037: Chris Chavez – How Videos Can Help Small Businesses Grow

Title: Chris Chavez – How Videos Can Help Small Businesses Grow

Guest: Chris Chavez

Chris: Video is the number one way to retain information. Video is inspirational storytelling that provides not only value, but showcases the heart of the presenter. The heart, you gotta have heart in everything that you do because it does bleed out into the work that you’re providing.

Peter: Welcome to the Biz and Life Done Well podcast, where we explore what it means and what it takes to do business and life well. I’m your host, Peter Wilson. If you’re like me, you’re intrigued by stories of common people who have achieved uncommon success in business and life. Join me as I interview fascinating people about how they got started, their successes and failures, their habits and routines, and what inspires them.

Peter: This week, my guest is Chris Chavez of Chavez Creative Company. He is a video storyteller, a videographer with over ten years of experience as a videographer. On our podcast, we are trying to help small businesses get the most out of their marketing investment. The value of video specifically for a small business. Why should we do video?

Chris: Video is the number one way to retain information. Because if I hand you a manual, you’re going to retain so much. There’s only so much you’re going to be able to tell me what that manual says. But if I show you how to put together a bench, you’ll remember it because of the visuals. Video has been such a huge aspect when it comes to marketing, even more now than ever because of COVID.

COVID has really showed a lot of strong businesses that you need to have a social media presence. You need to have a video because we were stuck in our homes. We couldn’t go face to face. We couldn’t have the normal interactions that we had. So the only way to really still tell everyone that, Hey, I’m still here.

I have a business, Is to do video, is to show them what it is that you offer. So it is so imperative that these older businesses or newer businesses, but older owners learn to adapt to what the technology offers. And I completely understand that the older generation, it’s harder because they didn’t grow up with it. So they’re not really experienced in it. But that’s where the education comes in as well.

It’s the going back to basics and understanding why this needs to happen and the outcome of it.

Peter: Let’s say that I own a dental practice. What video would you recommend? Let’s say I have no video at all.

Chris: Well, honestly to start is introduction video. The introduction video is like a little resume. It’s like, this is what I can do. This is what I’ve done. And with dentists office specifically, the biggest thing with them is what is the number one reason why people don’t go to the dentist?

It’s fear.

Peter: Fear.

Chris: And so if you can provide an introduction video that not just shows the receptionist or the dentist’s assistant, assistant. You actually show the person that’s going to be working on you. Then when you go in to your appointment, you have a face to the name. You’re like, oh yes, I saw your video. You’re really, really nice.

You’ll feel a little bit more warm and not so tense when you’re sitting in that chair. So starting with introduction videos is a great way to reintroduce yourself or to introduce yourself for the first time into whatever market you’re in.

Peter: Yeah. So how long would that video last? What do you recommend for an intro video?

Chris: So intro videos are pretty much go for a minute or less. A minute’s the max. You can go a little bit over but you want it to be around that time frame because you don’t wanna oversaturate the video with a lot of information. That can be used for further videos, product placements, testimonials, things like that. But you wanna do a nice clean introduction, who I am, what I do, here’s how to reach us.

Peter: Got it. Give them a little of information. That’s similar to what Donald Miller talks about in StoryBrand about you want your website to do three things in eight to twenty seconds, which is what do you do? Why should I pick you? Or what makes me different, special?

And how do I get started? Like those three things. That’s just like and basically, I call that is like, am I in the right place? It’s like you drive somewhere and then you’re driving to an address and you get there, you’re like, is this the restaurant I’m looking for? I’m looking for a sign.

I’m looking for people. How do you produce those videos? I mean, are you using a script or are you asking questions? Mean, your secret sauce? What makes you special at doing this and how do you The get it

Chris: way that I like doing it, I like being collaborative about it. Obviously, you know your business way more in-depth than I do, but I’ll learn it as we go on. But what I like doing is if we’re doing an introduction video, I have my client write a bullet list, like a bullet point list of just key topics. Little list. And then what I’ll do is I’ll take that list and I’ll formulate that into a loose script.

The reason why I say loose script is because I don’t want it to be something where you’re memorizing it. Because then you’re not paying attention to what you’re saying. You’re worried about memorizing the lines. And so it’s a guideline.

Peter: That could be a huge fail, by the way, because we tried that with a dentist and we had like an iPad with like a teleprompter thing, blah, blah. And it was just like I said, we’re not actors, right?

Chris: Exactly.

Peter: Yeah. So, we’re not really good at memorizing lines.

Chris: Yeah, because if you and I sat down and we were just having a drink and you’re telling me about your business, it’s easy. It’s a nacho walk conversation. You don’t need

Peter: to stop Exactly.

Chris: It should be the exact same way when you hit record, when you’re in front of that It should be that friendly, whatever personality you have, let it shine through. Tell me about your business. And that’s how I kind of started is we’ll do the loose script like I said. And then I have a background in theater. And so I use a lot of the training that I used when it comes to on camera coaching.

So like vocal warmups and little ways to kind of distract your mind from what you’re about to do. That way you’re loose and you can go in front of that camera and do what you need to do. And so we do a little vocal warmups just to have fun. Something to kind of lighten the mood because if you’re both not having fun, it’s gonna show. You’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing.

And so I definitely, definitely put that in the foreground of every video that I do is let’s have fun with this. Passionate about your business. I’m passionate about making your business look good through video. Let’s have fun together.

Peter: Do you ever, I’m just curious. You ever go, okay, let’s just do a dry run through. We’re not going to turn on the camera. And then you go turn on the camera and then capture. Because one thing I saw, one time we were working on a project, not you and I, but I was working with somebody else.

And it was like when the camera got turned on, the person just froze up. It was like, woah, what happened?

Chris: Yeah. And actually, have done that once before. I had a client who wasn’t really just had zero experience in front of the camera. And we did that. We just had fun with it.

And I kept the camera recording without them knowing. And I got some really good stuff. And then afterwards, when I showed them the playback, instantly they changed. They went, Okay, that’s not too bad. And then, it’s showing them, it’s like, you’re doing a good job.

It’s that recognition of, you know what you’re doing, you’re just getting in your own head. But we’ll make it good, we got this.

Peter: So this intro video that you’re basically saying it’s kind of like a website. Every business has to have one really.

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

Peter: Unless you’re doing some top secret work for the government, then you probably shouldn’t. So what is that going to cost? Just ballpark.

Chris: Well, way that I do it, I have two tiers when it comes to introduction videos. The first tier is the pricing on that one is 800. And So the reason why it’s a little bit low is because of that local businesses that are struggling. I want to have something that’s affordable that they can have a really good video. And within that first tier, we’ll do things like script development or the loose script development, editing, providing a call to action, highlighting whatever business needs that you might have, highlighting your team, highlighting the location depending on what the business is, primary B roll shots and of course on camera coaching.

So that’s the first tier. The second tier is the exact same thing but includes six additional videos for your social media platforms. So if you have Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, whatever it is that you have we’ll create separate other little videos for those platforms. And so that price is a thousand.

Peter: Is that in it? So it’s a thousand plus 800?

Chris: No, it’s 800 for the first tier and then a thousand for the second tier.

Peter: Okay.

Chris: Second tier has Yeah.

Peter: Okay, so your pricing is ridiculously low.

Chris: Yeah.

Peter: So I can tell you that having worked with other video folks, all quality folks, they are charging significantly more for that. So, you’re really offering a good value. So, are there any particular types of businesses that you think that you like to work with that are kind of in your sweet spot or just basically small businesses? And I noticed you had a church in your work too. So is there any kind of organization you like to work with more or?

Chris: Not really one specifically. Just, like my title you said at the beginning, Storyteller. I just love taking something and creating the story of it highlighting and creating something inspirational. It is local. It is small businesses that I wanna kind of help with.

Again, because of COVID and I mean, now we’re getting back to a semi normal but there’s still that need that’s still there something like this. And hence why the price is a little bit lower. It’ll eventually ramp up, but I wanted to be a service at the beginning that is there for you, that you can afford.

Peter: So now you do work with churches as well?

Chris: Yes, I have found some things for churches. The one that you saw that’s on my website, it was a day one. The church just opened brand new building, revamped it. I couldn’t get that word out. Yeah.

And I wanted, it’s a special moment. They’ve been waiting a long time for this building and I wanted to document it. And yeah, so I created that for them.

Peter: What are one or two stories of some businesses you’ve done video for and they’ve said, hey, we had a customer come in and they saw our video and they were ready to buy or what sorts of things have you seen just in terms of results?

Chris: Actually, it’s the latest video that I did. So I did a video for the Downtown Istoklaus Association And they had coming up a art walk where you go to local businesses and a painter would paint something that represents that business on the window. And it was great. It was an awesome little idea to market not only local artists but the businesses. And you could just drive around and get all these businesses and learn local artists, it’s fantastic.

They needed a video to showcase one of the artists. So I did two videos of her on two different locations painting what she needs to do. And they’ve had other videos in the past where it was just time lapse. And time lapse is great, but I felt like I could do a little bit more of an emotional kind of feel with it, a little bit more of an artsy feel of a video that represented not only that business but the artist itself. And so the video I did, it’s for a local winery and the artist painted this really amazing flamenco dancer.

And so I filmed it in a way where it showcased everything really, really artsy, if you will. I try to get as many artsy shots as I can to tell the story of this painter and this flamenco dancer that fit in with this beautiful wine. And I had this music going with some nice flamenco kind of guitar riffs and it turned out great. And the head of the Downtown Association loved the video. She didn’t expect the quality as to the video that I provided for her.

It was, you you see it one way, but then when you actually see the final product you’re like, oh, okay, that’s better than I thought it was going be. So it was a fun thing to do and I would do that in a heartbeat again just promote local artists.

Peter: That’s great. That’s awesome. So Chris, if folks that are listening want to track you down and book a consultation with you, what’s the best way for folks to get in touch?

Chris: Yeah, so you can reach me on my website. I have a contact us little page on there. My website is www.chaviscreative.co. And on there, you can write your name, your business, and a message as to what it is that you would like to talk about and we can go from there.

Peter: Great. So I’m guessing you offer free consultations. That’s over the phone Zoom to begin with. Just kind

Peter: of a touch base, see

Peter: what your needs are.

Chris: Yes, free consultation. Exactly.

Peter: Got it. Got it. Okay, that’s great. So is there anything we missed? I mean, I just wanted to give our folks that listen just kind of a brief overview of the value of video, especially most of the people that listen are small business or organizations, churches and things.

Can you think of anything we missed in terms of value or anything that you were dying to tell us about?

Chris: Yeah, so actually when it came to education and yeah, value, I’m gonna plug two things because it’ll help. I have on my Instagram page, which is chaviscreativeco, I do thirty second video tips. So every week I provide little tips. And they’re just short little brief little things to help you. But I go more in-depth into those specific tips on my YouTube channel, which is just the name of my company, Chavis Creative Company on YouTube.

And I dive a lot deeper into these questions, these advice, these tips and tricks, especially when you’re starting out in marketing for your business. And so those are the two things. If you just want a quick little tip, check out my Instagram. If you want to go in-depth into specific topics, check out my YouTube page.

Peter: Sounds great. Well, I’ve really enjoyed the conversation. Chris, I know we just recently met and I’ve just really enjoyed getting to know you today and look forward to chatting with you more. A brief shout out to Mike Talkington for introducing us. So we’ll see if Mike actually listens to the full podcast and catches the shout out.

And great. Well, I really appreciate your time today. And again, you can find Chris at his website. We’ll also have a link in the show notes for him.

Chris: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Peter: Thanks for listening to this episode of Biz and Life Done Well with Peter Wilson. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and most of the other popular podcast platforms. Please tell your friends about us and leave us a review so even more people will find out about us. Thanks again. We’ll see you soon.