Name: Lights, Camera, Communicate: Video Planning Made Simple
Uploaded: 2025-07-22T18:16:14.320Z
Duration: 1 h 40 s
Description: Lights, Camera, Communicate: Video Planning Made Simple

Transcript for "Lights, Camera, Communicate: Video Planning Made Simple": Welcome, everyone, to LightScammer Communicate episode two. My name is Chuck, founder of ICology. I'm here with my friend, Amer. We are live from the Lucihub Studios here in Las Vegas. Please go into the chat and let us know where you are all joining from. It's great to see some new names, some old faces. Let us know what part of the world you're joining us from and get in and start talking to us. I did wanna share for anyone who joined, last month's event. You will see that we've got a fancy new background here, Amer. You've done some renovations here. I thought we would turn half the music studio into a podcast studio. So I think it worked. I I think it They can tell us they can tell us if it worked. I think it worked. I do have one small complaint. What's that? I didn't get a tree. They were all out. There there's one tree in Las Vegas. Yes. There Yeah. It was a it was a windy day. A tree shortage. Literally blew out of my hand. But we are not here to talk about the wind, more trees, or a new fancy bag. We have all kinds of new ideas here for our our backdrop. But I wanna go into the chat, see we got people coming from. We've got Eric. I know Eric was in, last time from Bristol. We've got Kristen from Sioux Falls. We're gonna talk about Sioux Falls a little bit later. Yep. We've got, Kayla from Saskatchewan. We're talking about Saskatchewan to dinner last night. We were. Big Canada fan show. We've got, Yara from Atlanta. We've got Jody from Milwaukee. Alright. Tina from the great state of Ohio and the beautiful city of Cincinnati. Obviously, a favorite of mine. Alexis from Brooklyn. Yes. As you're joining, go in and just let us know. Laurie from Ohio State v. Ohio State. In Columbus. You got to meet Laurie last last fall. Just great having you all here joining us. We love doing this. We love getting together and sharing our thoughts and ideas, but, also, this is gonna be very participatory. We want you guys to do That's my favorite part. My favorite part is everybody out there who actually chimes in and gives us feedback or just gives us their thoughts and and and makes this a better conversation. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we've got we've got some good takeaways from all of you. So I'm gonna call out a new feature that we've added to our Lights, Camera, Communicate as we're learning this platform. You can say oh louder. Oh. Oh. No. You gotta be like, oh. Right. There you go. In the top right where the chat is where you are, you'll see a docs link, and we're gonna be referencing some of the resources that we're talking about in that docs link. So we don't have to worry about putting things in the chat and put links in the chat. All those things will be in there. Let's say we won't add other resources, but, absolutely, we wanna make sure you know about that as we get in here. And then, obviously, also the q and a. Yes. The chat is lively. We love keeping in there. If you wanna point out questions, please throw them into the q and a so that we can get those answered for you. This is oh. Your oh is very poor. I missed the rim shots. But That's what we gotta get for you. That's what we gotta get for you. So last week or last month not last week. It felt like last week. Last month, we had Melissa back on, and she really shared some great examples of how they benefited from creating more video. Yep. But we actually thought it'd be good to take a couple steps back from the creation and actually get into the planning aspect of video. Now when I've been promoting this, I'm being a little vulnerable here on there. Planning is not one of my skill sets. Our it's not one of our skill sets. Collectively here, our skill sets. Because I think there's two quotes that come to mind when I when I hear the word when people talk about planning. One is from, the great poet laureate, Mike Tyson, who said that everybody has a plan till they get punched in the face. Classic classic quote. And then also the other quote that people share is that, you know, everyone has a plan and then God laughs. So I've always sort of embodied that with, like, why are we even taking the time to plan? Well, I had a debate, teacher in college who always said proper prior planning prevents poor performance. So we have that side of it. How fast can you say that over and over again? I I can't. One more time just for everybody's benefit here. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. And how long ago was that? A long, long time ago. And you remembered it? Yeah. It's the only thing I remember from the class. Amazing. So we're here today because a lot of this was you all put together a playbook. We did. There it is. You're holding up. Yep. And you can find us in the docs link, in the top right. So if you wanna follow along a bit through this conversation, we're not gonna go through the playbook page by page. No. We don't need to do that for you. But a lot of the discussions we're having today are gonna be built off of some of the things that are in that playbook. That's right. That's right. And it's not, to your point, just a marketing piece. It's an actual playbook that you can use and everything from your planning to the types of projects to actually shot composition. How do I actually use my smartphone or camera to tell the story? Mhmm. And I think that is I guess, we've got a lot of communicators on here Yeah. On the call today. We all know that video is important. I think a lot of organizations under do video. I don't know that a lot overdo it, but I think you can also overdo video sometimes. You don't need a video for every communication out there. But we know that video plays a critical role in communication because of, I'm gonna say, the the way technology has evolved with creating video. Well, it's also just demand. I mean, if you look at, you know, four years ago, three years ago, some of you guys, even a year ago, would be making huge investments in the production, and you'd cut that you'd cut that video down and and use it for an entire year. Shelf life of a video today is maybe three days. Mhmm. Well, and that's something that we've seen some other research coming out, especially as you're trying to reach the front line. Yeah. There's some data out there that says, on average, it can take four and a half days per message to reach the front line. So if the shelf life for some videos is short, in my opinion, the video might help bridge that gap Yeah. A bit more because you're able to get that message out there that much quicker and succinctly to frontline employees. Agreed. Alright. I'm gonna go back into the chat, see if we have any new friends joining us here. Let's see. We've got, Allison from Boston. We've got Katie from Sioux Falls. More Sioux Falls love. As you're joining in, let us know where you're coming from. And I also wanna share with you one of the things I love about this cold cast platform. They're not sponsoring this, but I think it's a great platform. Yeah. It is. Is being able to add gifts in there. So when you think about when someone comes to you and says, hey, we need a video for this. Go in there and put a GIF in the what describes your emotional state when that happens. That's great. I can't wait to see this. Yeah. We'll come back in and and see. We've got, let's see. Jessica from Dallas. We've got Tiffany from Nebraska. I'm gonna be in Nebraska in September. Looking forward to being there for that. We've got some brain frying. We've got, Shrek. Oh, we've got some oh, Tina, please know from the office. Oh, Tina, we're gonna have to dig into this a little bit more here. People just rolling their eyes. Yeah. This is good. Keep this all coming in here when you've got to, when the people come to you and say, hey. I need to make a video. But let's get into our conversation a bit more today because I wanna talk about what's holding communicators specifically, like, big c communicators. People like this is your job at companies. What's holding you back from creating more video out there? And I think we we all know it sounds really good, but we've all been through this before. And we there's a bit of anxiety and pain that comes. And maybe that's some of Tina's Well, you should ask that question because we have communicated. Well, you can talk to them too. You can ask them the question. Let's let's do that. I I wanna hear what you have to say. I think I know what the answer is, but I could totally be wrong. You know, I think just like anything else, it's fear. Yeah. I think I think fear could be a big part of it. I think I see there there there's some there's some pain or maybe some PTSD for maybe some past projects Yep. Of of getting video created, especially when I hear keep hearing this more and more from communicators that the layers of approval inside organizations just keep upping the ante. And I do and I don't I don't always understand why. I don't know if it's it feels like it's as return the office has come into play more and more, so has the bureaucracy Yeah. Of getting those approvals done. But some of the things that I'm seeing and hearing and I'm gonna call BS on some of these. Okay. I hear the budget conversation a lot, but we don't we don't have money. We don't have money to do that. We don't have money. Apologies to the communicators that have heard me say this many times before, but one of my favorite quotes from a TV show is from Arrested Development, which is, there's always money in the banana stand. There's always money in the banana stand. There's always money there inside organizations to create great communication. So you may not have it, but I guarantee you somebody else does. And I find it's the health and safety departments, it's it's operations, it's the leadership. They've got not quite slush funds, but they've got some money in there. So budgets, legal, I think I see a lot of communicators somewhat hiding behind legal, and I can be pretty harsh on on legal. Executive hesitation, like leaders not wanting to step up and be a part of videos. Perfectionism, I think that's a cop out. I think we we all know that it's never going to be perfect. And then this other one is, like, platform paralysis, that there's just so many places to do video now. They just don't even know where to start. As you work with clients at Lucihub, does that echo some things? Or do you see people fighting through some of those? So so some of it does. And that's, I think, because the traditional process budget really is important. In fact, that's number one. If you wanted to go do a production, you know, a year ago, and it that's not the case today and a lot of people just don't know this, but you'd have to go and find a team, a production team, an agency, a studio, and that's an expensive venture, right? So, I think I think a lot of this is legacy and what's happened is people don't realize that there's been this evolution innovation on in production and it's one of the things that we're really proud of is helping democratize it. Right? So I think budget shouldn't be a point any anymore. In fact, with lo fi content, we'll talk a lot about lo fi content, you can bring your budget down by roughly 80%, 60%. I mean, a significant amount. So budget should not be an issue. Then with leadership, we're actually seeing the exact opposite now. We're seeing a lot of demand from leadership for more content, and they're more willing to participate in it. So there's this fundamental shift in all of this and the the number that the top two requests that we hear from CNOs and and others saying, hey, we have these mandates. We need to be AI first, and we need more video content. Mhmm. So I think I think it's all shifting. The tides the tides are kinda shifting. I think the challenge is that the way video used to be produced is how everybody thinks it still needs to be produced. And a lot of what you mentioned is part of that legal, for example. Right? You you said, you didn't quite say there's a dangerous word that communicators don't like hearing, but you alluded to it in an acronym, which you said CMO, which is the m word Mhmm. Marketing. Do you see that organizations that were comms as a part of the marketing organization that more videos produce because marketing thinks video style versus, say, when comms reports up through HR or another part of the organization? Or is that just me jumping to conclusions on it? No. So historically, the comms teams we talked to were the ones that were not part of the marketing or they were tied to HR and everything else. Today, it's the exact opposite. You have more and more CMOs getting more and more push from their from their bosses to do more content. I would tell you a year ago, CMOs weren't even talking to us. We've got this figured out. We don't need you. Today, they're calling us every month. Yeah. That's good. I'm gonna go into the chat here because some of the things that are being called out here for some of the issues people have, this is Music Terriers editing. Then great. You can shoot all this video, but it it's editing takes time. It's a lot of work, especially if it's not something that you do all the time or every day. It it can be quite laborious going through it. We've got Jody talking about getting the c suite to understand the need and getting comfortable with the informality of iPhone video Yeah. Smartphone video. Yeah. We I mean, we have clients that they have to use a DSLR when they're filming an executive because the executive doesn't think it's as powerful if they're holding a phone in front of him or her. It'd be really funny if they, like, set up if you set up the DSLR and then had, like, an iPhone Well, you know, that's when we started this company. We we we we we started in weddings. And we went to a wedding and we we decided I decided that we were not gonna we're gonna film the entire wedding on smartphones and not tell the bride and groom. And, in fact, Ally was pretending to film on a DSLR and it was off. The camera was off and and, the photographer was like, I love your use of mixed media. She had no idea Ally camera was off. Yeah. That's how this company really started. We did that. We had so many benefits from that shoot. Like, why would we ever shoot on a DSLR again? Yeah. I'm curious for those on the chat who were talking about working with leaders. Do you still have leaders that require using a teleprompter? I'm I'm I'm really curious to see if that's still a thing inside corporations where they feel like they need to be scripted. Not that you're telling them what to say. Maybe they wrote the script, but they still need that Anchorman moment in there. I I would say and and too bad we don't have a mic on Ally over there, but I would say maybe 5%. Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious on the chat. Go in and if you've had to use teleprompters, set that up for leaders. I wanna come back in here and point out, Tina. She was the one that had the office that, no. Please, god. No. She's like, she does love video, but she's worried that people are beginning to treat it like the new just send an email. Like, just do the video, just send an email. Interesting point, Tina. Great point. Go back in here. Delivering a video isn't a silver bullet. We we agree with that. It's not the end all be all for it. And we can build time around strategy change, all that. So video is a component to all this, but I think a very critical component. Alexis comments that there's some hesitation from leaders. Actually, let me just pull this up here on screen. I'll bring this up here for has it leaders around video comms more than just being on camera? It's also script speaking, content planning. Right? That's what we're gonna be talking about today. Yeah. Is this planning aspect and we can even address with leaders. How do you get them to be a part of the process without slowing down? Well, I wanna go back to to the statement about it's it's just like an email. I think one of the fundamental pieces of this that people have to remember and comms people do this every day, you still have to tell a story. Mhmm. And, you know, it's one thing to to do a video, but you still have to have a a story or or a video is just more eye wash. Right? Yep. And I love actually then including a video with with the email. Yeah. Because everybody learns in different ways and some people might enjoy watching the video. Other people might just read the email. Reminds me back when I did ICology as a podcast. Somebody who I thought was a listener, unprovoked and asked for a feedback, but she came up to me. She's like, by the way, I don't listen to your podcast. And I was like, thanks. I don't know what to say. She was like, no. I actually read it. Like, she was reading the conversation instead of listening, so everybody learns in different ways. Let's see. We've got, Eric. I don't know why I'm reading this for everybody. Stripe for unscripted videos. Yes. Notes, no scripts, absolutely the way to go. And I didn't even see even before when I was doing it, just getting them to practice and you actually record the practice. And the other advice someone shared with me too, especially working with leaders, is we're not shooting on film anymore. So you don't actually don't need to start and stop. Yeah. Just keep it recording the literally the entire time. By the way, the the your point of recording the practice, it's one of the best tips I could give you guys. We do it all the time. If we have somebody who's nervous on camera, we just roll the camera and don't tell them. And we say, just try this a few times and let's see how it goes. And more often than not, that's the take you're gonna use because they're comfortable. Yeah. And and more people, by the way, are more comfortable in front of a smartphone than they are in front of a greedy SLR cable. Agreed. Wanna point out this quote from Kayla. She had to set up a teleprompter on a PowerPoint slideshow with the Star Wars scrolling text effect, and it worked, but a pain to set up. Absolutely. Wait. Kayla, not all heroes wear capes. That is superhero work right there. But I think that speaks to that we need to work with them and coach them and be that adviser to them and Yeah. And keep this all going. So I think we know there's there's gonna be obstacles, again, whether you're under doing it or overdoing it, but but they're easy to overcome. And always we talked about the budget thing. Yeah. I forget who said this to me years ago, but he's like, there's two b's. There's belief and there's budget. As long as belief is the bigger b, the budget comes after. Yeah. But if everything comes back to budget and no one believes in it, then it's not gonna happen. Well, I think that's what's happening now. I think there's more belief at a higher level for more content. And so I think you're gonna see budgets open up a little bit. I think just the the not even budgets, just the fact that they wanna see the video. We there's a few people on on this call today that called me and said, our CEO wants more content. You know, our VP wants more content, and marketing is backed up and I need your help. Yep. Absolutely. Well, let's get into I I wanna recognize also some of the maybe the hypocrisy of you and I preaching to people that they need to be better planners. Yeah. We both acknowledge that we're not. But one of the things in our house is every day is a school day, so we're always learning. Well, we were just joking before before we went on air that this is a lo fi play right here. It is. Very much so. Well, I I we we have a lot of fun with it because we are not scripted No. By any way, shape, or form. No. No one would have I only have notes here. No one would have encouraged us talking about a tree Yes. At the beginning. But let's talk about the importance of planning. So it's not all those obstacles that get in the way. Planning is is our own obstacle that gets in there. So what about and I I was doing this in the promotion about what do you do before you hit record? So in my mind, like, that real magic is is thinking through the steps, thinking through the plan. So talk about how in this playbook that you all have launched, how do you advise people to start taking some of those early steps in in making the plan for the video? So I think I think the first the first part of this is what's the story you wanna tell? I think you always have to start with a story. And we and we push that because once you think about the story, then you can apply the framework of a story, which is a story needs to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Right? So when we start working with clients right out of the gates and you say, just pick an idea and let's make that a proof of concept and see how that goes. So they'll, you know, somebody might have a bank opening, somebody might have a new product launch, somebody might want to highlight, an employee. We say, just pick pick the story you want to tell and we'll help you tell that story. So that's where I encourage everybody to start. What's the story you want to tell? Because if you don't have a story to tell, there's nothing there. And I also think like and why? Yeah. Why do you have the story and what do you want people to do with that story? What's their reaction going to be? And we have clients that that create videos with us to sell. Right? So what's the CTA? Mhmm. So, yeah. That's a good point. And so then how so if people haven't seen the Lucihub platform Yeah. How does the platform actually help communicators start to build that plan? So let's talk historically. Historically, somebody on this show would have an idea and a why and maybe a CTA, and they need to put it in action. So what's the first thing they need? We we call it a treatment. We need a a brief on what the story is. Right? And maybe that's how they go to get their budget. So they would brief it out. Then they'd say, okay. Well, this is the story. This is what we're gonna do. And then they would kinda break down what that story is gonna need, but then they would have to they might need to write a script. They might not. It might just be a sizzle. You you write a script that required somebody to take the time to write it. Now actually, on this on this call, they have a lot of work to do already. So think about this daunting task of I've gotta go write a script, and I can it's my it's gonna take me a week maybe. Right? Mhmm. So you have to do that. Then then you have to decide, well, okay. Is this script gonna be a voice over or am I gonna actually get on camera and talk about it? What am I gonna do? That's another piece you have to do. And then you would probably be working with a production company or an agency to do all of this. I'm exhausted already. Right? Yeah. Well, you're not even you're not even starting it now. Oh, I know. Now you need maybe storyboards or shot lists to figure out exactly what you want. And then you gotta go do all of this. I think the problem here is fundamentally this is a lot of work and has been historically. OpenAI changed all of that. Right? So today and if you look at Lucihub's creative copilot, we have a we have a script agent. We have a voice over agent. Multi language. You could do a 100 languages. Right? We have a shot list agent. So what used to take maybe a month now takes hours. It's really it's really interesting. It's it's you wanna talk about shifting the landscape of video. It's you could literally go come up with an idea and do all of your preproduction. You wanna put some time into it, maybe in a day. Right? And now you're ready to shoot. And so then you've got a film. Now, again, historically, you would bring in a crew. You'd budget would be, a very important piece of this. Yep. And you go do it. Well, today, and I don't have my phone with you, but you pick up your phone. Maybe two or three people go pick up a phone and they start filming. And I think what they don't understand is that phone does 60% of the work. It has image stabilization. It has autofocus. It has multiple lenses. It does a lot of the work for you. You just need to know a few tips and tricks. Back to that that guide that we built, the appendix has 10 pages of how to actually film using a phone. So so you can do all of that and then let's talk about editing, which is somebody in in this several people in the chat. Like editing, right? We say film and forget. Now, you've got multiple ways to do editing today. You can use AI tools, but again, you still have to do the work. Or you can throw them over the fence and you can have an editor deliver the work for you. So, this notion of creating a production is daunting, and it's really expensive. It it it's all been eliminated. At least, we've eliminated with our platform. But even if you don't use our platform, there are other tools today to help you accelerate all that. You could just put stuff in in chat and if you know some prompt engineering, create some prompts and and get what you want out of them. Right? That's the most basic way and that's what that's what a lot of people do. Mhmm. So this idea of, oh, god. This is a daunting task, has now become too I need to block a day or two out to do all the pre production. And and honestly, one of the things we're seeing is, you know what takes longer than any any part of productions when we're working with clients? Approval processes. Mhmm. They'll do the script in half an hour. But to get that script approved by four people takes them two weeks. And so that's the most interesting part of this. If you didn't have those approvals, you could technically, at least with our platform, you could come up with an idea and have a video in one to two days. Mhmm. And so, one of the challenges we have as a business is trying to dispel this myth of production doesn't have to be hard anymore. There are tools that are solving so many problems. Back to your point, start with the story and then start building out everything you need to build that story. Mhmm. I do think there's a little bit of that platform paralysis we were talking about where there's so many different tools out there and do you have to learn them? I I see videos that people are making. I'm like, man, I can't even get my head around how Yeah. They did that. I don't feel like I can make that kind of video, so then you don't Yeah. Make the video. And and you and I have talked about it too. The worst video ever shot is the one that just stays on your phone. Well and we we we there's a there's a famous line that says the best camera is the one that that's in your pocket. Mhmm. Right. Yep. That's the one you have. So I wanna go back into the chat here and pull out a quote from, our friend Eric here that he's like when you talk about working with leaders, like, recording the practice, he's like, it's fantastic. The first take is always the best. Agreed. Yep. And I do think, though practice doesn't make perfect, it certainly makes a lot better. And I am someone inside ICology that every single week, I record about a three to four minute video going through the members. Like, here's what's coming up. Here's what's gonna happen. There is also an email that accompanies it for people that don't watch the video. Remember the first one I did? I probably did, like, seven or eight takes. And this is just me with QuickTime up on my laptop. Yeah. Now I did yesterday's from the lounge in LAX. One take because I do because I now do it all the time. Yeah. And I think that's the part as communicators that the more you work with leaders, the more you work with your employees, the more you work with managers on video, it becomes easier for everyone because their guard is brought down Yeah. In that process. Well, I'll tell you the other the other thing. I love to see Here's this is a great point. Okay. This is this is it. Margo nailed it. Practice makes comfort. That's it. Yeah. That is a great point. That's a great that's a great point. Sorry. I cut you off there. No. That's okay. What I was gonna say is that one of the coolest, pieces for for me is watching our clients go from being incredibly uncomfortable. It's like becoming filmmakers and and telling and and great visual storytellers and really eating this up. I I saw it with you in Chicago. Yeah. Right? You were so excited about that one shot you caught with the bus going and the and the bridge. I remember it. Yeah. I I was basically a Scorsese Yeah. No. At that point. And so watching our customers evolve to be that Yeah. You know, HR teams, comms teams, sales teams, it's it's amazing how they get really into the process. Because once you get into it and you realize, hey, this is fun and it's it's creative. It's a different medium that they're just not used to. But once they get into it, it's it's we just love seeing, like, the the video output increase and all the different use cases that we see coming out from clients who are, like, I don't know if I can do this or, you know, there's no way we could do something as as good as, you know, the studio we use or something like that. It was something that I brought up to, Jenny Field. I host frequency with her. And we were talking about AI generated content mostly in a written form, you know, and the rework that's to be done on and the creative work that's to be done on it. But also, I pointed out, like, I don't know. It's been a long time since I was really inspired by things that someone wrote from a company standpoint. Yeah. Like, it's not that inspirational, but video content is able to pull and you hear the inflection of people's voices. You see their faces. They're telling the story instead of just simply reading it. So there's so much more depth and context. The level of personalization and their stats, by the way, on that. Stats on on the level of personalization, the authenticity of it, a lot of it. I wanna know from the people that are attending, going to the chat, you mentioned the approval process. And I mentioned at the very beginning that it seems like that is now becoming more pervasive and restrictive inside organizations. So I wanna know from those attending, do you have an official approval process for video? Is it people held accountable to it? How many steps? How many layers of bureaucracy is there? Does it depend on the video itself? I'm actually kinda curious to know what the experience is for the communicators day to day who are trying to get this work done. We see all of it. So I'll tell you one of the biggest challenges. A lot of these organizations will not turn on the spigot for video because they don't have control. They don't have control of the branding. They don't have control of messaging. They don't have control of the copyright. So so one of the things we built into Lucihub was was exactly that as governance is you can't release a video unless the stakeholders actually signed off on it. It's a big problem. And and and it's created basically, it's we talked to one organization where she flat out and said, we would love to let the other organizations do this, but we can't control what they're doing. And so we're not sure if the message is on brand and and if we're not, you know, doing something that we shouldn't be doing. Mhmm. So Eric commented in here. I'm gonna bring this up. Depends on the stakeholder and the video itself. If no senior leader is involved, it's easy. I would stop involving senior leaders Yeah. At that point, if I wanna get more video out. So that's one. Let's see. This one from Kinga, no official approval prop process, but let me tell you, it feels that it's getting longer every time. That's what I'm hearing. For example, our urine video was, like, pulling teeth. Shouldn't have to be that way, people. But but what it's just so fascinating to me. Is it back in the day when I would hear people talk about, like, eight steps to get a press release approved because everybody thought they were a PR person. Does everybody now think they're a creator and they know video better than everybody else? Yeah. That's that's that's painful. Well, we we had a conversation last week with a client, and and she said, how do I get rid of the thumbprints on the revisions? And I said, you you mean the thumb like, the people who just have to have a say? I said, there's a delete button right here. Just delete it. But she goes, well, you you'd be amazed at how many people just have to have their thumbprint on the project when their comment or feedback doesn't make any sense at all. No. And then Jody's this is I just did a video with outgoing CEO and incoming CEO. That's a great video. Yeah. That's actually an interesting video, and everybody has an opportunity to do it. Approvals were limited to the SVP report up to and the incoming CEO. That's great. That's I that is a really fantastic video. It is. I would I may not be able to see that video, Jody, but I'm now intrigued by that video. And that's a great segue into us talking about use cases Yeah. For videos, basically internal comms. And we'll throw HR into the group as well. We should be friends with with HR. And that's really where this playbook starts to come. And even the m word, you might become friends with the m word. Well, there's again, not only is there money in the banana stand, there's also money in the marketing department. And so if you can invest in in fact, we actually talked about this inside ICology. Last week. We did a campfire session where we gather around and come up with a theme. And it was all around these internal moments. How do you make internal moments memorable? And some of the members in there talked about how leverage other things that are already happening that are being invested in because then your costs aren't the same as a stand alone event. So if there's a if there's a sales meeting, if there's a all employee meeting, whatever it is, like, do your thing alongside because Yeah. The cost is then negligible. Or if they have leftover stuff, take advantage of their leftover stuff. So I love that example of the incoming outgoing and incoming CEO. Great example. I think, you know, onboarding is an opportunity. Benefits, if done well, But I worry just like with a lot of benefits communication, you're gonna run into the, like, we just have to give people the updates. You're not working to tell strong stories out of it, but, hopefully, someone accepts that challenge. I would love to hear if anybody's had a great benefits video, change management. I think anything specifically around culture and values and recognition, that should be at the top of the list. Anything that showcases that is a is absolutely right for video. So in the in the guide that we created, right, we've got a whole host of ideas to get you started. But one of the biggest things we're seeing now is this is this leaning into frontline employees Yeah. Tell stories. And cameras or phones are a really great way to do that. But that's one of the most, interesting things we've seen over the last six months is how you have frontline employees in different organizations now sharing maybe it's sharing what they do in the organization or maybe it's sharing a customer story that they experienced, but it's it's things that usually you not you didn't get to. And so what we're seeing is this shift into, hey, the stories used to be curated here and sent out. Now they're be they're coming up and then being curated by the team because there's so many opportunities to do it. So, don't be afraid to make other people be storytellers. Yeah. Well, I think that, again, a huge advocate for the frontline employee experience over here. And I think anytime they are the ones closest to the customer, they're the ones closest to the product, they're the one that's where the magic happens in an organization. So So I'd love to hear examples of those of how have you evolved frontline employees. Yeah. And it either as storytellers or featuring them as as part of that the story elements that you talked about that are critical for it. I would love to see see if you read examples about how all of you are, bringing those in. But talk about some of the employee generated content and because here there's always a bit of fear, and I'm, again, I'm gonna blame leaders for a lot of this where they don't trust, quote, unquote, what's coming them from the front lines. But from that employee generated side, it's so real and oftentimes, they are content creators outside of work. So the fact that organizations aren't leveraging them more is, I think, a bit of a pretty big miss. Well, I'll give you a really good example in hospitality. We have a hospitality client that really leaned in this and they're very forward thinking. But they've encouraged their frontline workers to highlight a part of the property that people might not know about. The history behind it, where it's at, and some of these properties are beautiful and there's a lot. So they're they've said, look. You know these properties better than anybody. Tell a story about one part of this property. So that's one good example. Another one in the solar business. I don't know if you've ever witnessed a solar install or a battery install, but it's so what they've done is they've actually enabled their teams to highlight a solar implementation, and they basically do a day in the life of this is what I'm doing today. I'm going here. I'm doing this installment. This is what it's gonna take. So kind of bringing to life what that particular employee's daily role is. So those are two really good examples that we've seen. Yeah. I think that the day in the life of, again, is so easy. And there was a there was a communication team that I worked with years ago, and apologies for people that have heard this example. But it their CEO was named Jack, so this isn't gonna work for everybody because he played off of that. But the whole premise was he was a CEO, so he knew how to be the CEO of the organization. But this is a health care organization. So he didn't know what it meant to be a security guard. He didn't know what it meant to work the front desk. He didn't know what it meant to be the crews. I'm not using the right terminology here, but cleans up a room after a surgery. Like, all those things. So they came up with this whole campaign called jack of all trades. That's good. And the and the video content was him talking to and interviewing employees who did this work and saying, like, I don't know how to do what you do, and I wanna understand it better. And I'm never gonna do what you do, but I wanna understand it better. And I always thought that was such a great way to bridge the leadership side with the frontline side showing respect for the work that the frontline employees do. No. That's that's that would be actually a fun project. We have another hospitality client doing something similar right now, and they've actually turned it into a contest. So if you spot that person in that role, in that place, you get a prize. Mhmm. And so they've they've pushed it out and made it an external campaign to their to their customers, which is pretty cool. Question for you. Can they download this this, playbook while we're talking? Absolutely. I think they should. So couple of things. There's about there's an eight part section on how to get started, but we have 10 ideas in this thing to get you going. One of the bigger challenges is, like, well, I don't know where to start. Well, this guide gives you 10 good ideas to start with. Yep. Yeah. Go into that docs part right next to the chat. Hit the playbook link. Download it, and it's available for you. Yeah. And I feel like we didn't do the first part justice because we do have an eight like, here are eight steps to get you started. And we talked about, like, three of them maybe. We can't lay it all out. It's gonna be Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true. Mystery to it. They wanna bring up this thing from Alexis who said, when I asked about if there's a good benefits video. Mhmm. She said the benefits video worked because the HR leader was comfortable on camera. Every other one ended up sounding like an updates video and very scripted. That that's Question for that. Did they use a camera or did they use a phone? Because I bet you if you use the phone, it'd be a lot different. Well, I think that that's why this HR leader, I think, she's saying that did work because the HR leader did, was able to and making them more relatable. But I think that's one of those areas. It'd be fun to hold a contest on there to be, like, let's who can produce the best benefits video? Like, who who's ready to take that challenge? We we should start doing that at Lucihub. We should literally start Like a monthly challenge. Pushing our our our customers to actually do something outside the box. Yeah. That would be good. That would be good. Maybe give them a little word. Alexis was like, yes. That was an iPhone Yeah. With the HR leader. So perfect. Well done there. So we we talked through some of that, and you talked about this lo fi element Yeah. With Melissa last month. She talked talked about some of these videos, like, sort of, like, fast fashion. Yeah. Like, there's there's some things like a like a well tailored suit that are worth investing in. But t shirts and other things you might wear just for the summer, you know, unless you've got unlimited funds, which I don't think a lot of us do, fast fashion comes in. Talk about video not necessarily having the longest shelf life anymore because it doesn't need to. So let's talk about this. I think this is actually something communicators would need to own up to about endorsing content that is a bit less polished and that is not perfect and not scripted and maybe a little bit rougher, but actually is more powerful for telling the story in its, I would say using this word, true authenticity of the moment. So the playbook does talk about authenticity for a lot of reasons, but one is it converts better. More viewership, better conversion if you have a CTA, longer watch times. So there there's data out there. You guys can I mean, just go search for it? But there's data out there that actually confirms Lo Fi content is doing better than Hi Fi content. So this is where I'm gonna start merging all the different hats and worlds that I'm in because this this topic of authenticity came up in this week's episode of frequency. If someone hasn't listened to the podcast that is with Jenny Field, please go listen to it. We talk about that. Is is there such a thing as true authentic communications content anymore? So for example, if you do these stories from the front line, they're gonna be edited. So it's not to an extent to an extent. Right. Right. Right. We're not CGI ing this stuff. But you're editing things. You're making the story sound a little bit better. In your mind, is that is that does it still hold the flag to being authentic? Yes. For for for a couple of reasons. One is if you put that same video in a production company's hands, you're gonna get this beautiful b roll. You're gonna get these shots that you you might not have, but you don't you don't get this genuine feedback. And I'll give you and I've used this example before. We have two clients that are non profits. They both did fundraisers. They both decided not to go the traditional route. They used their phones. Lavalier mics had the best fundraising season they've ever had. I asked both of them separately, why do you think that happened? And they said the video had a sense of sense of authenticity that our other videos never did. And so I don't think it's about the cut. I think it's was it scripted or was it really this person Mhmm. Telling you what they felt? Mhmm. Like, we could be on teleprompters right now having a conversation. It's not gonna be nearly as clear as as this or convincing as this talking about a tree and and everything else. So I don't think it's the cut. I think it's the authenticity of not just the filming, but the way you actually captured the the moment. If we actually had teleprompters right now, how weird of a script would that have been? It'd be weird. Yeah. I wanna bring up this. Our friend, Katie in Sioux Falls, she's like, they're working on a carpool karaoke video project with two of the senior leaders in our video crew, three of us in there. We're gonna use phones mounted to the dashboard in a side window I love it. To make this happen. That's awesome. Can we do a behind the scenes for that? And share it. I think Amer wants to ride along. Katie, I don't know if you know this in a minivan or or if there's room in the back. You don't take up a lot of space. No. But I have I have a a funny story for everybody here. Years ago, before, comedians in cars having coffee, I did a pilot called Hollywood Speaks. It was Brian Callan, who was the host, and he's a comedian if you don't know him. Brian was in a car, and we would interview guests. And our first guest was Joe Rogan, our second guest was Sean Hayes. And what we did was we put we didn't have the phones back then, so we put these little cameras on the dash. And I was the chase car with the camera operator in it, and we were capturing all of the b roll, like, all of the exterior shots of these two driving down Hollywood Boulevard in this really big old school convertible Cadillac. That's what that that Carpool Karaoke reminded me of. But it's a really good use case for the phones and a really cool idea that's just out of the box, you know. Well, it's it's out of the box, but not so far out of the box. And I think that's where leaning into things that you're seeing in other spheres, other environments, like carpool karaoke. Katie, I don't know if you if you told them you invented it. We know you didn't. But you can tell them. There's some comfort there. They know what to expect. They've seen celebrities do it so then they can I get there's not an embarrassment to it? And I think leaning into those themes or elements that you find that suck you in, like, lean in lean into those. There's a lesson here, familiarity. So in the movie business, when we have an idea for a movie, we would say, you know, it's like Terminator meets Star Wars. Right? And all of a sudden, the producers know exactly what you're talking about. The executives know exactly what you're talking about. So there's this familiarity. So if you have an idea, associated with something that already exists, carpool karaoke, and you're right. The familiarity is gonna make it even easier to get approved. Yep. Or maybe not. I mean, not enough thoughts for me. A good challenge. I want an internal comms video that Star Wars keeps Terminator. Terminator? That would be pretty that would be pretty amazing. OpenAI would definitely be part of it. Allison's worked on a nonprofit that used to spend tens of thousands of dollars on sizzle videos, which in a nonprofit, that's even more for CEO town halls. Get this. You can even see this. I'm gonna do a dramatic pause here. Employees mocked them. So not only did you spend the money to produce them, employees mocked the effort and then talked about how comms was then wasting money for a nonprofit. You're in the nest here, Allison. So thank you for for us. For sharing that. Yep. I'll go until it goes on LinkedIn. This karaoke thing's only getting better. Is it? K to c. I know. And so I get I get to be here. I get to be your conduit here. They're having so much fun with it. They're cultivating an eighties rock playlist. That's your jam. Do you need a band? Maybe you need a drummer for it? Yeah. So they purchased the mullet wigs on Amazon to where she can't wait to see how this turns out. And, yeah, we're Katie, you're I can't wait to see how this turns out. I think we've got a future episode of Lights, Camera, Communicate coming up here with Katie Yeah. Talking about this carpool karaoke Because there again, I think, Katie, this speaks to the trust that you've built over time with them that they're willing to be vulnerable and have some fun. And this is gonna pay dividends time and time and time again. That is a story. That's a full hour story. We prep this, get some behind the scenes because we could tell the story of how this started and and how it ended. This is it kinda reminds me of the, the old, like, MTV thing where they would show the video and then you see, like, behind the video of how they made the, like, the thriller, like, the making of thriller. Katie, we're gonna do the making of Marvel karaoke. We'll we'll we'll teach you that. We call that BTS, behind the scenes. So there's a buzzword for you. You can just stay behind the scenes. You gotta use the act of Not that many act of You gotta use the act of letters. Yeah. This is where Ally needs a mic so she could chime in. We're getting we'll we'll get we'll get her we gotta upgrade. We we just spent so much money on the background. We gotta get My other podcast has her in it. I don't think you're ready for it. Oh, Jody is wondering about theater kids hate wigs from Amazon. I don't know if these people are theater or theater kids or not, Jody, but that's a good that's a good call out. And then let's see here. Kristen took the hill up. Build the trust. Yes. Great work, Katie. Yes. We're all behind you on this, Katie. We are. We're we're gonna get her on for a future episode when this I can't I can't wait. Yeah. This is gonna be this is gonna be good. Okay. So we talked about this valued again. So Carpool Karaoke, it's going to be less polished, but it's still not unprofessional. I think that's the that's the danger that people think unpolished means unprofessional. This is gonna be an amazing thing, and we talked about it less polished, more powerful. This is where that pays off. And and here's here's where the quality goes up. They're using multiple phones, which means it's a, technically, a multicam shoot. Right? Multicam shoots are typically expensive. They're using Katie, how how many phones are you guys using? Two, three, three? Three, three, four. I don't know. Yeah. It's a three We have phones everywhere. We have phones on top of it. Shoot. And if we do the work, it'll be a multi cam edit done by a professional editor. And so all they have to do is come up with the story, shoot it, and forget about it. Right? Amazing. We got about fifteen minutes left as we we've spent a lot of time talking with what we're actually good at doing. Mhmm. Let's talk about Katie talked about how many people have they have working on on this because that that's also a component to creating video of scaling this. And how if you're a team of one or a team of few being able to properly scale video when there's so many demands being put on communicators now. We know you don't need a fancy studio like this. This is great to have. For us, I love I love coming out here. But you do need a system for how you're creating video. And I think the value here is thinking about the rhythm of the video as we look at the drum set over here in front of us. Let's let's ask Katie that question because I know I engaged with her on some videos and and You're not gonna take credit for this carpool. No. Not at all. Not at all. Good. But I think she's found a really great rhythm considering where she started three months ago with, you know, an, I think it was an executive message and some podcast stuff. So we really do need her on. But let's see what she's asking. Update that she they're gonna use two phones. Okay. I think Katie might need to up that a little bit. I'm just thinking about the the number of shots here. Yeah. We'll we'll help you with that. You haven't consulted with us yet, but but we're we wanna we wanna set you up for success. Yeah. You need a a two shot and two singles. Yeah. Let's see what what else we have here. Oh, now we've got suggestions about carpool karaoke. That's good. I love this. This this is what's so great about the chat. So how do teams, though, get stronger when you don't have the bodies? And and a lot of times teams, people are being asked to do more with us. I know that's cliche to talk about, but that's true. But also there's a value of doing more with more. So I'm gonna lean on into AI here. So Lucihub a platform. Is hybrid. It's humans and AI agents working together. I think you're gonna see that roll into the entire enterprise. And so how do they do more with less with these tools that are that are coming out, being available, whether it's ours or someone else. That's how they're gonna get in there. There's no other way to get there really. Otherwise, you gotta go back to the traditional production process. But we always say, hey. We're humans plus agents, you know, accelerating everything and and and doing it that way. So I think I think it's really leaning into the tools. This guide has a part of the thing is, hey. What tools are you looking at? What tools are available to you? What tools are the inventory? What tools can you go and and actually solve your challenges? But I think that's part of it. So pick your tool, pick your platform, whatever it's gonna be, but that's gonna solve some of your problems. And I think the other one is just lean into the phone and don't worry about, do I need how how professional does it have to be? Let's talk about this AI thing because we that's a bit of a rub I'm seeing more and more with communicators. And and Katie, who's now this is apparently Katie's episode. Yeah. Because I'm gonna brag about her and some other ICology members who did a thing around Microsoft Copilot and how they're using AI beyond just helping write content, but but better understand content, interpret data, all the things that we should be using AI as a resource for. There is an interesting study done with the CEO of Zapier where I think it was, he wrote, created 50 pieces of content, and then they had an AI tool trained and also created 50 pieces of content based off of what he wrote before. What the study found was that the employees didn't trust the AI created content. But here's where it was interesting. They actually didn't know what was AI written and what wasn't. It was that if they suspected that AI wrote it, they didn't trust it, even if that was a message that he wrote. So it's a fascinating study of just perception of the lack of trust with AI. Is there a way that video can actually build trust with AI? So is it more behind the scenes name? Because when I think about a lot of AI video, it's the stuff I'm seeing coming out from Gemini, where it to the untrained eye, it's pretty damn good and and frightening at the same time. So so two things. One is when we talk about AI agents, we don't talk about video creation. We talk about all the preproduction. Right? You can accelerate script generation, shot list generation, things that take a lot of time. Now in our own company, we're we we have AI in our DNA. Right? We started in 2022 before chat was a thing. We were using computer vision and and and ML and all that. But we always say trust but verify, and I'm gonna give you a really good example. We use we use AI all the time. Right? We create our our blogs, everything. But we don't just create it and push it out. We create it, and then we go and play the writer. And we basically bastardize it and make make it our own. Yep. We had somebody who who didn't do that, and AI actually made up the whole story. And it was off it was it was off brand and actually used the wrong, contact or or or company information. And we looked at this, like, this, you know. And so you have to trust but verify with AI. But I think, you know, it's you said it's a rub. I think you need to lean into it. Mhmm. Because our our workload isn't getting any smaller. It doesn't matter what you're doing. Your workload's not getting smaller. But just just smaller, but your workload doesn't get any smaller. So you gotta find a way to solve those challenges. And and so I would say it shouldn't be a rub. It should be a tool you need. To the Katie episode. I love it. Because, we've got oncology members in here sharing examples with each other and and connecting, so that's great. I'm gonna do a little plug. Yep. For oncology, if you go up into that docs area again, for anybody who's not a member of ICology, we'd love to have you join. We are a community built for communicators by communicators. So we'd love to have you join. Several of the people in the chat are ICology members. So if you're in the chat, an ICology member, type us up. We'd love to have all the communicators in there who wanna spend more time with internal comms and to continue on with the Katie episode here. Yeah. August 26, we will be in Sioux Falls. We will. For the employee comms and culture flyover festival. So psychology host that. This is our third year doing it in Sioux Falls. And a lot of people wonder, like, why in Sioux Falls? And I have two answers. One, why not May not. Why not do it in Sioux Falls? And two, they asked us. We have to do it somewhere. Why not do it in Sioux Falls? Great city to be in. So absolutely join us there. That link is also in there. We only have seven tickets left for it. We keep it intimate. We keep it small for for connection. So if you wanna check that out, we'd love to have you join us in Sioux Falls for the employee. Comes and Culture Forever Festival. And, yes, Ashley Nolan, I'm gonna pull this up on screen. A college member here. You definitely should join. We are Icology is a cool group. Lucihub is a big supporter of Icology and also a supporter of the FlyOver Festival. You were there last year. You're gonna be there this year. I will. So thank you for that. We'll have a special guest with us this year. We'll have a special guest. Yeah. With you. Yeah. You were you were special last year. You did your your Tai Chi tech thing that people could do. But now now you you've got, Wendy from CBRE Yeah. Yeah. Who's gonna be there sharing, their video journey. Yep. Yeah. So all kinds of resource resources in there. Yeah. Kinga's in there. Katie's in there bragging about ICology. So, yeah, we love the more the merrier. We're we're a we're a welcome group in there. Got about five minutes left. None of you have put anything in the q and a yet. I don't think they know it's there. I think the same thing happened last month. What they do in the chat. Yeah. Which is this is the chat live. Chat. Yeah. So you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna flip the script. Okay. We're gonna ask the question. We don't have a script. Well, I'm trying to use some buzzwords here. Cliches. Okay. We're gonna flip flip the the narrative Okay. On this. We're gonna ask the questions, and I wanna see the answers in the chat. So first question that I wanna see in there, and I'm gonna we're we'll come back and chat and come back and look at it. I wanna know, like, what's the first video now you wanna do? As as Amra and I have talked through the importance of planning and getting set up for success, and and all these barriers are just speed bumps. They're not giant walls to climb over. What's the video that you wanna try to do now that maybe has been always in the back of your mind? You're like, oh, I just don't know how I can pull that off. I wanna see in the chat what those, what that video is. And then I have a question for them. So Oh, okay. Mine's a little different. Okay. You know, I think a lot of people came on today expecting to learn something. I wanna know what they didn't learn that we could at least leave them with before they get off the before they get off the call. Let's see. So we've got our first example coming in from another Sioux Falls native. See, people wonder, like, why do you do this in FlyOver Festival? Why not? Look at this. Look at this amazing amazing crew. Kristen Cook wants to highlight their home loans team, so she works with SoFi Bank. They're innovating like crazy, so I can't wait to tell the story of our product, but more importantly, our people. Yes. Awesome. Great example, Kristen. We'll do we'll do a Kristen episode after our Katie episode. I mean, we might have to double up every month. Oh, we're getting a lot lots of good ones in here. Laurie Stewart from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Short and sweet, how to use their communication platform. So tutorial videos, walkthroughs. Yeah. We're using recorded Teams call and screen sharing. Laurie, we can do a little better than recorded Teams call. Check out our our site. There's a case study on Law Clerk. We have a we have a series called behind the lens, and we do video stories of our customers. Law Clerk, cranked out, I think, 40 projects in one quarter. Amazing. How to how to use their platform. Yep. Marty maybe Marty can go into the into the chat and and leave that. I think this is a great example from Jen Ellis, another ICology member. A new global preboarding onboarding video series. Global. One of the things we didn't talk about is this this, primer here has a whole section on what do you need to think about to go global. You need to think about a lot of things. So I think that's a that's a great place to go. It's a bold place to start, but this little guy can help them. Yeah. I would love, Jen, to hear more about your preboarding and onboarding in the sense that is it because that message is gonna be a little bit different for somebody who's not yet joined an organization versus somebody who has joined an organization Global. Being global. That, is it following the same person through their through their journey of, like, are you seeing as a pre board, are you watching somebody? But then as an onboard, are you continuing on that narrative with that same employee. I've served examples too of companies using these types of stories to encourage employees to work in other departments or take a global assignment or things like that as a way to educate on, like, what's the life like if you make this decision? I think that's where video really helps tell that story way more than text ever could. I think we should maybe get we have a client that's done a whole bunch of those. We should bring them on here and do a story about it. Let's see. We've got, one more here coming in. Alexis, please, yes. Instead of legal PDFs, which actually sounds less exciting than it even as me reading it, Video series on how to use AI could go a long way in helping employees feel more comfortable with it. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great idea. Policies? Boring. No no one enjoys reading a in fact, I I think I'd probably get 99. Maybe there's some HR people in there. They get that enjoyment out of reading policies. I'm aware of anyone who enjoys reading policies. So, yes, I think anytime a video you can create a video that helps walk people through the do's. But there's never do it to don'ts. Yeah. Video always do it to do's video. But, giving that. And then, let's see what Jen. She's like, she likes to start a video welcome from the CEO, history, key parts of the business. She asked for the onboarding and preboarding. And, yeah, she's curious how AI can help them pull that off. Pre production. Yep. That's the easiest place to start. I mean, the video generation is a whole another story. But the pre production, whether you use our tool or or someone else's, you can get your scripts figured out. You can get your voiceovers figured out. And you get your shot list check figured out. So one of the biggest value adds to Lucihub Creative Copilot is that shot list generator. A lot of you aren't filmmakers, so what shots do you even get to tell that story? This simplifies it. Here's a list. Go grab these shots, put them in, and that's gonna tell your story visually. I'm gonna argue with you on something on that. Okay. They are filmmakers. They just don't know it yet. Agreed. They just don't know it yet. Agreed. They're storytellers. Support. Panel your inner Scorsese when you're shooting these shots. Like, have some fun with it. Yeah. There's storytellers that you can move to a media. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. Well, we are right at time. I wanna go back through that doc section again. So download the video playbook. Love to have you in there. Hold that back up for everybody to see it. Download that playbook. We'd love to have you join us inside ICology. If you wanna attend an event, join us in person. Go to the Flyover Festival, August 26 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and the Lucihub Academy, which we didn't really talk about We didn't talk about it. Is also a great resource, for all of you in there. So with that, Amer, the Lucihub team, thank you so much for joining us for episode two of Lights, Camera, Communicate. We will be back August 19 for episode three. Probably not the Carpool Karaoke episode with Katie yet. However, we will come back with another We should ask them what they wanna what they wanna learn about. Well, we can do that. Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do that. Okay. We're gonna do that. So thank you everyone for joining us. Thank you. Bye. Bye.