1912 – Creating Compelling Visual Stories with Mark Wonderlin

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1:06With us right now, Mark Wunderland. Mark, you are the founder and CEO of Mosaic Media Films. You're on the web at mosaicmediafilms.com. Mark, it's so great to have you. Awesome, Josh. Thanks so much for having me. Really excited to be here. You and I are both proponents of video. Why are you such a fan of video? Well, one of the biggest reasons is it's such a huge, powerful tool of communication. You know, today, the biggest, most important thing is getting people's attention. And nothing can do that better really than video. It just captivates from a visual perspective, audio perspective, and just really connects with people more than traditional images and text can.

1:47Yeah. Well, and so when we say video, obviously, can you maybe share a little bit about who you work with and what exactly we're talking about in terms of like video of a product or video that your clients use? Yeah, absolutely. So obviously video that's, you know, very huge category in and of itself. But we specifically do is we specialize on kind of high end, higher quality branded video content that's designed to tell a story and resonate with our client's customer. So what we typically do is we'll create either a brand story video or a business promo that tells what the client's unique approaches and how they're going to solve that customer's problem.

2:25And then we'll create other videos like customer case study stories that they can use for marketing and sales, and then other stuff that will help them in their marketing funnel. The goal of everything is connecting with the client and really showcasing what the client does uniquely different from their competition and elevating that brand. And why is video so much more powerful than words and pictures on a screen? Yeah, I mean, look no further than what you see on social media, right? TikTok has become huge just solely on video. And Instagram had to completely change their business model to keep up.

3:01The reason being is, like I was saying earlier, it's about engagement. It's about people can sit back passively. They can watch a short form 60 and 90 second video about a company. and they'll know exactly all that information that's distilled down from potentially scrolling and looking and reading through multiple pages of a website so they can make an educated buying decision on if the product or service that they're looking at is the best fit for their needs. Yeah. Well, let's talk about maybe the elements of great video. And are we generally just talking about like explainer videos or just like a promo video that you might have on the front of your page that says, you know, I don't know what would be some use cases.

3:42And then let's dive into maybe some best practice for what works well in video today versus maybe what doesn't work well in video that you may be seeing. Yeah, absolutely. So like typically when we're creating a video, there's essentially three different fundamental elements of the video. So it's some form of animation, which usually comes in the form of a documentary style interview. So it's very casual, comes off authentic and we're just prompting the client with questions. Then there's some type of visual. So visuals can be live action. They can be drone shots. They can be, you know, even stock footage in some instances.

4:16And the third element is typically animation. So animation, graphics, anything that can reinforce what's being told so that the viewer understands that element of education. So that's kind of visually what's done, but we do that's really different than a lot of other companies and a lot of other people that are doing themselves is try to create a systematic structure of the story, that there's very specific questions to ask and ways to edit it. What's fascinating about video is it's a decision-making process. A lot of times people will hire a company and think, oh, it's just a guy with a camera, a guy with a camera, guy with a camera.

4:49But there's so many decisions that go into what are the questions to ask? When, if you ask those questions, can you ask, can you dig a little bit deeper to really get a compelling story? What about, you know, two guys in the same room with the same camera, same lighting, we'll get wildly different shots. Two guys with the same footage will get wildly different edits, especially when it comes to the type of content that we do. So choosing a right team to work with you that can create those different video elements and create that story that ultimately is going to resonate with your audience and increase conversion is the ultimate goal.

5:21So if someone says, come on, Mark, does it really matter whether I get this shot or that shot? Well, really what matters is how is it speaking to the person. So like what I usually would tell my team is you have to fall in love with our customer's customer, right? So really understanding the problem and the pain that they have, and then how can we create content that's going to resonate with them so they want to take action. So, you know, does one shot make a difference one or another? You know, probably not, but what is the brand perception, right? And that's really what we create is it's not only story, but it's also the perceived value of the company.

5:58So we've all gone, you know, to a website when we're searching for a product or service, you go to a website, it's a little janky. You kind of think that, oh man, probably the product's a little janky. It's the same thing with the video. If the video is kind of done haphazardly, there's this kind of subconscious feeling that that might be the experience you're gonna get from the product or service. And that's why what we do is so important. Yeah. You've worked with companies like Grammarly, Indeed, Silicon Labs, Razor, Favor. You've been recognized in some pretty great places. Why do your clients trust Mosaic versus, you know, there are probably a lot of videographers and, you know, there are also my son's friend shoots video on his phone.

6:44And so, you know, but your clients are making the decision to work with you. What went into their decision making process? How did they ultimately decide on working with Mosaic? Yeah, absolutely. We've been fortunate to work with some amazing brands and tons of local businesses. I think what really clients choose us because we create a great combination of like high quality, high levels of professionalism as Austin's highest rated company, and also really value, you know, really looking at the value of what we produce, but also coming at it from the angle of marketing. Most other people like, you know, your friends, your son's friend's cousin that has a camera could definitely create a video, but they're usually just the guy with the camera, right?

7:26So they know I'm going to interview this person. I'm going to get this shot with us. We're always looking through the prism of how is this going to fit into your marketing? How is this going to help increase conversion? How is this going to connect with your viewer? And then how are you going to use and leverage it on the platforms that makes the most sense for formatting length and content? So we're really trying to take a holistic approach from creative marketing and trying to ultimately provide the highest level of value for clients and make it affordable for them. Yeah. All right. So I kind of shared this with you before.

7:56Like I'm like literally going to record a, and I've done this a lot, right? But a kind of more of a, I don't like the term webinar, but it's for all intents and purposes, I need a recorded webinar or class or something like that. And I'm actually going to be recording this on Friday. Any tips? I'm going to have a PowerPoint. I'm going to have, you know, me on camera. I feel like I've got okay video quality and okay audio quality. Any other like maybe high level tips or some signposts that you'd recommend for someone that's getting ready to record something like that? Again, this isn't necessarily, you know, a minute and a half where we're going to have great, you know, moving pan video of different B-roll and stuff.

8:41But any recommendations for that type of the video presentation? Yeah, absolutely. You know, webinars and masterclasses are a totally different animal than kind of the short form content that you see on social media or even the branded stuff that we do predominantly week in and week out. When it comes to really long form educational stuff, whether it's a webinar or masterclass, it's all about creating open loops throughout the content. So you're creating a loop where you're opening up like, I'm going to tell you about X, but first, let me tell you about this. Then you open another loop. I'm going to tell you about this.

9:13and later on we're going to talk about this because the whole point of this 40 minute 30 minute conversation is you have to keep people's attention so you notice like in tv shows well they'll always you know they'll basically answer questions and then they'll open new questions and at the end it'll come to a climax where it's like oh man i gotta watch next week you really want to use that same philosophy and principle when you're doing long-form educational stuff so they're always um wondering okay what is that next thing going to be so you've answered a question and then you're opening up a loop for other questions that they're going to have in their mind that you've that you've kind of brought up to them throughout.

9:51And that's brilliant that thank you so much for that reminder. I am definitely going to do that. Awesome. And I know that sometimes in that sort of format and I've seen some look, let's let's go through some basics. Right. I in terms of for someone that is on Zoom, you know, and I don't know that this is necessarily in your, you know, zone of genius necessarily. But why don't we give a few tips on kind of talking head video quality? Like if you're on Zoom or you're going to be presenting a live class, you're going to be live streaming or you're going to be recording maybe even just like a YouTube video or something like that.

10:31how could people easily step up their game when it comes to video quality? Because it matters. Yeah, absolutely. So there's a couple of things that you can do. Like number one, the biggest thing is really one of the bigger things is lighting, right? So if you don't have actual lighting, you want to position yourself in front of a window. So like for me, I'm surrounded by windows right now. So I have a lot of like natural light, the lighter and brighter it looks, It gives them more like I can trust you. I can believe you and stuff of that nature. If you want a more shadowy look where you want it to be more dramatic in nature, you'll see a lot of YouTubers do this.

11:08Then you need one key source of light. And the larger the light, the softer it will be. So the larger the light is in relation to the size of the object, the softer light is going to be. So I'm letting up to here. I want this big, huge dome that would be positioned here. And then I'll cast the shadow on this side. That'll give you a more dramatic look. So number one, lighting. Number two is your camera. Most of the cameras, if you're doing a zoom, the ones, the webcams for$20 really are horrible. And the ones that come with your actual camera or your laptop, your Mac usually are not that great.

11:43They're like 720. So I would suggest investing in a higher end webcam. The one I'm using right now is actually a webcam. It's a razor and it's fantastic. It's like around$300. It's well worth it. It gives a little bit softer background too. and it's a super easy plug and play. The third, which is probably the most important and the most obvious is your audio, right? So this is a fancy dancing microphone, but people will not forgive your audio. Even if you don't have a budget for it, you can get a relatively inexpensive lav mic and for 20 bucks and plug it in for you for a USB. Like we do actually virtual testimonials with clients.

12:20So it gives it authentic feel, but then we wrap it with graphics, animation, and footage. And we send clients a microphone because the audio is so, so important. So those three things, really good lighting, positioning in front of a window or getting a nice large light. Number two, really good camera. Like I recommend a razor has some really great ones. You've one 50 to$300 range. And then a microphone, something as fancy as this one. This is a shore mic, or even a lapel mic that goes and clips and just plugs right into your camera, Clubs right into your computer, super easy plug and play. Yeah, yeah, totally.

12:55Yeah, and you're absolutely right about audio is that audiences can deal with subpar video, like they can stand it, but the brain subconsciously hates bad audio. And it really doesn't even have to be that noticeable. I mean, even if it's just like, you know, like this kind of thing, which sometimes, you know, you have, you know, if the audio sounds distant or echoey, certainly a cheap mic. I hear like headset mics from time to time. And I'm like, headset mics, unless you're spending more than, you know, a hundred, 150 bucks, it's just a gamer headsets sound like crap. Please don't use gamer headsets for your professional video.

13:34You could do better than that. Yeah. If you can invest in something like this, that's like a microphone microphone that just plugs in via USB. That's really great if you're on Zoom constantly. I mean, it's interesting because sometimes I'll have my microphone, it'll default to the internal mic on the computer. And then people are like, oh my gosh, it sounds like you're in a fishbowl. And then I'll switch to this one. And they'll be like, oh my God, wow, that mic sounds amazing. And it's pretty affordable, especially if you're on Zoom every day, whether you're doing webinars or just general meetings, it's just a better experience for the people that you're connecting with.

14:07Yeah. You could listen to our friend that's listening right now go on amazon the blue yeti is okay you know that one's about you know 90 bucks the atr 2100 2005 is great from audio technica um you were pointing out you've got a sure mic that is um usb so yeah i mean so long as you're spending you know again getting close to 100 bucks you usually get a condenser mic look at the reviews usually you're going to be much better than just using your internal microphone on your computer. So Mark, who is kind of an ideal client for you? Yeah, so typically clients that are best for us are people that usually have a team of about five plus, typically 10 plus.

14:52They have a small marketing team. They're already invested in marketing, but they probably don't have the resources or experience to do video. So they are looking for someone to kind of guide them and really help create that story for them. And that's really the ideal type of clientele for us. Typically people that are, you know, really want high quality and value it and understand the importance of effective storytelling and have a marketing strategy in place. Yeah. And then just for someone who's curious, what is, is it super expensive? I mean, is there a general idea on like what to budget or what to be prepared for?

15:29Yeah. I mean, it all depends on the type of video you're doing and that type of overall package. I mean, we have promo videos, you know, it's inexpensive. as a few thousand dollars, but then they go up to 15,$20 ,000, depending on the size and scale. And then if you're doing multiple videos, we have, you know, social media content that's, you know,$750. It's really inexpensive when you're, you know, coupling that with a package of content. So it all depends on what you're doing, what your overall goals are, what the packages are, but they can range relatively greatly. A new thing that we've just started implementing with some of our existing clients is kind of these virtual testimonials.

16:04So you get that kind of authentic feel of a testimonial, but it's professionally produced by my producer who's asking all the right questions. And then we edit it in a way that still elevates the brand, tells a compelling story, and condenses that 20-minute interview down to a 60 and 90-second story. And those are very inexpensive. We have those starting at$12.50, and you can get a package of six or 12 of those. And then for every testimonial we do, you're going to get a story video and two social media videos. So it's really a great value for a business. Typically B2Bs, these are great for because it allows them to kind of have specific cases, specific client avatars.

16:44And then you can use and leverage that in the marketing side for social proof and, you know, organic posting ads, retargeting, and then also really great through the sales funnel system for sales enablement for specific cases where, you know, they're looking for a little bit of reassurance that someone else has gone through this. They've had the same challenges and they've been able to have success because really a great customer case story or testimonial, it shows transformation. And that's something that you can only do through like a really good, you know, typically really good producer rather than like when you just hand someone and say, can you give me a testimonial?

17:19It's usually one or two sentences and it doesn't really tell a story or show transformation. It's just as a nice little soundbite. They were great. They were wonderful. You know, I highly recommend them. And they're usually like, okay, thanks for nothing. So yeah. Mark, your website is mosaicmediafilms.com. When somebody goes there or someone's been listening to our conversation, what would you recommend their next step be? Yeah, I mean, the best step is you just go to forward slash resources and you can do that through like the resource tab. And that's gonna give you the opportunity to kind of learn a little bit more about video.

17:53If you're kind of starting your journey, there's quizzes there that you can find out what video types are gonna be best suited for your type of business. There's downloadable PDFs and there's a host of educational video content me talking. So that's a great starting point. And then if you're kind of at the point where you've already noticed that video is a great tool, you really wanna use it, you wanna find out more information and you wanna bypass all those educational things because you've been there, then you can just book a call with me or my team and we'll do a free video strategy session where we kind of really look under the hood of what your marketing is, what video types are gonna be best.

18:26And then if you wanna move forward, what kind of options you'd have from a content and a pricing side, if it makes sense for you at this point in the marketing journey. You've got 143 five-star reviews as of when we're recording this. Your clients seem to love you. Your website, mosaicmediafilms.com. Go to the resources tab, or again, you could just go there directly by going to mosaicmediafilms.com slash resources. You've got a video blueprint, take the quiz, no email required results in 30 seconds, which I love. Again, you've got some great guides as well that folks can grab absolutely free.

19:04Mark Wanderlin, again, founder, CEO of Mosaic Media Films. Thank you so much for the great conversation. Absolutely, Josh. Thanks so much for having me.

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