Probably the most powerful thing that has moved my law firm along in the six years since I opened up Shop has been video. And we all spend a lot of time on Zoom. I’m using Zoom right now to record this. There’s nothing magic about it. There’s nothing hard about it. You know what you want to have? You want to have some good sound. I got a mic right here. It’s also important to have good lighting. I’ve got two lights on me right here. As you could see, I’ve taken some time to create a nice background so that it looks like I care, that it’s a little bit of my brand is kind of bound up in this background and none of this is an accident and none of it is hard. I am literally looking into the same camera that I use every single day for Zoom calls and I’ve just hit record on Zoom.

And so if you think you can’t do video marketing, first of all, you can because you already have everything that you need except for maybe a mic and some lighting. You probably have Zoom. And you’re watching this video right now. You probably don’t know me at all. We’ve probably not met. But you are probably among the thousands of people who are going to see this video and think, okay, well, maybe Jeremy’s a fool in some ways and maybe he’s got something to say in other ways, but at least he’s earnest and he’s a real human being. And so there’s a real way of kind of breaking down that wall and getting kind of the know, like, and trust factor through video. And there’s tons of reasons why you should think about video. I mean, it’s great on social media. Okay. It’s great on your website because one of the things that Google looks at when they decide what websites are good or not, or how long do people stay on websites?

And if you’ve got web video embedded on your website and it’s a good video, people are going to sit there and watch it for a minute or two. And then they’re not on your site for 10 seconds. They’re on their site for two minutes. And this is all part of the stuff that you need to do if you want to play the website game in order to get clients. And it’s also worth mentioning that Google owns YouTube. And so Google likes YouTube videos. Google likes YouTube videos on your website. Google likes to share YouTube videos in Google search results. And I just can’t think of any reason why it is that people wouldn’t want to do video marketing. And now I get that some people are better with the written word and I get that some people are shy and maybe some people feel like they’re technologically not capable of doing this.

And even though I would tend to say, “Get over it and figure out a way to do it anyway.” What’s that saying? Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people either can’t or they won’t. I mean, if you’ve got Zoom on your computer, you can do it. It’s not hard. But okay, if you’re allergic to doing it, if you’re going to look bad, if you’re not committed to good lighting and good sound and you don’t have the ability to talk off the cuff enough to make a good impression, okay, stay away from that. I mean, it’s not everybody has to do video marketing, but the ability to reach people through video is incredibly powerful. And I don’t know that I’d have a law firm right now without it. And so you go back 20, 30 years ago, the only way that you could make some sort of a video is if you could get your way onto the Warner Brothers lot in Los Angeles and you got to finagle your way in and do all this other stuff.

But now it’s all been democratized. Anybody who’s got a camera, and of course there’s one on your iPhone and there’s one in your computer and you’re using … Anyone who’s got a camera could do this. It doesn’t cost anything to create a YouTube profile. It doesn’t cost anything to throw a video up there. It’s as easy as it could possibly be. It’s free. And so unless you’re like the one in 10 that is just going to be bad at this, and if you’re the one in 10, I’d say, okay, forget about it, find another way to do it. Nine out of 10 lawyers that are marketing their small law firms should absolutely be doing video. And I’m not even suggesting that you try to become some kind of a YouTube star. I mean, my videos are not clickbaity.

I’m not doing anything in particular to optimize the YouTube channel. As a matter of fact, I don’t really care who sees the videos on the YouTube channel. It’s nothing more than a container for me. I upload the video to YouTube and then I give the link to that to my website people. And then my website people link that to my website. And so I am not spending any time trying to be a YouTube star, but it’s great to have a video and it’s great that you can upload on LinkedIn or Instagram or wherever you’re marketing. And it’s great to have it for your newsletter. It’s great to have it on your website. And Google owns YouTube. And so it’s probably uncomfortable for a lot of people to do this, but just get over it and do it would be my advice. You don’t even need high production value.

I mean, a lot of people say, “Just grab your iPhone as you’re walking from the car into the office in the morning and just say something authentic and throw it out there.” The authenticity is important, but it doesn’t need to have massively high production value. And so get over it if you think that this is not for you. If you’re a lawyer, just look into the camera, humanize yourself to people. It’s a good way to make them know, like, and trust you. And there’s just no reason why I can think of that nine out of 10 lawyers shouldn’t do this. And let me assure you that I screw up all my videos. I put my foot in my mouth, but I only do one take of each video. And you know what? If it’s not perfect, I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter to me.

I’m not perfect. When people see me misspeak, they know that I’m a human being. I don’t edit out all the ums and all that stuff. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to be authentic. And so 90% of the people that are watching this video should just get over themselves and figure out a way to make a couple marketing videos.