Why do most people struggle with video content?

Why do they struggle to build a brand, build their businesses, and make themselves known? Beyond that, why do they struggle to use video effectively, whether they’re trying to build a brand or get customers?

Fear
The first reason people struggle to succeed with video at a high level is purely out of fear. That fear, that emotion, can be rooted in many different things. Various reasons will tether that down. They’ll say, "Oh, well, I’m afraid I don’t speak that well," or "I’m just not good on camera." When people say they’re not good on camera, what do they mean? Generally, it’s that they don’t speak well, don’t present well, or don’t have a delightful personality on camera. They don’t seem likable. All of these are things that can be worked on, but let’s speak specifically to the fear for a second. What is the fear really about? Are you afraid to speak?

Truthfully, I would say this: it is harder to speak directly to a camera lens with nobody in the room watching you than to give a speech in front of hundreds, even thousands of people. And I say this because you get audience feedback when you’re speaking in front of that many people. With a camera, there’s nobody there. You have no feedback. You don’t know how you’re doing. So you’re not gonna see it until you get it into the edit. At that point, you could realize, well, it kind of stinks. But it doesn’t matter if you have a mission—something burning deep within your soul that you are living for, a purpose that transcends every other thing you know of that you need to accomplish. It doesn’t matter the opinions of an audience or a camera. So what does it matter what people will say? I know you’re sitting there saying, "Oh, well, Payton, I’ve got this thing, I’ve got this thing."

Let me tell you about what I got a couple of years ago. I got really sick with an autoimmune condition. Now, it causes me to look the way that I look because I never quite healed from it. And so for those of you who are sitting there, like, "Look, I don’t like my appearance," get in line. Truthfully, you can get in line and know that it doesn’t matter. You can do things to help make yourself look more attractive. You can get a better haircut, change clothes, work out. That’s something that will help compensate for any other thing. Just making sure that you are physically moving the best way that you can and also focusing on the actual value that you provide. There are people who have become quite famous, built incredible brands, and they’re not the most attractive individuals. They’re not the most beautiful individuals, and they’re not gonna win a beauty contest.

What you’re doing here is looking for an excuse to ignore the mission you’ve been given, to ignore the purpose, to ignore the responsibility you have to the people you need to serve right now. There’s somebody looking for a solution that you can provide, yet you’re afraid to provide it because you’re not getting on camera. Why is that? To be completely transparent with you, I want you to know why this is: it’s completely an identity thing beyond anything else. The reason why you struggle to get on camera, to record, the reason you struggle with content is because you do not view yourself as the type of person who would create content. You do not have a creator as your identity. Now, you might be saying, "Well, what does that mean?" Your identity is really who you say that you are. I have this belief that I am somebody who likes to be athletic. I like to play sports. I like to work out. We all have beliefs about ourselves that make up our identity. We believe that we’re good cooks. We believe that we don’t like certain things. These beliefs are what make up our personality and our identity. The identity that you hold to is either going to give you freedom or keep you in bondage when it comes to content creation. So you really have the choice of who you want to be.

Do you want to be the type of person that stays stagnant, that doesn’t grow your business because, "Oh, you know, I would get on camera, but I don’t know. And who would watch me?" You’d be surprised. There are a lot of people who have access to these devices, who have access to technology. There are a lot of people who are searching for solutions to possible problems that you could solve. Now, the only question is, are you going to be there to step in and solve it? Will you raise your hand and say, "Hey, I know the answer. I can help you"? Now, there is some confidence needed with that, confidence that can only come from you, quite frankly, and it only comes from you once you decide who you want to be and act in accordance with that. That’s the key beyond anything else. If you take nothing from this video and we’re gonna get into other things, understanding that your identity is the key to it, if you want to get on camera, change how you view yourself and change the story behind why you are who you say you are.

You might say, "Well, I’ve never been good on camera." "I’m not technical. I don’t know how to put a camera up and then record." If that’s the story, use your phone. Whip it out. Say, "Hey, this is me. What’s good world? Let me tell you my story." That’s simple.

But it is a question of, do you love the people you’re trying to serve? That could be another thing beyond what you’re trying to do. You could just be trying to get on camera for the sake of fame. I would say that’s a bad reason. Why be famous? You might say, "Oh well, you could be rich." Well, it doesn’t even guarantee it. There are plenty of people who are famous that are poor. There are plenty of people who get famous for the wrong reasons. Just a girl the other day got famous for saying an expletive and a racial slur. Do you want to be famous for that? Yeah, it’s probably not the brand you want. What you want is to help people. We were made to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. How can you love your neighbor if you’re not creating content when you know you should be? How are you loving your neighbor if you have this pull, this call to create resources and assets in the form of video that are going to serve people, and you say, "But I don’t think it’s for me. I’m just afraid to get on camera"? You’re saying you don’t love that person, and I want you to really think about that. If you know you’re supposed to do it, and right now you’re listening to this, you probably know you are, and you don’t do it, you’re showing a lack of love. There’s somebody who’s in a lot of pain right now looking for a solution that you can provide. You really have two choices with this. You could be the lifeguard who sees somebody drowning and says, "I just don’t think I’m very good at swimming, so I’m gonna let them figure it out," or you could be the person who says, "They’re drowning. I’m diving in head first and I’m saving a life." The choice is yours. What are you gonna choose?

Unrealistic Expectations
The second reason why people struggle with video is they have unrealistic expectations. A lot of people start building their brand and they’re like, "Look, I posted a video, I posted two videos and I just didn’t get any results." You posted two videos, dude, you didn’t go far enough. You didn’t go deep enough. There’s the old show, The Office—season one wasn’t that good. It only became iconic after they started getting into the later seasons, right? They got into the second, third, fourth seasons, and the audience really started to resonate with the story that was being built. The writers and the creators really started to get the flow of what they had. You give up too soon. I think it was Mr. Beast who said you should aim to create your first 100 videos as quickly as possible because they’re not gonna be good. But by the time you get to your 100th, you’ll have noticed how much you’ve improved. This applies to people who have not uploaded videos but have dreams of being a YouTuber. Make 100 videos and improve something every time—put more effort into the script, learn a new editing trick, figure out a way to have better inflections in your voice, study a new thumbnail tip and implement it, figure out a new title. That’s the beauty of content creation online. There are literally infinite ways to improve—from the coloring to the frame rate, to the editing, to the filming, to the production, to the jokes, to the pacing, to every little thing can be improved. There’s no such thing as a perfect video. It’s a commitment. It is a commitment to showing up. It is a commitment to doing better. And it’s the same idea that Alex Hormozi talks about in his book, $100M Leads. Do more, then do better. Increase your volume, then increase your quality. What’s gonna allow you to increase your quality is increasing your volume as much as you can. If you want to change the strategy later, do it. But for most of you who are struggling with video, struggling to grow with it, it’s that—create more, make more, do more. Does it require time? Does it require effort? Does it require energy? 100%. But welcome to business. Welcome to the game. It’s all the fun of it, right?

Lack of Valuable Content
The third reason some never succeed with video is their content just isn’t valuable to their audience. Some may never really get clear on who their audience is. They shoot at a hypothetical audience that doesn’t really exist, or they see a specific demographic, a market, an avatar, but they don’t go any further than that. They look at who the person is but not what the person wants, not what the person’s needs are, not what would speak to that person. Marketing is really, you could use another term, it’s peopling people. That’s the idea. People are the market. So with your audience, you want to cater, right? You want to pander to your audience. People talk bad about pandering. If you’re in business, that’s what you’re doing. Apple panders, Microsoft panders. Politically, I understand it looks gross, but in business, it’s what people do. It’s peopling, it’s marketing, it’s creating things that are valuable to a specific audience. That’s what you may be struggling with. If you’ve never succeeded with video, ask yourself a question: Do I have a clear, defined audience avatar? Do I have somebody in mind that’s like, "Hey, here’s who I’m making content for. Here’s what makes sense," or are you just shooting in the dark with no clue if anybody likes it? Sure, you can do that. You have the freedom, but it’s harder to resonate with that audience if you don’t define who it is. It’s harder to find something an audience will like if you don’t even know who your audience is. Star Wars kind of has the same problem. It seems like they don’t know who their audience is. Maybe they’re just trying to be preachy. I don’t know. Another thing to consider is what is valuable to your audience. What can you speak to that will resonate with them? Get those things right, and it makes it a lot easier to succeed with video.

Lack of Strategy
The fourth reason people struggle with video is they don’t have a proper strategy. It’s, "Let me just post to post." Posting isn’t necessarily a growth strategy. You should be consistent with your content to the best of your ability, 100%. But are you posting to post for the sake of posting, or are you saying, "Hey, this is strategic. I am making this at a specific time, at a specific place, to solve a specific problem because we’re trying to get people to move in a direction"? We are trying to shepherd, if you will, trying to tend to our flock in such a way that we best serve them, that we move them, and that we help the market. If that’s your attitude, you’re gonna have more success than just being willy-nilly and saying, "Oh, I’m posting to post." Beyond that, there are different types of videos you use for different occasions. Right now, what you’re watching here is more of a mid-form to long-form type video. The idea is that you’re gonna sit down, click on this video if you see it in your feed, and watch it for an extended period, much more than just a short where you quickly scroll through. That’s actually how my mother uses her phone. My mom, love you. But that’s the idea—is, are you using videos in a strategic manner? There is a place and a time for short-form, especially if you’re trying to create what is known as top-of-funnel content. You’re trying to reach a new audience. That’s one way you could do it. Now, your mid-form to longer-form stuff—that’s where you build more relationships with your audience, especially over time. And then your content that’s further down in your funnel, that’s closer to people actually converting into customers. That is more of your sales-type videos, your VSLs, your webinars. You can even turn them into entire funnels and challenges, all kinds of stuff where you include videos in them, making an awesome experience for your customers. The options are endless—well, almost endless. But you can see that if you’re just shooting blindly and not being strategic, that can cause problems. A lot of people give up too soon. They shoot the wrong type of video for the wrong type of audience, and they say, "Well, I shot a video this one time." Or even worse, they hire some gung-ho videographer who says, "Hey, I’ll make you a video," and they make some short, banger short-form content. You, as the client, pay thousands and thousands of dollars, and then it gets posted, maybe gets a few hundred, maybe a few thousand views, but you don’t see an ROI. Some people will say, "But it’s branding." Most local businesses, most small businesses can’t brand like that. You’re not Coca-Cola, you’re not Geico, right? You probably don’t have this big media budget in a lot of cases to be able to do this. If you are a brand, go for it, do it 100%. But a lot of small business owners get burned because they’re trying to do these things that would be good, but they don’t do them in a strategic way. And so they stumble, they mess themselves up, and then you’re out the ROI. You would be better equipped to sit and say, "Hey, here is a plan, here is a strategy, here is a campaign that we’re gonna run and we’re gonna see what happens."

Conclusion
Remember this truth: Everyone sells, everyone markets, but few are willing to admit it. If you’re gonna use content to grow your business, be proud enough to admit that you have something that can supply an amazing amount of value to the world, that can serve your customers in an amazing way, and do not ever shy away from that.