MBA2349 Guest Teacher - Kim Rittberg - How To Go From Professional To Thought Leader With Video - No Pointing or Dancing Needed

0:08Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, helping you improve so your business improves with our practical business lessons. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014. And today's episode is a guest teacher episode. On our guest teacher episodes, we bring on an expert to teach their area of expertise. Today, we have Kim Ritberg, and she'll be teaching you how to go from professional to thought leader with video. No pointing or dancing needed. Kim Ritberg is an an award-winning digital marketer, and has spent over 15 years as a media executive at Netflix and People Magazine, and has helped leaders and businesses just like you excel and grow their brand through videos and podcasts.

0:53And she's here today to teach you how you can get started to leverage the power of video, to be an authority, to get credibility, and to do it authentically without feeling silly in front of the camera. I was so excited to have Kim on today for this episode because I'm a big believer in the power of video marketing. It's the fastest way to grow your audience, gain quick credibility and trust, and have that brand recognition that lasts a lifetime. This one is amazing. You're going to absolutely love it. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. If you know that video works and you know you want to be a thought leader, an authority in your space, whether you want to grow your business, your brand, or get on stages, or be interviewed on podcasts and video shows, but don't know where to start, then you're in luck.

1:38This episode is for you. And don't worry, you don't need to be silly. You don't have to do funny dances or do what everybody else is doing to follow some sort of crazy trend. Kim's going to show you how. I'm going to pass it on to her to teach her guest teacher lesson, but I'll be back to wrap up today's episode and give my takeaways. But for now, take it away, Kim. Hello, everyone. I am Kim Rittberg. I'm an award-winning marketing strategist. Thank you for joining me today. I am going to be teaching you how to go from professional to thought leader with video. No pointing or dancing needed. Are you ready?

2:10I'm excited to get into it. If you are a business owner, you are your brand. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a solopreneur, you sell a product, you're going to be a part, an integral part of the company's growth and of your growth. Video is the number one way to bring in new clients. Videos get shared more than any other type of content on social media. And something I like to remind people, you can bring clients into your sphere, into your funnel in a passive way. I have so many of my clients, my one-on-one clients, my group coaching clients, who are not only seeing new clients come into their sphere because of video, but they're rekindling old relationships.

2:48That's something people forget about a lot. People will pop into your inbox that you haven't seen in years. I had that happen to me. Actually, someone I had not seen since college, and I'm not that young, messaged me on LinkedIn and he said, oh, I saw you've been winning awards for your video. Can I bring you in to talk to my company about possibly working together? This is someone I had genuinely not talked to in 20 years. So don't forget, it's about bringing in new potential clients, but also rekindling any old relationships you had. Friends, classmates, former colleagues, former clients, anything like that.

3:23But unfortunately, a lot of people still are not leveraging video or social media fully. And that is a huge mistake because the ones who are doing it are seeing those huge gains. Credibility, leads, revenue. I mean, so many clients come to me and they feel like they have to dance on camera or point at the screen with text popping up. And like most of us, most of us professionals don't love doing that, right? That's normal. But you don't need to do that to become a thought leader. You do not need to dance and you do not need to point on camera. You can write that down, but don't worry. I'll give you my email later and I'll send you something about it.

3:58But it's just not true. To establish yourself as a thought leader, there are so many other great things you can be doing that will not make you cringe. One of my clients actually landed a multi-million dollar home listing because of a video series that we came up with and executed. He was a real estate agent. This video series was educating people. He wasn't pointing. He wasn't dancing. It was not a trends-based video. So, I mean, it happens. It works. I see it all the time with my clients. Another client of mine, she's in healthcare. She got a huge speaking engagement. She got a client, inbound client, from a straight to camera.

4:37talk to camera, talking head video with her take on healthcare, her take on a current event. So you don't have to be out there dancing and spinning and pointing. All right. Now that we've got that settled in the vein of becoming a thought leader, the higher you can raise your profile, it builds credibility. It builds trust. It builds your client base. It builds and increases sales. And I know a lot about this. I helped create a lot of thought leaders. I worked as a TV news producer for a decade at several different outlets, Fox, Inside Edition, so many different places. This means I was the journalist that you pitched to land on TV.

5:16So to be the expert who's sitting and talking on TV about something, I was the person who would decide if your pitch landed in the garbage can or if your pitch landed you on TV. So I would judge people with just a minute to decide if I wanted to put them on TV. The two big learnings from this is that journalists like clients make snap judgments about your credibility. So it's very, very important to establish yourself over and over again, who you are, what you can do, what you have done, your accomplishments, and why you versus other people, why your company versus the other competitors. So that's number one.

5:54That's one of my biggest learnings. Number two is that having a persona is a must. Who are you? How knowledgeable are you? Have you been vetted already? By vetted already, I mean, if I'm a TV producer and I'm putting on someone who's never been on TV, they're going to freeze up. They're going to be uncomfortable. They're going to be scared. That's not a good person for me to put on. So these are the same things that I now apply to my clients. So I run a video marketing business and I focus on establishing thought leaders through video and podcasts. I take those learnings to my clients because I know how people get judged.

6:26And it's not just journalists who judge you. Clients are judging you. People who can book you for speaking engagements judge you. So you have to be showing up on camera. You need to be showing up on camera to show people who you are and why you're awesome. Hiding from social media is hiding from clients. It's hiding from journalists. It's hiding from bookers of speaking engagements. People cannot hear you if you don't speak up. That is what one of my clients just said. I did a big with her where she sat down and told her story to be a thought leader, a part of this big brand shoot day. If you're not using your voice, people can't hear you.

7:01So I know this personally. So I had a good media career. I was in Netflix marketing. I launched and ran the first digital video unit for Us Weekly magazine. And I was a TV news producer, as I mentioned. But as a business owner, I had not worked on building my own brand. I was definitely not a thought leader. I was hesitant to show up on camera, same reasons as you. Probably your reasons sound like this. It sounds like a lot of my clients, a lot of my reasons were my former peers in corporate. They're going to judge me. I mean, these are senior vice presidents. So I was like, what am I going to do?

7:34Point on camera and dance. They're going to think I'm an idiot. I'm going to look silly. And just like everyone else, everyone hates how they look on camera. Everyone hates the sound of their own voice. However, you have to break through that. I finally followed my own advice. I do media training. I prepare my clients to be more confident on camera and for media interviews. So I started showing up. I had to for my business. It was a business goal. I started showing up and I launched a podcast. In one year, I tripled my speaking engagements. I quadrupled my inbound leads and one video got me three clients.

8:05And the video costs zero dollars, by the way. So I think sometimes people think, oh, well, if you've worked at Netflix, you've worked on million dollar budgets. Yes, but you can grow your client base and you can your leads with your iPhone. You really can. I see it happen for myself, for my clients all the time. So the very first part of my lesson about showing up, you have to show up. And here is my patch, P-A-T-C-H method to show up confidently on camera. So the patch method is what I use for all my clients, all my group coaching clients, all of my one-on-one clients to be more confident on camera, to show up authentically and confidently.

8:40So the P is for preparation. Preparation is about your message and is about what you're going to say. But truly about 80 % of the people I work with struggle with the mental preparation, really believing that they want to be on camera, that they should be on camera, that it's not going to embarrass them, that it's going to help their business. All of those negative voices exist in our head. I'm not going to tell you that they don't exist. They do exist. I hear them too. My negative voice gets very loud and I have to shush it. But once you're in the mindset of I'm going to show up on camera, it's a business goal.

9:14I believe this is important, that's the mental preparation that you need to be at. Then your actual preparation before you record anything, you need to have bullet points. If you're one of the 1 % of people who's amazing extemporaneously, good for you, but most people aren't. And even if you think you're great extemporaneously, you're probably not as good as you think. Our mouth is a muscle. And so you have to make sure you've said those words before. So any words that can catch you up, that can trick up your tongue, trick up your mouth, you should say on camera, be practicing by yourself with your iPhone in your room.

9:48Sounds weird, but it's very important. And that is how you get better by preparation. So that's P is preparation. A is for authenticity. You have to be you. I hate the word authentic. It's such a buzzword. I know, but it is true. We are lucky today. People have hit podcasts who are not celebrities. People have huge followings on social media who are not celebrities. People like other real people. It's relatability plus passion plus knowledge. That's the trick. So just show up as you are and that will be the key to your success. T, turn off distractions. It sounds obvious, but a lot of people have, you know, when you're in a meeting and something's buzzing and dinging, it's very distracting.

10:29When you're recording a video, you have to really be in that moment and not be thinking about other things. So P, preparation. A, authentic. T, turn off distractions. C, confidence. You know this already. You run a business. You have sales meetings. You meet with clients all the time. You know you need to shine. If you show up in your sales meeting and you're not feeling confident, you know you're not going to win that pitch. So if you show up sheepishly and without confidence, that word sheepish is very hard to say. People won't trust you because they don't believe in you because you didn't believe in yourself.

10:59The H of patch is harness. so this sounds like a little like new age new wavy but the truth is you have to understand your own energy so if you're high energy you're going to want to bring your energy down a little bit just a smidge before you're on camera to calm yourself if you're low energy which more people fall into the low energy camp you have to raise your energy it's not that i'm saying i think the worst advice is when people say just show up and be yourself well when that recording light goes on everybody is a different version of themselves. People are conscious of the fact that they're being recorded.

11:30So it alters their behavior. So what I'm saying is instead of pretending, oh, I'm just going to be myself, understand that the camera impacts you. So bring extra energy to it. Show up and smile. Be the most positive version of yourself. Unless you're talking about something super grim, smile because people can hear the smiling. Right now I'm smiling. You can probably actually hear that I'm smiling. So you're going to want to really control that energy and raise it before you're recording. And even if you don't feel nervous, your body is taking cues. So your body might be nervous. Your breathing might be faster.

12:08Your heart rate might be faster. Even if your brain's like, I'm not nervous. So make sure to also just breathe right before you're being on camera. One time recently, actually, I was going on to speak on a large stage for like 300 people. and someone was about to say hi to me and they saw that I was actually standing at a wall and just doing some breathing exercises. I probably looked like a total lunatic, but I'm very serious about getting centered and getting my body completely even and balanced so that when I show up on that stage, I'm really happy and I'm really high energy and I'm not distracted.

12:41The second part of how to be a thought leader. So the first part of how to be a thought leader is that patch method. Using the patch method to show up authentically. The second part of being a thought leader, once you start showing up, what are you making? The most important thing, you can make a lot of videos. I think a lot of people get stuck because they feel like, oh my God, I don't know what to make. The most important thing to be showing up if you're trying to be a thought leader is educating. This doesn't mean sit down and teach a 101 class in your industry. This means bring your own unique point of view.

13:12So sit down and think about how do you see your industry? What is your unique point of view? when current events pop up about your industry, about the world, what do you think? And it's not just like teaching about like the broader landscape, but really bringing your angle on it because people are looking to you. Clients are looking to you. Journalists are looking to you. The people who book for speaking engagements are looking to you. And I'm going to give you an example of how this works in actual life. Personally, I contribute to Fast Company Magazine and I was writing an article about the impact of AI on careers and on businesses.

13:48And I don't know a ton of AI experts. So when I'm looking for a quote for this Fast Company article, do you think I went deep down into Google, deep down into the bowels of the internet to find someone who's not showing up on camera and not putting themselves out there? No. I went on LinkedIn. I was searching a little bit and I found someone who had been on a podcast, a guest on a podcast that I had also been on. And I saw that he was an expert in AI and in technology. He's showing up. He was listed in a LinkedIn post that was featuring that podcast I was also on, and he made it easy for me. He made it easy for me to find him, easy for me to say, oh, this is a person who's credible.

14:26This is a person who truly knows what he's talking about. He is a thought leader in his industry. And you know what? Of course, I used him in the article. After that, there's plenty of ways to make videos more creative. I teach these to my one-on-one clients and my group coaching clients. But the most important thing to do is to really be showing up on camera with your unique point of view. There are ways to make great content. You teaching, you interviewing people, doing some dynamic filming when you're at an industry event, or if you're at a speaking event, there are lots of great ways to show up.

14:56But really, before you even get fancy, you need to start. You just start showing up. You need to sit down and just list out a bunch of ideas, what you love to talk about, your take on the industry, your take on current events. You can sit down and interview someone if you really don't feel comfortable talking to camera. An interview format is a really great place to start. So in sum, when you're building your brand, number one, you have to show up on camera. And you should use my patch P-A-T-C-H method to be confident on camera. Preparation, be authentic, turn off your distractions, be confident, and harness your energy.

15:31That was the P-A-T-C-H if you didn't catch that. And secondly, there are many different types of videos you can do, but to be a thought leader, you really need to focus on educating, bring people into your unique point of view. All right. I am Kim Rittberg. And if you want to continue learning about how to become a thought leader through video, visit Kim Rittberg, Kim R I T T B E R G.com. And you can grab my free download with 10 tips, how to take your videos from Matt to magnetic to attract clients and establish yourself as an expert. I had so much fun and thank you so much for joining me today.

16:05Now back to Omar. I absolutely loved this lesson, particularly that point she makes where you become easier to find with video. When people are looking for speakers for their next event, I know this firsthand because I was told I was easy to find and they're looking for somebody to speak about a particular topic, in my case, podcasting, and I made their job easier. Video puts you on the map, it differentiates you, and it's for good reason. Here's the secret. Not everybody is willing to get in front of the camera. If you're willing to do that and get comfortable and get used to it, that gives you an advantage.

16:42That gives you a leg up. It makes your life easier. It gets you on stages. It gets you opportunities, virtual events online. It gets you clients and leads are top of mind. Everything that Kim mentioned, it's true. And I've experienced it myself. Thanks, Kim Ritberg, for that amazing lesson. If you love what you hear on this podcast, make sure you hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app. Whether you're using Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Overcast or whatever player you're using, make sure you hit follow or subscribe so you get our next episode automatically, as well as get access to over 2 ,300 business lessons in our archives.

17:16So go ahead and do that right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. One of the things I love about video marketing, and this is something that Kim mentioned, is it makes you better as a communicator, makes you better as a public speaker. It gets you into good habits of rehearsing your scripts, rehearsing your content, delivering your content properly, confidently, concisely. These are skills a lot of people lack, and you're going to build them and become an expert in them because you are leveraging video. It's kind of a side benefit, a hidden benefit, but it's one of the things I loved about the experience of doing video over the years.

17:55Just made me a better speaker, a better communicator, a better salesperson, because I'm getting in the reps. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll check you in Wednesday's episode, Q &A Wednesday. I'll see you then. Take care.

18:19Thank you.