Talk Show Host Oprah Winfrey, news anchor Brian Williams, domestic goddess Martha Stewart—all three derive a lot of their power from the fact that their followers can watch video of them speaking every single day of the week (or at least Monday through Friday). If you really want to penetrate the consciousness of your followers, fans, admirers and prospects, then I urge you to create a video every single day. You don’t have to have a studio audience as big as Oprah’s or have as many guests as Martha or the resource of a worldwide news organization like Brian. All you need to do is speak in front of a webcam.
You can speak on some topic in the news that relates to your topic, as I do, or you can serialize content from your books or newsletters, or you can create evergreen how-to videos. There is no one formula that is guaranteed to work or that is essential for you to follow. But, I do find that the sheer act of producing a daily video puts you into a class all by yourself—your competitors are too lazy or too lacking in ideas to do the same.
When you put out a daily video you make it much easier for people to find you. You make it much easier for one of your videos to go viral. You increase the odds that people will realize they saw you somewhere sometime, even if there memory is fuzzy. You may only stumble across Oprah for five minutes every 2 months, but she still looms large in your mental space because, in part, she has been on every single day since the 1980s.
Please keep in mind that your videos do not have to be full feature film length. You could do a video that is only 30 seconds long. I typically keep my videos 90 to 120 seconds in length. The main thing is to focus on one idea. Just make sure it is a good idea. Special effects and film versus video are not important. What is hugely important is that you said something that stuck people as interesting, useful, provocative or memorable—anything but boring!
Over time, you will gain a following, unless you genuinely have no interesting or useful ideas to offer. Some people will admire you just for the sheer quantity of your work, though you always want them to appreciate the quality of your work too.
Here are other benefits from doing regular, daily videos:
- You become a more comfortable, confident interview subject.
- You become a more comfortable and confident speaker.
- You make it easier for the media to find you.
- You create links back to your main subject.
- You increase the odds that people will want to buy your books and other products.
- You will increase the bookings you get for media interviews.
- You will increase the number of speaking engagement requests you receive.
I could go on and on with this list. Instead, just do it. Start doing videos today. Start right now. Most would-be gurus get stuck looking for the perfect title or perfect special effect and they never accomplish anything. True, no one ever laughs at them for doing something stupid, but no one ever sees them say anything funny, smart or memorable either.
Start producing your simple talking head web videos today. If you do this for 5 years, you will have a thousand videos (M-F) and you will be recognized around the world as one of the leading experts in your field.