Matt King 0:00
It's less. Now about the mass marketing messages, which is, oh, we know how to sell this or this is how you sell this product. It's more. This is what this product makes me feel like, and then people want to know what you feel like. And if they want to feel like that too, they'll go out and buy that product. It's not about the features and benefits, it's about the beliefs and the experience and how that makes people feel. That's Matt King, multi passionate entrepreneur, business director, and my favorite bit, someone who creates content that smashes into people's eyes to nurture his creative side. He directs and films short form, human centered content for brands. He is a firm believer that every business owner should be in front of their brand, not behind it. And in this episode of your truth shared, he's going to show us how to tell those stories with props. So if you want to up your video game, come and join us.
Finola Howard 0:51
I'm Finola Howard, Business Growth strategist with a joyful heart, and your host of the your truth shared podcast, I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or not, and your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve. And this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you, because great marketing is your truth shared.
Finola Howard 1:28
I have another wonderful guest for you, and I have the glorious
Finola Howard 1:34
expert in his field, Matt King, with me today. Hey, Matt, hello, Finola, you okay? I'm really good, but what I'm really good about today is we are going to talk about video. We're going to talk about a few things. We're going to talk about kind of side hustle, part of the entrepreneurial journey, about multi passionate entrepreneurs, but we're going to get pragmatic as well and talk about video, because video is such a critical part of entrepreneurship from the marketing perspective, from a communication perspective, and there are a lot of things happening, and also there's this fear of video as well. Let's start there. Let's start with how you talk about what you do, which is you describe you have this statement for me when we were first chatting about doing this podcast together, and you said,
Matt King 2:23
with the advent of AI and also, people are falling into the trap around creating more content about what they know, as in the How to or what they know their expertise, I want people to share more about What they discover and what they believe tell us about that. I think, from my perspective, when I first started that started out in videography, it's really easy to create stuff about what you know, because you're confident in that. When you're confident in something, you can talk about it for a long, long time. But if you said to me, Oh, can you just put me through your camera setup, or you can talk me through all of your gear. I know what gear I've got, so I can talk about it quite fluently, and for a long time, if I was if you said to me, what are you struggling with at the moment, with your with your videography, what's the bits that you you're not comfortable with? That's the bit that people don't want to share, because it's a vulnerability, it's a weakness, but that's the bit that people resonate with. People resonate with the fact that you don't know everything,
Matt King 3:30
and I want people to share more of that.
Finola Howard 3:33
Okay, so let me talk about it from my perspective. Do you think right as
Finola Howard 3:38
a Strat business strategist and wanting to help people grow their business. This is what I do every day.
Finola Howard 3:46
My clients like certainty, and they like that. They're putting their faith in someone who knows what they're doing. So if I start to say I'm really struggling with this, this piece of the puzzle
Finola Howard 4:00
is that going to help me or harm me? It
Matt King 4:02
will aid you. It will help you. Because people like to see real people. If I think, I think we're swamped, I think social media is swamped at the moment with people who are positioning themselves as the thought leader, as the experts in their field. Because if I if I'm working in a manufacturing business, or I'm working in a consultancy business, what's to separate me from everybody else? If I'm saying I know how to make you the next six figures in in six months, for example, there's nothing that separates me from another thought leader who's telling me the exact same thing. If I then share to you, listen, I had this client. He struggled with this. He did this and X, Y and Z happened. You're telling you're taking people on a journey. And whenever I So, I started a business during COVID, which was called sales change. And it was, it was exactly that. It was sales consultancy. I was trying to get people to sell more through social and I. At the time, I was positioning myself, and all I could see on social media was lots and lots of people saying, we can. I can help you grow your business. I can help you double your returns. Or as Grant Cardone would say, I can 10x your business, or 100x whatever he says. The issue is, there's only so far you can take that and before the results become unbelievable. Whereas, if you're saying, Listen, I can help you, but you do it quite well. If I can help you position and align your messaging, I can help you strategize your business, and I can help you, but I can't give you all the answers. That's honest and that's like human but do you see where I'm coming from? There's Yeah, I'm listening. There's a tipping point between knowing everything and that confidence becoming egotistical, unbelievable. And yeah, unbelievable. And then there's the human side, which is actually, I don't know everything, but I'm going to help you. I'm two or three steps ahead of you, and I'm going to help you get to the next stage. And I think more people need to share that they're two or three steps ahead, rather than I've already I'm a success story already.
Finola Howard 6:07
But is that because, like, I often look at the idea of mentorship, right, and when and role models, and very often, and particularly because I did a lot of work with female entrepreneurs for years, and one of the things gaps that we were seeing in the market at the time, and this is a long time ago that I did this work, but the gap that we were really seeing was there was lots of female success, female entrepreneurial success stories of women really at the top of their game, far ahead. But there was nobody in that, in between space that it was that allowed us to connect and see I could do that. I may not be able to do that hugely, but I could do this leap. Here is that what you're suggesting
Matt King 6:52
exactly that. Let me tell you a little story. I like stories, so my wife started a small candle business during COVID, and she started it because it's something we can do at home with, something we could do together. And she was really passionate about it. So she started this candle business. She started making wax melts and candles and all this type of stuff. But she looked at the people who had 20, 30,000 40,000 followers on Instagram, and was and she had maybe 20 or 30 when she started all friends and family, and in her mind, she was so far removed from that success story that she couldn't relate to them. But what she found was that she fought, started to follow people who had 600 followers, then 1000 followers, and then my wife, her business now has 16,000 followers on Instagram, and she's now seen as one of those people. But in herself, she doesn't see herself as being that success story. Oh, I've built this business to 16,000 followers because she's still the same person as she was before, but because she had that in between. Bit of I'm bringing these other people along on my journey. They've got 500 followers. They've got 600 followers. Suddenly, these people start to resonate, and they join the journey. And then that then brings other people on that journey, and then you start to see Mrs. Hinch is a great example. Do you know Mrs. Hinch? She's like, a my wife follows her on social media. She's like, this cleaning expert, but all she started doing was sharing cleaning tips around the house. And people start to resonate with that. And then it's like, Oh, I'm gonna make my nursery really fancy. I'm gonna put the towels and all that type of stuff got hundreds and hundreds of 1000s of people following that on social media now, whereas at the start, it was a couple of 1000, because people were relating with the normal stuff, the stuff of I don't know how to do all of this, but I'm going to try anyway. Is the effort, and it's the reward that you get from that effort. Because you're being vulnerable. You don't know everything, so you're sharing that you don't know everything. People see, that you're trying to learn. Give you support, and the more more support you get, the more followers you get. It's kind of like a You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
Finola Howard 8:54
A community building also, yeah, yeah, yeah. 100% you're actually building the community that follows you and takes the journey with you. Yes, and that's, I mean, we discussed that some time ago with Mark Schaefer, which is community is the last great marketing strategy.
Matt King 9:09
Everybody starts with zero followers. So you'll everybody starts on a level playing field. You can't suddenly show up with zero followers. And I say this all the time. I had a lot, I have a lot of people reach out to me say, I can grow your social media following. I'm sure you've had it if, if you want 100,000 followers, I can get it. But it's like you're never going to tell me how to grow a bid, because you've never grown a bid. If you can't grow a social media following, and you haven't got 100,000 200,000 followers, why is somebody going to listen to you? It's exactly the same. And you take it back to the early stages. If you've got 500 followers, you can tell people how to go to 500 followers. If you've got 5000 followers, you can show them how to grow to 5000 and it's just that experience. If you show up on day one with 20 followers and say, I'm a big wax melt Candle Company, or I'm this Consultant. Who can help you generate X for your business. You need to have that social proof, and you can't have that social proof from day one. So you need to be vulnerable. You need to have
Finola Howard 10:08
but what would you say then to people who are they're not on day one, they have a certain degree of expertise there. There is a challenge around, around the vulnerable thing. I mean, we know vulnerable is really sexy. Brene Brown made it really success, sexy to be vulnerable and authentic, which is becoming an extremely overused term. And now the authenticity is becoming inauthentic. So, you know, whatever way we go, we're going to get trapped by, you know, opposing views that just and then you're then you're left with not knowing what to do at all, if someone so there's two perspectives. One is, if you're starting with zero, then it is. It's easy to say, I'm just starting, and I'm wanting to get to know and take people on the journey with you. And there is a reticence of how to do that, because there's that, that obvious reticence of, I am new, and how do I start? But I think what is would be very interesting is someone who's established in business and has in a decent number of followers, but has never done that human piece that they won't want to say, I'm struggling,
Matt King 11:26
yeah? What to them? No, they won't, yeah, but they don't have to say they are struggling. They can just say, I've learned this this week. I'm learning
Finola Howard 11:34
something every single week. Yeah? I like that
Matt King 11:37
because, because I've I learned something every new every single day, like I got an order in this morning, but that order was achieved through a different way that I've normally done it before, and it's just about piecing those things together. Now I could share that on social media and say, Listen, I've got this order this week. We're starting to really motor with I've learned this because we did this. It doesn't have to be that you're positioning yourself as listen, I run a software company, and I know how to sell software to hundreds of 1000s of people, because we don't we know how to sell software to a specific group, a specific type of people, and I know how to sell videography services to a certain type of people in a certain market. You're leasing yourself down, but you're also being open with the fact that you don't know how to do everything.
Finola Howard 12:26
I think, yeah, I think that people have to get comfortable with declaring that they don't know, yeah.
Matt King 12:35
And, I mean, we're supposed, we're specifically talking about video here, but you could apply it to, I mean, I write my newsletter every single week, and it's exactly the same, but just in a different format. Video is very difficult to do, because it's you and you're that there's a there's an intrinsic link between you and your soul when you're on video, because it's you, nobody can fake you. We had this conversation about AI just before we jumped on the call, but nobody can fake being you. AI is getting very close to being able to create an avatar of you, but no one can create your experiences, your feelings and your and the way that you see things, like your belief system. So there's a there's an intrinsic link between you and video, because it's just that's just the way it is. I can write very well about my experiences, but there is that slight detachment, because people have their own imagination, and they're able to picture that thing like I didn't think Harry Potter in my head looked like Harry Potter on the video when I read the books. But there's that, there's that link there between video, because there's no way, there's no place to hide, there is no place to hide,
Finola Howard 13:40
and that's what scares people. One of the things that we talked about previously was, I mean, there's so much on Instagram, on video of just the headshot of the talking head, giving you advice, giving you perspective, showing their certainty, showing all of that and their how to and what they know, right? And you mentioned something because I'd love people to walk away with kind of tools of doing, of being more human in their videos, of something they could do that will give a more creative perspective, or something they could try. And one of the things that you suggested was the value of the prop. Tell me about that could use, use a lot in your in all your videos.
Matt King 14:20
Yeah. Yeah. So I'll tell you the story about the speaker, because that's probably the easiest way to and I, I'm not gonna lie, I got comfortable with sharing the story of the speaker through written words first, and then through graphics on an Instagram carousel, and then through a video. So
Finola Howard 14:37
that's a nice way to enter to kind of, you know, not do it so suddenly you can test it in your email. You could test it in carousels. Yeah, I like that. That's a good tip.
Matt King 14:47
So it's just an idea of getting the story straight in your head before you share it on video. But we've got this small gray speaker in our house, and we bought this small space, small gray speaker probably 1213, years ago. And. That, and it was we bought it at the time when we had no money. We used to put our phones inside of jugs or inside of pans, so that the sound would reverberate, so that we could listen and dance to when we were cooking dinner in the kitchen. We didn't have a we didn't have a CD system, we didn't have anything. So it was like, we get this little gray speaker. That little gray speaker represents something in our house. It's like It's like it's traveled with us everywhere. It's traveled to Cyprus, Malta. It's been on multiple holidays with us. But it represents the fact that we care our family. My wife and I have come from somewhere, because at the time we had no money, and because we've got that speaker, it's a representation of, this is a situation there, and this is the situation now. And you can, you can connect the dots in any in any situation, with any prop. I think I told you the story about the change jar that we've got in our house, where we where we save money, and again, back when we had no money, that change jar represents a significant turning point, because my wife was pregnant with our son, who's now 10, and I counted out 97 pence to go and buy noodles, because that's how much money we had in the change jar. So it was that that nothingness now represents something now, because we've grown our family to a position where we don't have to count out the 97 pence to buy noodles.
Finola Howard 16:23
Have you done a video about that?
Matt King 16:27
Yes, yes, yes.
Finola Howard 16:29
You'll have to share the link so we can share it in the show notes. Give me other ideas of what people of different perspectives like one of the other things that you do when you're on video is you did a video testimonial, because I like this idea that you thread a story through. So you did a video testimonial for you are the media, which is fantastic network, which I have to recommend in the UK, but really check it out. And one of the leaders in that group is Mark masters, who we interviewed some time ago. But you, anyway, did this video testimonial for you are the media and but the shot is you opening your your press taking out a YOU ARE THE MEDIA CREATOR day brochure from previously, and you cut it out, and you put it on your hat. Just be and that was a really interesting thread that you wove through. And at the end, you went and mark you need to now create these in the hats. So you brought it from idea right through the whole way and closed with it. This is a really interesting way of getting people to understand, if you use a prop, use the prop the whole way through, thread the idea through. Is that fair to say
Matt King 17:37
exactly that? Because I struggled with that video. I don't know if I've told this story publicly, but Mark said, Oh, can you do a testimonial video? And I didn't want to do a normal talking head testimonial video. I say, Listen, you're the media. Because I wanted people to see that it is a creative community. View of the media is is a community of creatives. And I wanted to come up with a video idea which showcased a little bit of creativity, because I wanted to put the other media logo on a hat, and I didn't have a mark. Doesn't have branded material. This is something that I've been banging on about it for ages, that you should have some sort of branded merch. He's now doing it with T shirts at the Create Day event, which is in a couple of weeks, or it might not be, depends on when you release this podcast. But anyway, it was just this idea of having a piece of branded merch, and I wanted that in the shot. So rather than just creating the sticker on the hat and then sticking it on there, and then just running with the video, I created the montage bit at the start, which is, I'm going to take the brochure out, I'm going to cut it up various different angles of me cutting that up, then sticking it on really poorly, because it's quite fun when it's stuck on really poorly to my hat. And halfway through the video, you can see it's hanging off. It's hanging off with a piece of some tape down the side of my head. But at the end, it just that ending that I did where I'm hitting my hat to try and get the thing to stick that was, that was all natural. It wasn't like, I'm going to act this out. It was like, I can't see on the camera, but I'm going to try and stick it on my head normally, and then the laugh at the end, which was, I need mark to create the stuff. It was just a natural ending, and it was just perfect. But my, my thought process behind that was, I'm going to really struggle to just go straight into a video, because it's not my style of oh, I'm going to talk to you about you are the media. Because I want to set up a story first. There has to be a story element. I don't want it to be. This is what I know about you are the media. I wanted it to be, this is what I believe about you are the media, and part of that is showing what I bring to the community, if that makes sense.
Finola Howard 19:37
And but the thing that I liked about it was you weren't speaking for all of that, like we're communicating in a way of you cutting it out. You're not telling them. I'm going to go into the press here and pull this thing out of the press, and then I'm going to cut you just did it and people got it. Yeah,
Matt King 19:56
show, don't tell. Yeah. So I'm gonna let you into a little so you. Grip. So Mark and I filmed a video for creator day. We filmed it on Saturday. I've just got all the footage off my cameras and all that type of stuff. It's a zero dialog film. It's a zero dialog video. So there's no talking in it
Finola Howard 20:15
whatsoever. Very hard for Mark. Matt, 100%
Matt King 20:19
but I came up with this idea. We came up with this idea on New Year's Eve. So it's taken, what, four or five months to film. It's not a complicated video. It's probably going to be a minute, a minute and a half at most. There's lots of different shots in there, but it's zero dialog. And we needed, I wanted, to try and tell the message of this video, which is the, basically the you're the Media Club, which is his online space, where you pay a subscription and you get to enter this community and do all of that type stuff. I wanted to tell that story with no dialog. I want, I wanted people to get what it means without any dialog. And that's a really tough sell, because I didn't want my I didn't want that effervescent energy that Mark has. I didn't want it on camera. He's great at it, but sometimes it can, it can. He's like Marmite. Some people like it. Some people don't. I really like it because it's it's energetic and it looks really good on video. But I wanted the I wanted that sense of, we're all in this together, and it doesn't matter if you don't like me being loud. It doesn't matter if you don't like me being quiet. There's a place for everybody in this group, and I'll tell that story with absolutely no dialog. And it worked, I think so. I haven't edited it yet, but I've seen the raw footage, and there was a great shot. I've just said the words great shot, but there was a great shot at the end where we filmed mark, or I filmed them up with a drone at the end. And I won't give away the ending of the video, because I want you to watch it when it comes out. But he kind of walks off after doing something, and then completely unplanned, because we couldn't have planned it, but the drone shot pans up, and then there's a bird that flies literally through frame under between him and the drone. There's a bird that flies through and it's just the perfect ending to the Yeah, we couldn't have planned it, but it just amazing. Yeah,
Finola Howard 22:07
if you were to advise people to do three videos for their business to communicate who they are or their brand, or whatever you think, what are the three stories or videos that they you think that they should shoot.
Matt King 22:22
So the first one should be like the founders, the founder story. So why have you set up that business in the first place? Because I don't want to go down the song cynic route of why. But then there is obviously a why, about why you set up the business. I'm really passionate about video and storytelling, which is why I've got a videography business. The founder story. Then how it all works? How, how does your business work? Because there has to be a unique perspective within your business. There must be a way that you do your coaching stuff or mentoring stuff differently to somebody else. I do my videography, my videography process is different to other people. So how you do that? So the founder story, how you do it, and then one really like, energetic video about about you, about everything, or or a testimonial from a client. But make sure you include that client if they're if they're willing. So if you've got somebody who you've coached or mentored or strategized with, bring them into that video so that you can see it's not just you saying that stuff. It's somebody else saying that stuff as well. That was easy, fantastic,
Finola Howard 23:24
yeah, but I got one more for you. If I gave you, if I showed you, a prop, right for my business? Yeah, on the fly. Could you come up with a story? Or guide me on how to come up with a story for me?
Matt King 23:40
If you Okay, show me the prop, and then I'll ask you some questions.
Finola Howard 23:44
So this is a chess piece of the night,
Matt King 23:49
okay? And why is that significant to
Finola Howard 23:51
you? You're supposed to be doing
Matt King 23:53
this, but it's not my chess piece. It's your chess piece. Well, it
Finola Howard 23:57
was, oh yeah, there is, there is the learning. There is the learning. It's your prop. So it's
Matt King 24:05
yours, your chess piece, yeah, it is your chest, yeah. So tell me the story. What's the story behind your chess piece? Well, I worked with
Finola Howard 24:13
a mentor probably about 20 years ago, and she wanted me to never forget that strategy was such a very important component of my business and that to always keep it in mind and keep it with me, so that and also that the strategy that I would stay focused on my own strategy, and they just always seemed To it always seems to ground me. I love that, and it was, and it was a gift. I have so many. I've also got another one, and I'll Can I move and show you another prop? Because I've never done videos on these. Okay, I'm moving. So this is a present from it's a. Book, and it's, it's folded. They can get these. I mean, it was a gift, a gift from a client, and she said, Finola, because you're always pushing the boundaries. That's beautiful. I really should do a video on that, shouldn't I? You
Matt King 25:16
should do that on the so in my mind, like you're showing me the props. But my mind is going to, how can we capture this in a video? And I've got this idea of the night on a chessboard with a single spotlight on it, and then you taking that night, and then the spotlight moves to you, and then you just tell your story about what that night means to you. So it's kind of like the the object is, the is the opener to your video. You take the night and the opener then, because, as I said to you before with my map masters, like the testimonial video for you of the media, if you just went straight into this night means this, people don't people don't get it. I mean, the subject of your video is the night is the chess piece that you were holding just in your hand there. So if you open your video with a spotlight, literally just a spotlight on the chess piece, and then you take that chess piece, and then you illuminate in some way. I'm just thinking out loud, I've not seen that chess piece before. So if you then illuminate, and then you say this chess piece, and maybe you can tell a story about how the chess the knight, moves in a different way to all the other pieces on the board, because it moves three steps forward and then one to the left, an L shape, yeah. An L Yeah. So there must be a way that you can link that to a unique method within your business. So you can tie the chess piece to being grounded moving in a specific or unique way which is not relevant to any other piece on the board, and then how that piece then ground you. That's just my video. I did. Just love that.
Finola Howard 26:49
Just love, yeah, see you delivered there, and I'm very impressed, yeah, because it's interesting, because we I think I was thinking about so many people and even clients saying to me, but, and I found myself saying this, but I don't have any stories, and I have a really good friend, Sally Murphy, who's a storyteller. She just kills me if I say that. But it is this idea that we do all have stories, and I wanted to see if we could pull a story out of us. I
Matt King 27:19
don't think there's anybody who would listen to your podcast who doesn't have something at home which means something to them, whether it's from their childhood, whether it's like a leaving present from a previous job, whether it's just a photo on their mantelpiece, everybody has some sense of an heirloom or or a keepsake that they keep. I mean, you can see the shelves behind me, my shelves are full of books. I mean, I've got cups that are from traveling. I've got, I've got a whole cup there of hotel key cards. I'm not going to go and get them because they doesn't want a chair to create too much. But there's so many stories on that shelf, which is, everybody has that somewhere at home, everybody has that one item where they can take it and go. Actually, I could tell a story about this. And the beauty of that is that no one else can tell that story. And that's where I'm that's where I'm coming from. And if I type back to what you were saying at the very start, which is everybody knows everything, so everybody knows how to sell something, everybody. And that's where you're getting the saturation of videos on social media about this is how you sell this is how you create an Instagram carousel. This is how you create a video. But nobody is saying your chess piece as an example. Nobody is positioning themselves as you are with a chess piece which is completely unique to you, and that story can only be told by you, which means that people are only going to resonate with you. They're not going to resonate and go, Oh, I've heard that story actually from Grant Cardone or from Gary V because that chess piece is only relevant to you. That's where I'm coming from with the real, authentic stories. And you're right. Authenticity is a overused word, but I think that story is authentic and
Finola Howard 28:54
unique. But I think if we were to, if we were to encourage people today to go and look around their living room or wherever, their bedroom, whatever, and find three pieces. We bet, I bet that we they could come up with a story from that that will tie directly to their business. 100% Yeah, 1,000,000% and that's, that's a really good place to start
Matt King 29:18
just connecting the dots for Finola, because people often struggle this. There's a difference between what you said about people don't have enough stories to tell. People have plenty of stories to tell, but they don't have stories to tell about the things that they want to talk about and the things they want to talk about are their business because they want to generate money. Let's not hide behind the fact that everybody wants to use video to generate money for their business. The fact is, they can't connect the dot between this object and this business. And I'm sure, like I just did with your chess piece. I mean, you did it for me, but I'm sure with a with an item, they can tie it to their business. And so, for example, the gray speaker that I've got, well. Asked. It's not directly related to having no money within a business. I can say this great speaker was at the position. I had this great speaker when I nothing, I then went on to grow a business. I went on to do this and do X, Y and Z. So there is a way that you can connect the dots from any item to to your business. You just have to think outside the box and connect those
Finola Howard 30:19
dots and but here's the big thing, like, it's that story question. Often people feel like they have to have gone through some severe trauma to have a story that's worth telling, whereas now we're kind of bringing it down to brass tacks of it's still being quite human, but it's just a memory that stayed with you that's embodied in an object that you have brought with you, that you can then use as a way to tie to a story, to tell about your business.
Matt King 30:48
And another kickback. And I know the kickback that people will say is that which is, oh, this story is not going to be interesting to anybody else. But then I've when we spoke before I gave the example of gogglebox, and you're essentially watching people watching people. You're watching someone sat on their sofa watching a TV program that you could quite easily go and watch any other time, but you're watching somebody else watching that TV program, and you're more interested in what their reaction is than the TV program itself. People are. Why
Finola Howard 31:18
do you think we do that? Why do you think we're interested in watching people and how they react? Is it because you think we're sense checking how we would react against what they're reacting? Are we looking for our tribe? Why do you think that is such a phenomenon?
Matt King 31:36
We're seeking emotional connection. I think we're looking for ways that we can resonate with other people. This is why community building and all that type of stuff is the thing. Because it's less now about the mass marketing messages, which is, are we know how to sell this or this is how you sell this product. It's more. This is what this product makes me feel like, and then people want to know what you feel like, and if they want to feel like that too, they'll go out and buy that product. It's not about the features and benefits, it's about the beliefs and the what the experience and how that makes people feel. I think that's why people want to watch other people. That's why people go and watch outside cafes with with their morning coffee. Just go people watch. My wife and I do it in Bournemouth gardens. We go and sit in the garden and have a sandwich and just people watch. And it's entertaining.
Finola Howard 32:24
It's fun. Will it stop the scroll?
Matt King 32:26
It depends, like, that's why I said about it won't stop the scroll if you held that chess piece and just talked about it, but it will stop the scroll if you have that immediate hook off, the light goes on the chess piece. And then people are intrigued to then say, why is Finola video of chess piece on a feed? And then people then want to know a little bit more that you have to have the either the visual or the spoken hook. And spoken hooks have done. I saw a great video the other day with some guy who runs a runs a video agency as well, and his opening sort of frame on his video was him hanging off a climbing wall. And I just thought, why is he hanging off a climate? It's just that intrigue of why. And if you can just like you when I sat, when I sat down and did that, you were the media video, when I sat down in that chair and then went, put my finger in the air and thought of something, and then walked off. You want to know what I've just thought and where that video is going. And then I opened the cabinet, and I grabbed the book, and I put it on the table. And then you're thinking, why is he cutting that out? And every single by the time you're 22nd 30 seconds in, you're invested because you want to know what that video is about. Whereas if I sat down and talked. And when you were the media is a people go, Oh, can't be bothered to listen to that. But it's boring, because it's the same as every other video.
Finola Howard 33:50
The challenge then is, do we have enough props to continue to tell interesting stories? Or maybe what it does?
Matt King 33:59
I'll let you answer. Then do we No, I think we do. I think what see, I find that. So, for example, the video was talking about with zero dialog. I want it forces creativity, because I want to create a story with no dialog, I have to then think, How can I create that story with no dialog? So I don't want Mark to tell the benefits of joining his online community. I don't want Mark to because your BEN, the benefit to you Finola, might be different to the benefit to somebody else, and I can't list all the benefits in the video, so I'm missing the mark. But if I create a video which doesn't list any benefits, but it just shows a lot of people coming together in a particular way, then that's got to be better. So it just forces creativity. And if you're only working, I've got a picture here of my wife. We're stood on a building in New York, but if you told me I've got to only create a video with this one prop, it forces me to think of the story and how I can relate this story to something else. Us. I think, I think having constraints allows you to be more creative.
Finola Howard 35:06
Yeah, and it, and also, I mean, when you share it in this way, this is an important message that we have to force our own creativity. It is the thing that will differentiate us from generic AI, like we love AI, we know that it's gonna it's making a difference to our business. It already has. It will continue to do so. But in this, in this world of AI, we have got to lean into our humanness and our creativity, because AI is even even creative, but in our memories and in our experiences, in those memories encapsulated in those props, we communicate something differently that than AI could ever do.
Matt King 35:44
Yeah, yeah. 100% 100%
Finola Howard 35:48
talk really quickly about this idea of the multi passionate entrepreneur like so, for example, you have a full time job, right? And you're managing a team of quite a lot of people in a software house that correct our manufacturing company, yes, no software company yet, software company, and you also have this business, and there's a reason that you have both. Do you want to share? Because I like to share this idea of there are many different types of businesses all that are valid. So tell us that story. So
Matt King 36:21
I I have a full time role, I have a family. I have children at home, I have a wife, I have a house. All of those require money, and I'm not. I've not been sold the entrepreneurs Dream, which is quit your job and go and make your millions elsewhere. But I also have passions, and you said, I've got this, this business on the outside, I create videos. I create videos for people, and I get I'm in a very privileged position. I get paid very well for doing a job, which I really enjoy doing in the software company. But I also get to pick and choose the clients that I work with on a video basis, because then I get to be creative and film loads of stuff and enjoy that side of things. I've dabbled with lots of businesses over the last probably two or three years. I started a T Shirt Company. I had I wear a lot of hats, so I started a hat and T Shirt Company. I've got my newsletter, which I enjoy writing every single week, and it has been going almost two years now, I think so I'm consistently just generating things that I'm moving towards the place where I feel happy, rather than just doing things because I want to do them. I'm testing. I'm experimenting. I'm seeing what things I enjoy, what I want to do, like I said to you, I started a business during COVID, which was sales coaching, because I was quite proficient in sales. I know how to sell. I know how to I know the art of the deal, if you like. So I know how to do all of that stuff. And I was thinking like, maybe I might be interested in coaching people, and I had a few clients. Then that sort of morphed into me creating content online. So I was doing content on Instagram, and grew quite a large following during COVID. That led to people reaching out and saying, Can you create some graphics for us? And I had two or three clients in the US, and started doing that, and burnt myself out massively because I had two or three clients I was creating content for plus a full time job, plus I was trying to do my own stuff, plus I was trying to start a YouTube channel. A YouTube channel. And there's so many things that I was taking on, but actually, I just dropped the stuff that I didn't really enjoy. And I'm moving towards this place now, where I'm I feel happier. I really enjoy coming to work. I really enjoy doing my videography stuff. I edited, believe it or not, I edited a video at five o'clock this morning because a client wants to use their video and a talk tonight. But I just edited that video because I woke up and I was I'm energized by it. I really enjoy doing that stuff outside of my job. So it's just finding a space where I'm happy and that just kind of fits with doing other stuff.
Finola Howard 38:59
You're creating, the business, you're creating the life that you want, like it's not business under the old rules.
Matt King 39:06
No, exactly that. It's not that. And if you said to me, you have to turn up to work every day and do nothing outside of work, you just have to do your one job, I wouldn't last very long. It was one of the it was one of the prerequisites that I had with rich when, when I first started working for yami app, the software company, and we would go through the conversations of, how can I help the business, how can we how can we collaborate? How can I become the general manager and add value? One of the things I had said to Rich was, I still want to do the stuff that I do outside of work. I don't want you to think that I'm coming to join you and nothing else happens, because that's the stuff that energizes me. Like, if you want the best version of me, let me do this other stuff, because you mentioned during the media, and I do a lot with with Mark, I'm quite heavily involved in the community. I like participating in the creative stuff. I like being curious and understanding where things are going. We we both attended to. To talk with Mark Schaefer this week, but just understanding how those different things can influence my work really helped. And I'm able to bring in, like we did headshots for the team within the last two weeks. So having creative headshots that we've got in our new podcast studio downstairs, all of that type of stuff I'm bringing from the other pursuits, but it adds value to this business, so they actually feed each other exactly. And I think that's what a lot of leaders or business owners might take for granted. Might not understand as much as they should, is that if you're able to do more outside of work, and we've got George, our head of development, does a lot of talks on he's building his confidence if he's standing on stage and delivering stuff and it's talking about software, but he's becoming a thought leader in a different space because he focuses more on the software. I'm focusing more on commercials. We're doing. We're going in different paths, but we're doing the same stuff, but we're both following our own passions. If that makes sense, George is really passionate about software. I'm really software. I'm really passionate about video. So I'm going to bring in more of the video stuff and the creative stuff to the software company. And we're all about just, it just forms this nice big ball of stuff that you can put into any business, I think.
Finola Howard 41:18
But it's evidence of this idea that was much lauded for so long, which is trying to get your team to bring their full selves to work, that's actually evidence instead of lip service. So, yeah, very cool. What would you like people to walk away with today? I
Matt King 41:33
would like them to walk away with the fact that they can take a story from anywhere, and it goes back to that connect the dots kind of thing. And I think we spoke about this before, but my one newsletter I wrote maybe four or five weeks ago was about the fact that my daughter was saying, walking around the house watching, she was watching wicked at the time, and she was watching wicked and at the end, where, I can't remember the character's name, but she flies off on the broomstick, and she's singing the song from Wicked and she just muttered the words to herself. That's a great shot. And I've said it multiple times on this podcast, and I've find myself uttering it more and more like I said it the other day when I was watching a TV program. That's a great shot. Avi said it this morning when I was watching a YouTube video, but it's just about how you can I connected the dots in that article, from great shot to I'm always saying this stuff, and then how you can slowly, sort of feed stories through. And you said you brought it, I bring it back nicely to what you asked earlier, which is a business leader who has some 1000 followers and has a presence, but doesn't know how to actually tell their story. They just have to start, and they have to start sharing little bits and just become familiar with the fact that they're telling their story. Because if you just suddenly launched into a social media campaign and went, here's 30 videos with me talking about myself again, that's going to turn people off. You need to. You need to sort of test the waters and get people comfortable in the in the way that they communicate their message, and they need to be comfortable in that. So to answer your question, which is, what do you want people to go away with? I want people to take something which has happened or a prop or something and then connect that to a story which they can tell about their business.
Finola Howard 43:19
Love it. Fantastic. Thank you so much.
Matt King 43:24
Thanks, Finola, thanks for having me. And
Finola Howard 43:25
that's it for this episode. Everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. Make sure to connect with Matt on LinkedIn and check out his newsletter the click there's a link in the show notes where you can find out more. And thank you for listening to your truth shared. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please do rate and review it in your favorite app at love the podcast.com/your. Truth shared. It really helps spread the word and helps me to continue to invest in this podcast. Have a great day. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
