Leslie’s Articles
Why You Need to Know How to Present Your Value
LeBron James’ on leadership, “I knew it had to come from someone. It doesn’t matter how good individuals are, if you don’t have a leader, it’s not going to be right. I took that responsibility from Day 1, saying I’m going to be the vocal leader and I’m going to be the leader of this team.”
That’s what LeBron James walk-on video might sound like, what about yours? What would your walk-on video sound like, look like, what would someone know about your after watching and listening to you in your three minute walk-on?
If you had three minutes to tell the world your value, what would you say? For the last decade we heard about the elevator speech, thirty seconds to tell the world what you do. The elevator speech morphed into the value proposition. Thirty seconds to tell the world what you do in terms of tangible business results: a proposition that draws interest and shares a success story. Now you, as an individual or company, have the opportunity to create and execute a video walk-on.
Let’s look at what you need to know:
What is a walk-on video?
Why create a walk-on video?
Who should have one?
Who should be on your team to make the video?
And how do you do it?
What is a walk-on video?
A walk-on video is a video where you essentially “walk on” to a page of your website. You may decide to “walk-on” to your home page or another page that talks about your history, value, or services. On this walk-on, you talk directly to your website visitors. Visitors don’t just read about you, they hear directly from you and see you “live”.
Why create a walk-on video?
The good news about websites is that they are fairly easy to add or edit: a page, a paragraph, and a point. The bad news is that websites continue to evolve and develop, and therefore you need to continue to evolve and develop also. If a website appears stagnant then you appear stagnant. If your website is not up to date, then you appear not up to date.
There are three reasons to create a walk-on video on your website.
- A walk-on video changes a website from a source that talks about you, to you talking directly to prospects, clients, interested people.
- A walk-on video tells the world that you are current: knowing and using the newest in technology to tell your story and advance your agenda.
- A walk-on video gives you the opportunity to, through electronics, look clients in the eye and tell them how they benefit from your service, idea or product; why they need you.
And there is one more reason. Writing a walk-on video makes you use the scalpel of clarity on you. This exercise makes you look in the mirror and clearly define your value, clearly define for yourself and your world how you make a difference in the life of a visitor to your website.
Who should have a walk-on video?
If you have a website then you are a candidate for a walk-on video.
If you don’t have your own website, this exercise will help you clarify your value and the value you bring to your market.
Who should be on your team to make the video?
Creating a professional walk-on video is a challenging assignment. Could you do it yourself? Sure. Should you do it yourself? Absolutely not. You need to create a professional team to make you look professional. You need a professional photographer or videographer. You need to shoot this video in a studio big enough to use a green screen. In this way, once the video is shot, it will look as though you are walking onto a page on your website. You need to use a professional stylist, a professional hairdresser, and professional make-up artist. That’s not enough. You need to collect this team and do a run through prior to the actual tape date. Do you like how you look? Do you like your hair? Do you like your make-up? Do you like the statement that they make about you?
And how do you do it?
The short answer is that you edit, edit, edit. The longer answer is that it is a painful process of taking the scalpel of clarity to all that you do, and editing it down into two or three minutes. Writing your walk-on video reminds me of a famous quote from an unknown author, when asked about the writing process. “It is not difficult to write a novel”, he said “ . . . just slit your wrists and let them bleed over the pages.”
Go deep. Take one aspect of what you do and talk about that one aspect rather than present a Chinese buffet of ideas.
Technology continues to evolve, and we need to evolve with it. Writng your own walk-on video will help you clarify the value you have to offer, and help the visitors to your website understand and want to use you. It will be both painful, and one of the most rewarding experiences that you will have.
