Graham Cochrane (00:03.542)
If you're a business owner, you're creating content on YouTube and it's exhausting, it eats up your whole week, or you
Graham Cochrane (00:21.71)
If you're a business owner creating content on YouTube and it's exhausting, it eats up your whole week, or you just cringe every time you watch yourself back, this episode is for you. I'm gonna show you a simple method that helps you actually enjoy making videos, makes them in a fraction of the time, and helps turn those videos into clients.
Graham Cochrane (01:10.102)
If you're making YouTube videos and you're struggling, you've probably fallen into one of two camps. Depending on who you listen to, depending on who you learn from, whatever YouTube guru is your guru, there's one camp that says you need to script your videos. So they want you to look polished and professional, and they don't want you to ramble. And that's all really good stuff. So they encourage you to script the video. And this is long even before AI could help you script it. Script the video, do the work.
So that you can set up a teleprompter, you can read the script, and you can say exactly what you want to say at exactly the right time in exactly the right way. Now, the idea behind this method is that your videos will convert more, your videos will be more effective because you'll get to the point. You'll be able to address everything you would want to address, and you won't forget anything, you don't have to memorize anything, you just read the teleprompter and you magically say.
The perfect thing. But there's two huge problems with this. Number one, scripting takes time. It takes time. And if you are using AI to script your videos, guess what? It won't sound like you. Well, Grant, my Claude knows my yeah, okay, sure. But it's still not really you. It's still it's still borrowing content from other people. It's still taking all the videos that's illegally scrubbed to learn.
Everyone's speaking style and everyone's points. And so your script isn't going to really be you, even if you do use AI, but it's going to take time. And that's why when I have clients say, Graham, it takes so long to film. You say make YouTube videos. You say YouTube has made you a millionaire. You say YouTube is the best platform for business owners. And it is. But it's taking me forever, Graham. Are you are you writing scripts? Yeah. Why are you writing scripts? Because I don't feel confident on camera. okay.
So I get that. A script will make you feel more confident because you'll know what to say. And if you have a teleprompter, you just read it and you never have to worry. You can be confident and you can develop the skill to read a teleprompter naturally. So that's one method, but it takes time. And if you use AI, it doesn't sound like you. And here's the problem. Let's say you even write a perfect script from scratch with your own good old fashioned brain. You didn't use AI, and you're really good at delivering it to camera. Guess what? It never does. It never connects.
Graham Cochrane (03:29.71)
With the audience. Because people know it's a script. It's too polished. If if you're watching a video and the person, even if they seem natural, they never flub once. They always say the perfect thing. You're going to wonder of one of two things. Are they reading a script? Or is this even a real person? Is this just an AI video? And that's going to get harder to distinguish in the coming months and years, right? And neither of those things are things you want the viewer to think about.
Because you want the viewer to think about your ability to help them solve the problem in their their life. And that's what allows you to stay in business. So it actually becomes a distraction. You think, I'm scripting it, so I will sound polished and not be distracting, but it becomes a distraction because it's a little too clean. And we're in a world, by the way, that doesn't value pretty and polished and put together. We almost distrust it because anyone can look and sound professional and put together. Which leads to method number two, which is just
Be your authentic self. Just be raw. And and I love it. There's a a movement to like grab your phone. Grab mine. Like just grab your phone, talk to your phone, and just be you, bro. Just share from the heart. Like, don't script it, don't overthink it. Be authentically you, because that's what people want to see. And they do want to see your authentic self, but they don't want to see you ramble. And they don't want to see you.
Trip over your words over and over again and not really get to the point and say the same thing a bunch of different ways. They they don't really want that. And even if you could do it like that and it didn't ramble and it didn't trip over your words too much, most people, and this is just my my anecdotal perspective as a business coach who is trying to urge my clients to get on YouTube every single day.
Most people don't feel comfortable turning on the camera and just talking to it. They like stare at it like I don't know what to say. So they actually spend more time trying to not spend time. They're like, I'm not gonna script. I can just turn on the camera and go, but they freeze. I mean, have you ever frozen? Like they freeze, they don't know what to say.
Graham Cochrane (05:52.227)
I mean, I even know people who are really good communicators on stage, but they can't do it to a camera. They just freeze up. And so nothing comes out, or it takes a lot of starting and stopping. And then they just have lost time and they just feel scared, like they're riding a bike at night blindfolded. It's just they're just afraid. And what comes out isn't very good. So, unless you are a world-class communicator, you probably shouldn't just turn on the camera and wing it. In fact, nobody should wing it.
So I don't know why the YouTube gurus give you those two options: either fully script your videos or just share your authentic self. Neither of those are a good solution. There is a third path. This is what I call the guardrail method. And this is the sweet spot. This is how I make all of my content. This is what I'm doing right now. Doo doo doo doo doo. Right? It's a dream within a dream inception. Anyone? Christopher Nolan, best filmmaker ever. So the guardrail method, think of it as if you've ever been bowling.
Right. So you've got the bowling lane, and there's these two gutters on either side. And if you're really bad at bowling, your ball always goes into the gutter. So they put up these bumpers that fill the gutter to act as guardrails. So if your ball invariably goes off to the left or the right, it can't ever fall into the gutter, just bounces right back and it keeps you in the lane. So the ball keeps rolling down the lane to hit the pins, which is the objective. We need guardrails to keep you.
Going down the lane of your video to hit your objective, which is to add a ton of value and create a client. So I'm going to make sure that you don't land in the gutter, which is rambling, but you still throw the ball yourself. No script. Okay. You're not a robot. We're not going to outsource this to robots and we're not going to read off of a script. Okay. Stay with me. No script. No script. Okay. Let's real quickly unpack.
What makes a good YouTube video? Because I think we need to start there. Like what makes a good, and by good I mean effective to grow your business? YouTube video. And then I want to share three core principles and I want to give you the template. Okay. So you got to understand how YouTube works. What makes any good YouTube video? And this could also be true for any good short form video or any good keynote for that matter, but it's especially true for YouTube. Number one, it makes a single overarching point.
Graham Cochrane (08:17.526)
What is the point of your video? It should have a point. Not many points. Now you will make subpoints, I'll get to that in second, but your video should be about one thing. One thing. What's the point? Do you know what the point of this video is? How to speak clearly on YouTube. That's the point. That's all this video, all this episode is all about. Is how to speak clearly on YouTube without a script. That's the whole point of this episode.
So every piece of content should have one singular point. Most people don't know what that is. They just start talking. You need to know the point. Number two, it solves a single but real problem. The best content is problem-solving content. So the problem that this piece of content solves is you don't feel comfortable speaking on camera, making your YouTube videos without a script or with a script. You don't want to do a script and you don't feel comfortable without a script. So this solves that problem. How do I speak?
Confidently and clearly without needing a script. I solved that problem in this video. Okay. Every video should solve one problem. And then finally, the video should be genuinely helpful to the viewer. Now, if the video solves the problem they have, it should be. But I often see people who make YouTube videos that talk around solving a problem.
But they don't actually solve the problem. They put that behind a paywall. And like, if you want a problem solved, you gotta pay me. That doesn't make any sense. Do you know the number one fastest, best way to help somebody know that you can actually help solve their problem? Actually help solve their problem in the video. Right? It makes no sense to not solve their problem and then be like, pay me and then I'll solve your problem. Well, why should I trust that you can solve my problem?
Demonstrate to them that you have content that can actually help them solve their problem in the video. I I promise you that's what's gonna get them to want to buy from you. But Graham, you will have solved all their problems. I'll have solved. No, you won't have. No single video can solve all their problems. Even if you give them the answer, doesn't mean their problem is solved. They're gonna want more from you. And if they don't, then that's the point of the video. You help someone who will never pay you. Isn't that an awesome thing? I sleep really well at night.
Graham Cochrane (10:44.309)
Knowing that my content like this is helping millions of people around the world who will never pay me, who could never pay me. Right? It's so important. Like I love Myron Golden calls it community service content. He views his YouTube channel as community service. I think that's beautiful way to think about it. I've always imagined my YouTube channels as a resource for the world. Let me
dump all of my knowledge and wisdom into a free resource for the whole world. How cool is that? But the videos actually have to be resourceful and helpful, right? So if it's got a single point, solves a real problem, not a perceived problem, those won't crush. It has to be a real problem that they know they have and it's genuinely helpful to the viewer. That's what makes a good YouTube video. That's all that matters. So let's talk about big picture. That's all that matters. Doesn't matter if it's scripted, doesn't matter if it's 10 minutes or 20 minutes or an hour.
None of that matters. Doesn't matter if you have B-roll or if you have all these jump cuts or all these things for retention. None of that matters. I know people want to tell you that that's what matters. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Friend, I don't, if you're listening on a podcast version of this and you're not watching, then you miss out on what I'm about to explain to you. But if you're watching on YouTube, you can see that this is it. It's just me in my chair in my office downtown. I'm talking to you. I don't have a second camera. I don't have any edits.
Literally zero. I don't have any screen graphics or words that come up. I don't have any music. I don't have any cool B roll. It doesn't go black and white every once in a while and my voice pitches down for effect. Like I have nothing that the YouTube gurus would say I would need for pattern interrupts and all this kind of stuff for retention. And I understand why they say that. It doesn't stop me from generating millions of dollars a year in my business. YouTube is my
My lead gen for my business doesn't stop me. That's the point. Because none of those things matter. I don't care what anybody says, those aren't the thing. The real thing is does your video have one point, solve one problem, and genuinely help somebody? Now, I'm gonna give you the script, no pun intended. I'm gonna give you the template. I'm gonna I'm gonna give you the swipe copy for for how to do this, right? How to do the guardrail method. But let me give you three core principles that you gotta understand.
Graham Cochrane (13:09.75)
If you get these three things, you will never look at your videos the same. Number one, you should be serving. Serve, don't perform. Come from a place of service. The moment you you tell yourself this is not a performance, pressure comes off. I make mistakes in my videos. You've already heard some today. Now I've been talking to a camera for 17 years on YouTube. I've generated millions and millions and millions of views on YouTube, right?
I think of over 700,000 subscribers between my two channels. Like I've been doing this a long time. So I don't make as many mistakes because I am a communicator for a living. I communicate every single week on this platform, right? But it doesn't matter. If I make more mistakes, it doesn't matter. This is not a performance. People freeze up and get nervous and say, I need a script because they want to perform well. And I get it, because I I'm a theater kid, I'm a musician. I grew up in the on the stage. I want, I know what it feels like to be a performer, but this is not a performance.
This is me serving you. And it's the same with your videos. Don't view it as a performance. Don't even try to perform. People don't want you to perform. They want you to help them. So the point of YouTube isn't to impress, it's to demonstrate that you can solve their problem. That's it. If you can demonstrate that you can solve their problem, just like a human talking to a human, like me talking to you, right? Like if somebody asks you for advice, or somebody asks you for directions, like,
You just say, hey, go over here, go do this, or this is how you just don't don't click that button, click this button. Just be a human, serving another human, solving their problem. When you do that, you build trust. And trust is how you create clients. Okay? Trust is how you create clients. So the sale becomes obvious. Number two, time is the mechanism. This is all under serving, don't perform. The reason you have to perform is that the the format itself, a YouTube video, a long form video is.
An immersion experience. Right. This is why I don't love short form video. I like long form video because you want to create an immersion experience for people where they're immersed in your world, even if that's for 20 minutes. Someone spending 20 minutes with you, listening to your frameworks, the way you think about solving the problem, your stories and experience, that immersion creates conversion. The higher the immersion, the higher the conversion.
Graham Cochrane (15:33.305)
The longer the immersion, the higher the conversion. The deeper the immersion, the higher the conversion. Immersion creates conversion. So that's why you can't sell very well from social media. You can, but you really need long form content. That's where people go binge. If they see an ad of yours, the ad doesn't really sell as much as the ad gets you in front of somebody. But then what do they do? They go look you up on Instagram. They might go to your YouTube channel. They're gonna go look to see who you really are. You better have stuff for them to find. And the longer it is, the longer they can.
you could be immersed and then the higher the conversion. So you you just by virtue of the time they have with you on the on the platform, that creates the conversion. You don't need be polished. In fact, you don't want to be too short and too polished. You want to be longer, not that you're dragging things out, but you're truly going deeper. The longer it is the deeper you can go. Right? So the time with you is what creates conversion, not slick, polished or edited videos. That's why a longer, more real video like this is what's going to outperform a slick one.
YouTube does the heavy lifting, right? You don't need a script to get the sale. Just let the the immersion experience do the work. Now, being real doesn't mean rambling. That's why I go back to that second suggestion that people make is like be your authentic self, just turn on the camera and go. No, no, no, no, no. Very few of us can turn on the camera and go and make a point and solve a real problem with clarity. Most of us can't do that. Most of us shouldn't do that.
I could do that and I don't even do that because I respect you too much. So rambling disrespects their time. That leads to principle number two, which is you need to structure. Structure is how you respect the viewer. So serve them, don't perform, but then structure is how you respect them. You need to understand that having some structure in your videos is a kindness to your viewer. It's not a constraint on you. So structure actually doesn't slow you down. It actually allows you to speed up.
It allows you to be set free. Okay. if somebody told you to paint a sunset, you'd you'd be frozen. Like, well, paint it on what? Like on on the wall? On on this piece of paper? Like, where when is the sunset done? I need to give you a constraint. paint it on this canvas at this size. Okay, now I know where the edges are, some structure. Now I can paint within that structure.
Graham Cochrane (18:02.142)
Structure creates freedom. Structure creates creativity. Doesn't supplant it, right? Now, scripts suck out all the creativity and freedom, but structure doesn't. Very, very different. So, what I use for structure, I'm going to show you this in a minute. I use a simple five-bullet framework. This is what I call the guardrail method. It's really, really simple. Okay. Five-bullet method. This is all you need. You can do this in the back of a napkin. I do this on a Google Doc.
And if you see if you're watching me, you see me looking down, right? Every once in a while I look down and I check my my structure so that I don't disrespect your time. So you're using real notes. Okay. Real notes. And that is okay. It's funny, there was a point where I asked myself, is it okay if I look away from the camera at some notes for a second and then look back up? Because I thought you couldn't.
Because I was seeing people with these amazing videos where there's all scripted, and I was like, they never look away. They just constantly look at the camera. And I don't want to look away, like I don't know what I'm saying. But then I started to watch like news people, like on the local news, newscasters, and sports people that are on like ESPN or whatever it is. And they're constantly floating between notes, a laptop. They'll even have laptops on their desk, visual for them to to reference things. Like they're pulling up stats.
From a player, well, his QBR rating was this, you know, his this was this. And I'm like, wait, they're looking at notes and then they're looking at the camera, right? They're shuffling through papers, they're not even hiding their notes. And these people are getting paid tens of millions of dollars a year to be on ESPN. Why should I hide my notes? So I don't. I I have a camera right here. I'm looking into it. It's right above my my monitor. And right below the camera is a word doc with my five bullet outline that I'm about to show you. So structure is okay.
You can use a real set of notes, in fact, you should. And I'm gonna show you those notes in just a second. Final point. So you serve, you don't perform. You structure with real notes so you respect them, but you do want to script the front door. Now, Graham, you said no scripts, I know. And I mean no scripts. There is no script, but
Graham Cochrane (20:13.772)
The key to winning in YouTube is to script the front door. What do I mean? Three things. Before you hit record, you need to know your thumbnail title, the video title, and the opening sentence or paragraph.
Those need to be written out and decided upon before you ever hit record. Take it from experience. I've been posting on YouTube since 2010. For the the longest time, maybe eight, nine years, almost a decade. I would make a video and then come up with a title and a YouTube thumbnail later. And then I kept watching Mr. Beast and other big YouTubers say, like, no, you start with a thumbnail and the title first, and then you make the video second. I was like, that sounds crazy.
Until I realized, no, it's not crazy. They're they're winning on YouTube for a reason. And the reason why is because the number one most important thing about YouTube or your videos is not the video itself. It's not even the content, it is the thumbnail. Because the thumbnail determines whether anybody notices your video or not. So the first thing we know from heat maps, we know that when people engage with YouTube, whether it is on their mobile device or on a screen, on their computer, or on at home, like
The other night my family and I were watching a Ryan Trahan video on YouTube for Family Night. and I think it was when he went to an air every the top Airbnb in every state of America in fifty days. So fifty states in fifty days, right? And you're watching it on TV with the YouTube app there. Wherever people consume YouTube, we know how they interact with it, engage with it. Their eyes first go to the thumbnail. That's the first thing they notice. So you gotta get their attention with the thumbnail.
The second thing they look at, if they if you're lucky enough for them to notice your thumbnail, the next thing they look at is the title. If they like the thumbnail, they'll look at the title. If they like the title, they'll click the video. And then the third thing is what's the first thing you say in the video? The very first thing you say in the video will determine whether they keep watching beyond that. Right? That is how just how.
Graham Cochrane (22:24.472)
How humans interact with YouTube. So knowing that, those three things need to be scripted. So when I make a video, I think about generally the topic of the video. And then I've trained myself now to think about the thumbnail. And not necessarily the visual, although visual matters, but I lean heavily since my thumbnails are very simple. It's usually my face and and a title, some text. I think about the text on the thumbnail because that's what they're gonna read first. So I call that a thumbnail title.
They read that first, not the title of the video, the thumbnail title. So you want to use the three to four word rule. No more than four words. You can get away with five, but think three to four. And the reason why is because if it's any more than four words, the the font gets too small for people to read. And on their phones, they're not gonna read it. So you want big font, so it's easy to read. So three to four word rule. What are those three to four words that's gonna get someone to stop and go, whoa? Right? So I did a video last week.
The thumbnail title is They Don't Want One On One. And it was one colon one. They don't want one colon one. And then the image I had was a was a Zoom screen with lots of people on it, like on a Zoom call.
Now that's interesting for the right person. Like they don't want one on one. What do you mean? A business owner is thinking, but I d a coach or a consultant, which is who the video is for, is like, but I do want one. What do you they don't want one? Of course they want one on one, not a group, because I was contrasting the title and then the video. The video showed a group call versus one on one. They don't want one on one. That's what I pictured first. That's what's gonna get someone to stop and think. And then the title itself was let me pull it up here with my notes.
Graham Cochrane (24:07.096)
The million-dollar coaching model with zero one-on-one calls. Okay. So the title then gives clarity to the thumbnail title. And as my friend Sean Cannell at Think Media would say, make a promise in the title and then deliver it in the video. All right. So the promise, I like promise titles for the most part. So a million dollar coaching model with zero one-on-one calls is the promise in the title. Okay. So that gives clarity. But then you script the beginning. Now this could be at the very least.
Script your opening line. Even if you have to just memorize your opening line, so you start with a very tight opening line. This could also be scripting a 10, 20, 30 second intro paragraph and you could use a teleprompter to read it. That's fine too. I typically do that these days. But at the very least, I I memorize the first line. So I think the first line of that video was, what if you could have all the income of a coaching business without being stuck on client calls all day?
The opening line of this episode was: if you're a business owner creating content on YouTube and it's exhausting, it eats up your whole week, or you cringe every time you watch yourself back, this video is for you. Right? So I know I said no scripts, and there are no scripts for your content, but you must script the front door. You must, this is all about intentionality. You only have a fraction of a second to get people to pay attention to you. So be very intentional with this. It's the same principle as when you have a sales page or a website.
The headline on your sales page, the biggest text on your sales page should be the last thing you create and the thing you spend the most time thinking about. The only difference with YouTube is it should be the first thing you create, right? Because that'll determine the rest of the video. So you want to script the thumbnail title, the title itself, and the opening line. Or at least know what the opening line is so you can say it cold from camera. Everything after that is just gonna be glancing down at your bullets that I'm gonna give you right now. You don't overthink it. and I will say this.
If you do this the way I teach you, you should record this all in one take. Always in one take. This is not start and stop. It's okay if you make mistakes. Because the nature of long form video is that you're gonna make mistakes. Think about podcasting. Podcasting is a dominant platform of content today, and people are shoveling or stumbling over their words. How perfect was that? I literally stumbled over my words as I was trying to say people stumble over the words. This is a perfect example.
Graham Cochrane (26:25.526)
Right. They literally stumble over the words like I just did in podcast all the time. And no one goes, they weren't scripting this out. No, because nobody wants a scripted podcast. Right? They don't want it. They want to hear a real conversation with real people. So that's no different on YouTube. This is where YouTube is going. And I I've jumped in front of that long before because I just didn't care. But I'm telling you, I've profited so much off this model and so have my clients. So are you ready for the the guardrail method?
Five bullets. This is all you need. This is how I build out my my notes for for these shows. Okay. So the most important thing you understand, I'm gonna give you the bullets and then we'll I'll give you the bullets and we'll unpack it. Here we go. This is this is a writer-downer. Number one, if you are this person, number two, who wants this promise or payoff, number three, but has this problem getting in the way, this is for you.
Number four, you share three core principles. And number five, tell them to put one thing into practice.
Graham Cochrane (27:36.943)
It's easy to remember because they're all Ps. You're welcome. The person that this video is for, the promise or payoff that they want, the problem that's getting in the way of that promise or payoff, the principles, ideally three, as we'll explain in a minute, to get that payoff or promise to solve that problem, and then a practice you want them to work on. Something you want them to put into practice. This is the call to action, the CTA.
Right? How to apply. This is the application of what you just taught. Good teachers give people an application step. Here's what you go do with it. So let's walk this down, right? One of the biggest mistakes YouTubers make is they make their videos for just the world. No, no, no, no. This is actually one of the biggest mistakes business owners make. People ask me a lot of questions. Graham, what should I sell? How much should I sell it for? What's the best method? I'm like, how and what and when and where? Those are the wrong questions.
The number one question in business is who? Who? Who do you serve in your business? Well, I serve everyone. No, you don't. Everyone's allowed to buy from you, but no, you don't serve everyone. You serve one specific person. If you want to be successful, you have to get absolutely clear on one specific type of person. And that is so true for YouTube. Your whole channel, by the way, should be dedicated to one person. Every video should have one person in mind.
My first business, the recording revolution, that YouTube channel, the recording revolution. Every video I made, I have my buddy Chad in mind. Every video was made for Chad. If Chad didn't know this, I don't even know if he still knows this. I've told this story a billion times. I don't chad know if Chad is watching my content. But I imagined my buddy Chad for every video because he was an archetype. He was a picture of all, I'm sure, millions of other people. And turns out there are millions of Chads out there that feel the exact same way. That
Clarity allowed me to speak with conviction and actually help people in the videos because I'm I'm talking to a specific person, right? I wasn't making YouTube videos about music and recording for the professional who has a million-dollar recording studio, who went to audio engineering school. I'm not speaking to them. I'm speaking to the musician who's very talented, who has budget affordable equipment, who doesn't really want to learn the technical stuff because they don't care about it. They just want
Graham Cochrane (30:01.123)
The music to sound good, but they're willing to learn enough to get good sounding recordings. So I have to speak to them like a musician in simple terms, not because they're dumb, but because they have a right brain, not a left brain. And they want to learn the knobs to turn as a means to an end, not because they geek out over knobs. And these are people that are doing it on a budget. So I have to help them believe that they can do it on a budget. That was Chad. I've made millions of dollars speaking to Chad. Okay? I do the same thing on this channel.
I have a very specific avatar of a very specific type of online business owner who's a coach or a consultant who's stuck at 100, 150, 200, 300K, they want to get to a million dollars a year. I'm picturing that type of person with every single piece of content I make. Now, can beginners benefit from this? Absolutely. Can people who are already doing a million who want to go to three benefit from this? Absolutely. But I have a very specific person in mind when I make this content. Who's your person?
This is gonna make your content fire once you get clear on this. Number two, for the video specifically, what is the promise or the payoff of the video? So the promise or payoff of this one is that you are gonna speak so clearly without needing a script. You're gonna speak clearly on YouTube without needing a script. That's the promise or the payoff. Generally, this goes in the video title itself, but it should be very clear for you what you want the promise or the payoff to be. But then you have to know the problem.
What is getting in the way of that promise or payoff? And so the outline starts with the person, the payoff, and then the problem. And that's how I like to actually structure my videos is I want to say if you're a business owner or if you're a content creator, or if you're a coach that's stuck at 200K, I like leading with that type of stuff. It may not always be in the intro, but it's certainly coming within 20 to 30 seconds.
Because people wanna know, is this video for me? So I call out the avatar early on. I call out the promise, the thing they want, because people only watch your stuff if it's gonna give them something they want. There's a reason they want to watch it. You gotta give them a reason to wanna watch it, right? So that's what you usually lead off with in the beginning is if you're this person who wants this, this video is for you. Then before you teach them how to get that payoff or or promise, you gotta speak to the problem. This is what builds empathy, and this is what
Graham Cochrane (32:27.523)
In marketing and sales copy terms, they talk about like pressing into the pain or like pushing into the wound, right? You lead off with a promise in a headline of a sales page, but then you go to the problem. And you you you tease the problem and you push on the problem, you make them feel all the pains of the problem. You don't get into the solution quite yet, which is usually your offer. And the big
Rookie mistake is getting to your offer too quickly. You don't do that. You you really push into the pain and the problem. Why? Two reasons. One, the more they feel the pain and the problem, the more they are receptive to the promise of the payoff. The more they're like, I have to have this. That's why every infomercial on TV, if you ever stayed up late and watched those, do you struggle with a snoring husband? Do you land
Lie bed and you can't sleep because your husband's snoring and you're getting you're tossing and turning, and they show a person tossing and turning, it's black and white, and they're frustrated and they they're at work the next day, falling asleep at their desk because they didn't get enough sleep. They really start with the problem and the pain of it. You're like, yes, yes, yes. That's why we invented or introducing, and then they share share their solution. You always start with the problem so that they feel it, but it also creates empathy and trust because if you are speaking to their pain with
Clarity, you're speaking to their problem with clarity. They lean in. They say, she gets me. He gets me. That is such a trust builder. People don't trust your promise, especially cold traffic. People that don't know who you are. Like, I I I run ads. I'll run ads to my book or my challenge. And like, if you look at the hate comments on those ads, because they show up on my Instagram, the people like are like, this guy's a moron. This guy's a scam. That's impossible. Nobody buys $10,000 offers. Scam, scam, scam. The people that say that.
It makes sense that they would say that. Well, A, they you know, I call BS on that, which means belief system, right? They have a belief system that doesn't allow them to even comprehend selling a ten thousand dollar offer. But the reason they say scam is because it's hard to believe for certain people. They don't know me from Adam. Why should they trust me? Ads don't sell. Ads get me in front of people who then go look at my YouTube content and they listen and watch and they they get immersed in my world and they go, Wait a second, Graham's not a scam.
Graham Cochrane (34:50.127)
This makes a lot of sense. This makes way too much. I I'm I'm really making some like progress here. Like I've gotten some clarity. I did what he said, and that kind of worked, and that kind of worked. Huh, maybe maybe I should buy his book. Maybe I should come to his challenge or whatever it is. Like you can't demonstrate trust or build trust if you make promises all the time. Because people are just trained to not trust promises. And I get it because there's a lot of false promises out there. So don't just just go from promise to here's how you get it.
Stop, pause, and address the problem. Hey, you want this payoff, but here's what's getting in the way. Notice how I did that in this episode. You want to speak clearly on your YouTube videos, you want to speak confidently on your YouTube videos, but here's what's getting in the way. Bad advice from YouTube gurus. Some people say you should script your videos, but here's the problem with scripting. Some people say you should just be authentic and just share off the cuff. Here's the problem with doing that. Right? And then you're like, yeah, yeah, those ideas suck. Right?
I'm addressing the problem. And I addressed the problem in the first few seconds. I think I put it in the opening script. You're exhausted creating content. It's eating up your whole week, and you cringe every time you watch yourself back. Right? I mentioned the problem early on. So you're like, yeah, dude, he gets me. You don't earn the right to give them a solution until you can demonstrate that you understand their problem. So that's why it's the person, the promise, then the problem.
Then the core of your video is three principles. Why three? Because three is the magic number. One, two, three is what people can remember. Four gets too long. Two can work. It's fine, but th things come in threes for a reason, right? Donald Miller is a brilliant marketer, wrote a great book called Building a Story Brand. And one of his things he teaches that your website should have three steps how to get the result.
And and it's amazing how simple these steps are. Let's say you're a roofing contractor, you fix people's roofs. Step one, fill out the roof for estimate calculator. Step two, look at how much money you'll save compared to whatever. Step three, give us a call. Fill out the estimate, cal estimated cal calculator, see how much money you'll save, give us a call. Step one, two, three. There's something magical about giving people three steps.
Graham Cochrane (37:13.183)
As a teacher, there's something magical about making three points. If you're a person of faith and you go to church, the best sermons have three points. Not because that's what everybody does, everybody does it because it's the best. It works for a reason. Three sub points to help people get the main point or solve the main problem is the sweet spot. And those can be one minute. If it's a short video, those can be 10 minutes, like my videos. Like my points are generally five to 10 minutes each for a 30 to 45 minute.
Video podcasts. Okay. So just teach three core principles. This will be the stuff that comes easy to you because you're a teacher, you want to give good content. So just make sure that it's actually valuable content. Now, pro tip: these do not have to all be tactics or strategies. These can and should be principles and ideas because people can't say yes to your offer until they become the person who can say yes to your offer. And that takes a lot of belief shifting. And so a lot of what your YouTube content should be doing is shifting beliefs.
Right. I'm gonna I'm giving you a tactic right now and giving you a five bullet point method, the guard roll method for s for setting up your notes for your videos. But the big win for me and for you in this episode is if I can get you to shift the belief from I have to have a script or I can't do this because I don't know how to s follow a script and I don't feel comfortable going off the cuff. So I'm just always gonna be bad at videos. If I can help you believe, go from that belief to, I can have a simple five bullet outloin outline in front of me on a Google Doc and I can just hit record.
And go, and this can be faster and better than even a scripted video, then I've won. I've done my job and I've helped you and I've served you, which is the whole point of this video. Does that make sense? So that's the the fourth thing is share your three core principles. And then number five thing in your outline is just what do you want them to put into practice? The best content gives the audience something to do. a couple of years ago, I gave a TEDx talk. It was one of my dreams to give a TEDx talk. You can find it.
On YouTube, just Graham Cochran, TEDx. And one of the things that I learned from what the TED organizers and TEDx organizers want, because you have to apply for these TEDx events. They're all over the world and you have to apply with your idea. one of the things they want to see in your application is not just the idea of your talk. I want to talk about, you know, how to find your life's purpose, or I want to talk about how to, you know, I don't know, whatever it is. They want to know.
Graham Cochrane (39:35.436)
What is the audience's participation? What is the audience's action? Because the whole idea of TED is ideas that spread, but the way they spread is not just, that's a cool idea. You give the audience one thing to do. And it's usually very simple, one thing to do. So I was trained during that process to have a talk idea that makes a point, obviously has research to back it up and share some stories. There's a whole framework of how you give a good TED talk.
But you always need to bring it back to what's the audience's role in this. You just shared a big idea from stage, but in 30 seconds to a minute, what's one thing that that audience can go and do? They leave the TEDx event. What can they go and do out in the world to put this idea into practice? And it has to be one thing and it has to be small. It has to be doable. Because otherwise it's gonna be overwhelming and they're not gonna do it. But as a teacher, you should know this if you like to teach, giving people
actions to do after you've taught them something is how they learn. It's how things stick. So you always want to have in your your five bullet outline, your guardrail method outline, something you want them to put into practice. So I'm going to give you what to put into practice today. What you need to put into practice is write your next video outline with the guardrail method. So take whatever idea you have for your next video and create these five points. Right? That's it.
Just you don't even have to film the video. Just create your first five point guardrail method outline. That's what you can put into practice. Let's land the plane here. Real quick, a couple of things. Why this works for business owners.
When you do this, you can demonstrate your expertise because you're not scripted. You and and please hear me on this. Your best stuff comes out when you're not scripted. When you script, you either overthink, because you want to make sure it's perfect, or what happens, even if what's the script is good, you stifle the in the moment genius that is you. Now
Graham Cochrane (41:43.672)
If you've ever coached somebody or let's just say had a helpful conversation with a friend, a friend comes to you, can you help me with this? And you're you're helping them. Your genius can never be scripted. Your genius only comes out in the moment in real life when you're just being you. Why? Because you're relaxed and you're not thinking linearly or you're thinking to perform or impress or like let's make sure I say it the right way so I sound smart. You're just letting the real you come out.
Right. And the real you is what's valuable. So if I scripted my videos, they would not be half as good as they are now. Because the best stuff comes out when I'm not even thinking about it. Because it's not something I even thought of in the outline. It's just like, that reminds me of this story, or that reminds me of this analogy. Or I say it in a way that I never could have scripted, but in the moment, because there's momentum and I'm in flow and I'm relaxed because I'm not trying to impress you and I'm not trying to stay on script in the in the
The, you know, the teleprompter is getting too slow or too fast. I'm in the moment. I'm so in the moment that I could almost black out and I think good stuff would come out. And I think that's true for you. You just may not feel comfortable with that yet. You haven't tested it. But I'm promising you, the more you test this, the more comfortable you will feel. So the best way to demonstrate your expertise is a non-scripted but structured YouTube video where you're allowed to just go. Then your people go, dude, she's legit. He's legit. Number two.
You want YouTube because it gives you time to shift beliefs. If you script it, it'll be too short. Don't script it. Don't make it short. If you're trying to make a 10 minute video, make let it be 20. Let it be what it needs to be. I know some people are gonna hate it. I every once in a while I get a comment like, bro, it took you twelve minutes to get to the point. Screw you, bro. I don't I don't care. I don't care what those people say. They're not my people. Please hear this. They're not your people.
You're making videos, yes, to serve people, but you're making videos to run a business. Your videos are a signal to the world, and they become a filter for clients. So the haters or the people that don't like how long your videos are are not gonna be your clients. They're just not. So you're not there for them. Does this make sense? You're there for clients. So it gives you time to shift beliefs. So just let it run as long as it needs to run. And
Graham Cochrane (44:05.043)
Ultimately, at the end of the day, it builds trust, and trust is what sells. That's the only way people spend $55,000 of their hard-earned money with me, or $27,000 of their hard-earned money with me, or occasionally $100,000 or more of their hard-earned money with me. The only reason anybody would ever do that is because they trust me. I'll give you an example. Two weeks ago,
I signed another $55,000 client to my inner circle. This gal saw me on a podcast that I was featured on over a year ago. Saw me on this podcast, never heard of me before. It was an hour-long conversation. She got a ton of value out of it. She's like, grand guy, I got to follow his stuff. She proceeds to follow me on YouTube and watches my videos for a year. I show up again on another podcast. She sees me again a year later and goes,
I need to hire Graham. She applies for my inner circle, which is on my website. She's a perfect fit. We jump on a call. The next week she signs up. $55,000. That is the power of trust, right? YouTube gives you time to build trust, to create clients. That's what we're doing here. I it's not about how many views you get. It's not about how impressive you are. Doesn't, it's not about you're not a YouTuber, you're a business owner.
Who uses YouTube as a lead gen, discoverability engine? Instead of going and finding clients, you become findable. That's why you're on YouTube. Big difference.
Quick objection. What do I do, Graham, when I lose my place? I I had to write this down because I think people ask about this all the time. You will lose your place, especially you're new to this. It's very simple. You pause, look down at your notes, look at what you want to say next, look back up at the camera, take a deep breath, and then start over again back a section or back a line. That's it. Okay? You can always edit that stuff out. I film on a tool.
Graham Cochrane (46:11.801)
called Riverside. Riverside is great for video content, video podcasts, and it has an auto edit feature where it edits outs any pauses. So if I make a mistake, I pause.
I look down my notes. I look up, and then I re-deliver the line. Then I can one-click auto-edit out any of those pauses, and then I can make sure that I edit out the part where I said it twice or whatever. It's very simple. Like, don't start and stop. If you start and stop, you get nervous. You feel pressure because you're like, I gotta get it. I'm not getting it, I got it, and you get out of flow. The greatest thing I could tell you is never stop the recording. Never, never, never, never, never stop the recording. Press record.
Let it flow and you will get better. It's okay if you make a mistake. I don't edit out most of my mistakes. There's a very rare chance, like maybe one in every 40 videos. So maybe once a year I screw something up so bad that I have to stop and pause. And that's no problem. I can edit it out in three seconds. But if I stop the recording and re-record, or whatever now I have to splice things together or start from the top, bro, you've lost the flow. Don't do that. So
You can always edit it out. So if you lose your place, don't feel sad. In fact, when I started doing this, I would deliver something and then I'd be like, I don't even know what my next point is. So I'd stop and I would look at my next point and go, okay, yeah, I want to make sure I tell that story. Okay, that's right. That's right. Okay. All right. And then I'll go off for another five, 10 minutes, right? Take your time. Do the pauses. A couple of objections I get to is I'm not a natural speaker. Well, welcome to the club. Most people aren't. And I'm telling you that from experience. Most of the world class speakers I've met were not natural speakers.
In fact, 100 out of 100 people didn't know how to talk when they were born. So none of us are natural speakers. Now I know what you mean. This is not a talent. This is a skill you develop. I'm telling you, you will develop it. And if you're not sure that I'm telling the truth, go on YouTube, look up the recording revolution, my very first YouTube channel, click on videos and sort oldest to newest.
Graham Cochrane (48:23.734)
And watch my very, very first video that I filmed in the winter of 2009, posted January of 2010. It is awful. I look like a serial killer. I'm staring into the camera like a deer caught in headlights. I literally am filming it at night in my spare bedroom, and the only light is behind me. There's like a lamp behind me. So I'm in the dark. There's a shadow of my face, and there's like light on the back of my head makes no sense.
And I'm trying to talk to the camera while demonstrating how I do this thing with acoustic guitar. And you can see me looking like a weirdo because I've have never had to say something to a camera while thinking about the next thing I'm gonna say. I didn't have notes. I was just making up as that was my first mistake. Didn't have notes. but go watch that and feel better about yourself. That's where I started. And now $20 million later, I'm glad I started and went ugly early, as they say.
Okay, so you'll get better. when it comes to sales videos or launch videos, like you don't even have to script those, friend. You might script a few key lines, you might script the opening, but just be real. It's the same thing applies to those types of videos. Just be real, share the offer. But if there's a certain line you want to land, make sure you script that and just look down your notes and deliver that. You can edit that out. But I don't even think you need to script sales videos. And then again,
Just because we we mentioned it, but I'll reiterate. What about the hook? This is my only exception for scripting. Script the front door. Just know your opening line, at least the opening line. Even if you don't have a teleprompter, memorize that opening line, nail that opening line. Thumbnail, title, opening line. Get those right, you'll be good to go. Okay. That was a lot. But I hope this was helpful for you. You can speak clearly without a script. No, you shouldn't just share from your heart.
We do want you to share the real you, but you need structure. If you respect your audience, you want to structure. So just find follow the five-point guardrail method outline. And that's what I want you to put into practice this week is take your next video topic and just write down what's the person, who's the person this is for, what's the promise it's going to deliver, what's the problem getting in the way of this promise that I need to address? What are my three principles that I'm going teach? And what's the one practice I want them to implement after the video? Then come up with the title.
Graham Cochrane (50:47.128)
Thumbnail title, script the first line, put it in front of you in a Google Doc, hit record, and make probably your best video ever, even if it feels awkward. And I promise you, you will get so comfortable and you will feel so free. And what's gonna happen is you're gonna make better videos in a fraction of the time, and you're actually gonna enjoy it. Imagine that. And when that becomes a reality, guess what you can do? You can make videos every week for the next 20 years.
And become world class and grow your business better than anybody else. Cause most people don't last. They make a lot of content and they burn out because they're doing it wrong. That's not going to be you. I hope this blessed you. I hope this helped you. Let me know in a comment below if you're going to do it. Say, I'm going to do it. If you're going to follow my outline method on your next video, I want to see it. And if you want, you can share your little outline in the the comments below as well. I hope this blessed you, my friend. I'll see you on another video real soon.
