s grow together. But the same handle, jphightech. com. I cross every social media platform. Let’s connect. Um, let’s grow together and come and join my community, right? If you’re a content creator, you’re looking to leverage content creation or technology to grow your business.

This is what I talk about mostly in my community. Come let’s join. Uh, let’s grow together. And that is contentcreatorsuniversity. com, contentcreatorsuniversity. com. Can’t wait to connect with you. [00:56:00] And hopefully I’ve given you, uh, an opportunity to be 1 percent better today.

Jeff Sieh: Awesome. I’d even go as high as 10%. But, um, uh, Paul Gouder, this is, this is a little secret, uh, thing. Paul and I actually run a paid mastermind. And so we are actually looking to increase that and do another, uh, group. Because we’ve had so much success with the one we’re doing. So if you are interested in that, Paul is an email whiz.

I just show up. Uh, and so, um, if you’re interested in that, just shoot me a DM or one of my emails. Just let me know. Um, one of the things, Paul, I wanted to give you a chance to tell, you know, what you got going on and all your stuff.

JP Hightek: are probably

Paul Gowder: Yeah, if you’re, uh, well, like you said, I got four live streams going on this weekend. So if you’re interested in Native American culture, powwows. com, we’d love to see you over there. Um, but yeah, I’d love to also help you level up your business, especially with building community through email marketing.

You can find out more over at paulgouder. com.

Jeff Sieh: And we talked a lot about Ecamm today. They are the sponsors of the show. Thank you so much for them for letting us do this. They help us keep the lights [00:57:00] on. And by the way, um, they have their camp, Ecamm Curator Camp, coming up in October. Unfortunately, they’re sold out, but guess what? I have a contest going on right now for your chance to win a ticket to Creator Camp.

For your chance to win a ticket to Creator Camp, go to jeffsieh. com forward slash win. And actually, I’m going to give you guys a secret code for even more entries. You can enter this code for this week, BEI4H8. We’ll give you a bunch of entries for the drawing that we’re going to do next month. So with that, folks, thank you so much for watching and all your great comments.

Peg, Eden, Chocolate, Gary, all the people who are here today. You guys are awesome. We’ll see you next time. Bye everybody.