Jason Belisha: 0:00

At a certain point, it becomes your choice. If you don't want to keep up and give your audience something more pleasant to look at and engage with, it kind of reflects on you and your business and your product.

Dylan Schmidt: 0:12

This is the show for creative entrepreneurs who have a message to share and want to live a life of freedom. Learn how to grow your network, and net worth, hear from exciting guests, and more. My name is Dylan Schmidt, and welcome to Digital Podcaster. Thank you so much for joining me, Jason. Jason, first question for you right off the bat, how can we bridge the gap between how we are in person and how we are on camera,

Jason Belisha: 0:36

I think what happens is kind of funny, people are very personable, they're very much themselves throughout the day. And then as soon as the camera turns on, all of their self awareness sort of just like goes out the window, because their brain goes on like exponential mode. They're like, Oh, this is permanent, this is going out there, everyone's gonna see this. And they become like, not self aware, but self conscious. And I think it just takes reps and practice and mindset that will get you back to a point where you're talking to the camera, as if it's someone you're just literally talking to. So sort of making friends with a camera, almost talking to the camera as if you're talking to yourself, because like we all do that if you don't have an internal dialogue, you're weird. Everyone has an internal dialogue. So being able to apply that to talking to the camera, I think is where we find our Zen with presentation for on camera setting,

Dylan Schmidt: 1:31

do you find yourself say for example, it kind of pops into your head, that internal dialogue of this is going out to the world, or this is going to be you know, you kind of get that like third person objective of I guess maybe that's what like being self conscious is. But when that thought creeps in, what do you do,

Jason Belisha: 1:46

I just sort of find my center again. And just remember that I'm not having a conversation necessarily with everyone, if you think about it in terms of having a conversation with everyone in the world at once. Well, no one can actually do that you can't conceive of that. So it's really nice to have. And this is even easier than delivering coffee off the cuff because I'm talking to you, Dylan, like you're my friend, and we're just chatting. So if you weren't here, my second best would be like, Okay, talk to the camera, it is me, it is just a mirror. And by doing that, it's very different from life presentation, a lot of people I work with, they're like, oh, I don't need actor training, I don't need onscreen training because I do public speaking. But when you're speaking publicly on the stage, you're presenting extremely outward, you're like very wide to the audience, you're projecting to the back row. And with these tools, it's very different. Because I'm speaking like a very conversational volume. And I'm only looking in one place. So all of your mechanics kind of change. And when those guys come to, and those women come to this setting, they kind of freeze because they're like, I want to open up and want to be this like explosive person. But it doesn't work as well in this setting. So you have to kind of reframe some of your mechanics, and realize that it's a lot more like talking to a friend, it becomes easy.

Dylan Schmidt: 3:04

I love that. Next question for you. And this is something we talked about when we spoke last. But how does the video quality relate to perceived value?

Jason Belisha: 3:12

Love this one? Where do I even begin? How I've been explaining it lately, is when you have your external appearance in order, you basically look like you have your shit together so good that you can afford to put effort into that. It gives the impression that the internals of your business are so in order that you have the expendable time and money to put down on some nice gear and a good workflow and actually give someone a classically good performance. Because I think what's missing from content and digital marketing these days is like it all kind of looks slapped together. And while copy is the most important thing. Yeah, it's not the only important thing like where's that classic presentation, call me a purist or a snob or something. But like when I see an ad or get into a landing page and watch a webinar, and the quality is so atrocious. It's like, okay, with this video is like 30 minutes long and my ears hurt. Because he's sibilant. He's creating plosives in the microphone. The video quality is really nothing to look at, and it's just not that watchable. So I think there's like a graph. As to where video quality really plays in its very first second is the most important role that it plays, you know, grabbing someone being like, wow, this person just appears to have their shit together. And then they sort of forget and they're listening to the copy, okay, and then longer form video. After about 567 minutes. They start to look around, they look at the background, look at what else is going on. And as long as there's something there to keep them engaged. Watch Time does compound because we get used to

Dylan Schmidt: 4:53

a certain level of quality right? We watch Netflix, and the quality is through the roof and then We watch maybe even regular TV. And we're like, something's not

Jason Belisha: 5:04

as good. Yeah, it's even hard to compare it to Netflix because the context is so different. But if we compare it to like YouTube, YouTube is a great example. So I've been running YouTube ads for a long time for my previous offer and my current offer. And if you're YouTubers, YouTube errs, which is a you know, word we use now, those people have really optimized their on screen presence. So they look, it's tv Now YouTube is not TV. So when your ad comes up, mid roll, or maybe your thumbnail comes up next to their video, and it doesn't stack up, it doesn't look like broadcast quality. You basically look like you don't have your shit together. And it's pretty important for the context. And that bar is raised on YouTube and it's raising on Instagram. Not Tik Tok, yet, everything still looks like shit on Tik Tok. But I think it will translate. A lot of people are raising the bar on tick tock already, as far as video quality. And I think eventually, now that the tools are so easy to use, there's less and less of an excuse. So I think at a certain point, it becomes your choice. If you don't want to keep up and give your audience something more pleasant to look at it engage with, it kind of reflects on you and your business and your products.

Dylan Schmidt: 6:16

I watch YouTube at night a lot, right? Like, I'm not even a big Netflix watcher. But I'm thinking if I was watching some of the channels I watch, and your ad popped up halfway through, I would be like, this is better quality than the actual YouTube channel that I'm subscribed to. And it would stand out like it would separate itself.

Jason Belisha: 6:34

I think we don't even we don't even have to wait for the bar to be raised all around us. If we just raised that bar for our own channel on our own content. It would be such a differentiator, that, you know, if it, let's say in the fitness space, or you know, choose your own space, and everyone around you is kind of making this like iPhone selfie, awfully shot content, and then you're the one person in your space who put the effort into coming on with authority, you're instantly going to look like you have your shit together. Like you know what you're talking about. Your audience is at least gonna listen to you for the first three seconds because you look and sound so authoritative. They'll give you a shot. And then if your copy is good, well, then you have a new audience member.

Dylan Schmidt: 7:16

Totally. Yeah. And I found myself following some. Let's use Tik Tok. As an example, I found myself following some tick talkers, that I'm like, I wonder if I would have invested in their program or their offer, if they had a nicer quality kind of thing going on. Because I see they're charging seven $800 for something. And everything they film is with an iPhone, I invest all the time in different things. And I just wonder if they had a higher quality stuff because I see that. And then I go, like, I got the drop, let's just say $800 In this program, but like this kid, which I'm cool with it being a kid, totally cool with it doesn't matter, but the age or anything like that. But the production level put into that. And like how do I know, an $800 program? is like not going to just be some strung together thing.

Jason Belisha: 8:06

Yeah. I mean, if if they're not going to put the effort into paying me as the viewer paying me the respect of giving me something more pleasant to engage with? How can I be sure that the actual content that they're producing in their course or their programming, whatever, is actually put together? Because I mean, I don't see how you can have a dependable repeatable process for everything else you do. Except for not your first impression on video. And you ever heard the expression how you do one thing is how you do everything?

Dylan Schmidt: 8:38

Totally,

Jason Belisha: 8:39

I've been thinking about. So actually, right? So if if you're just a generally thorough person, and you have put together this, you know, wonderful online course, or online program, or coaching mentorship program, and then your video quality, just, you just didn't put any effort into it. It just kind of doesn't add up, you don't look consistent. You don't feel consistent to your audience. And I think the barrier to that is that people who are thorough and would do something about it, don't have a good resource. They don't know where to start with that. They will go on YouTube and look at these affiliate, you know, gear review tutorials and stuff like hey, buy this camera and all your problems will be solved. It's never like that. They're just trying to sell you the camera. So it's very quick to spend money, feel like you're wasting money and get a bad result and just stop that hamster wheel immediately and like, Okay, I don't care about video quality. No one actually cares. My coach said no one cares. And my earlier coaches told me no one cares for my initial project that I was doing. I was filming my ads and the webinar on my iPhone. And it was okay, it did all right. It was that relatable kind of look. And then at one point I realized I just decided I'm like, You know what, I'm I'm really going to do everything like I do. Do everything and got together my camera and lighting because I've been a pro photographer for many years, but I was ready to shoot it professionally. But I was told to just use the iPhone because it's more relatable, it'll convert better. But when I actually did the camera lighting microphone correctly, the way I know how my conversions went up 3x Like my sales went up 3x, my revenue tripled. So it just it worked for me. I mean, my copy was good. My landing page was good. My offer was good. So let's take that into consideration. But my one variable that I changed was the video and audio quality and conversions went up. That's just my history. That's just what happened to me. Like it's

Dylan Schmidt: 10:38

in your case to you had a cell phone video, I don't even know how you would like to add for what you do with like a cell phone.

Jason Belisha: 10:50

Yeah, that would be really ironic. This was my previous project. I would never do that for this. But yeah, for the previous project, it was like, it was it was bad, you know, but it was it looked like everyone else it blended in. And I think a lot of people, most people in the world just want to blend in because they're afraid to take risks. They're afraid to stand out. I have never been afraid to stand out. I was born a sore thumb. So I'm willing to take any kind of risk. Like I don't care if I do or don't look like everyone else or appear like everyone else. I definitely don't sound like everyone else. I have a cheesy radio announcer voice from the 90s like, I'm never going to blend in. So I should delay into that

Dylan Schmidt: 11:26

cheesy 90s I never thought about that. But then it got me thinking like video games.

Jason Belisha: 11:29

Oh, yes, I have the classic broadcast radio announcer voice from like, 15 years ago,

Dylan Schmidt: 11:34

I never thought about dated or anything like that. Honestly.

Jason Belisha: 11:38

You know what's funny, most of my voiceover clients are from Saudi Arabia. Because they stylistically This is my theory. Stylistically, Saudi Arabia is kind of like 1520 years behind the states when it comes to like advertising style. So when they like when I work with American clients, very conversational, very soft, very smooth. And then the Saudi Arabians want me to be like, Can you do it like bigger, like stronger? I'm like, Oh, like this, you want this voice? And they're like, Oh, my God. Yes. Wow. So it's again, it's about context. Yeah, what works for them is not going to work for us. It's just being aware of who you're talking to how you're talking to them. And everything matters.

Dylan Schmidt: 12:20

That's fascinating. And I hope this doesn't spoil the next question for you. My next and last question for you today. What's one skill you wish more creators focused on strengthening?

Jason Belisha: 12:31

Hard to say one skill? I mean, yeah, I kind of just fit into that with the answer to the last question. It's just being aware of your context. And it goes into so many more other skills like video, audio editing, but just being aware of, again, who you're talking to, how you're talking to them how you're coming off, and how you can improve that. Because there's so many skills that go into video and audio, just video production, basically. And it's never been easier. But people still find this barrier to entry. It's so hard to get into because they don't have a framework. And that's the problem that I was trying to solve, and have been solving for people for a while I've been taking people from Square zero to professional studio with they're able to use every day on a daily basis with almost no effort within two days. So that's the skill and I'm very honored that I'm able to bring that skill to more people because when you have a system in place for video and content creation, like you do for everything else in your business, when you have that systemized, you're more confident. And you feel seen and heard in a way that you never were before. Because everyone feels like they have to shout into their iPhone, everyone's trying to shout louder than the other person. But I never have to shout, I run ads, I make content. And I'm practically whispering into this thing. This is a sensitive microphone. This is a very sharp camera like I'm, I feel very seen and heard in this context. So I can I can emote very delicately. And I feel like everything is coming through. I don't have to scream at you.

Dylan Schmidt: 14:08

So this skill would be identifying the context or creating the would you say if like, what's the like the skill to strengthen? And maybe I can maybe you said it. I'm just like, wrapping my head around everything. Because you said no, I

Jason Belisha: 14:21

do. And I danced around that question. So

Dylan Schmidt: 14:23

Oh, you did? Okay. It wasn't just that I was like, Wait a minute. Yeah,

Jason Belisha: 14:27

it's it's really both. It's everything. It's being aware of the context and knowing what to do and using the resources that you have to appropriate yourself and your presentation to the context in which you're talking to people.

Dylan Schmidt: 14:40

Everything you're saying how I hear it is like really taking the listener and or the viewer into consideration. Like the viewers context when they're scrolling through what else are they seeing that you're standing out in this way, how you're coming across how you're being perceived by the viewer, because everything from my understanding everything like how you help people work is really helping people communicate effectively, and almost have to do less to like, get a bigger result and be seen and heard. How can people work with you? What's the best way to learn more about JSON and enter your world?

Jason Belisha: 15:14

I spend most of my time on Instagram so you can DM me at onscreen authority, all one word we own on screen authority.com. So just head to that domain and that should send you to the right place. You can apply for a call with me there's like a quick five question, one click survey. I'm pretty open to talking to anyone who's trying to step up their game. Awesome. And

Dylan Schmidt: 15:34

I'll make sure of course, to link everything in the episode description. So check that for there. Thank you so much for joining me today. Jason.

Jason Belisha: 15:41

Thank you. It's been fun.