What is going on? We're in another episode of uploading today. And if you have been creating content, or even consider creating content online, you've definitely thought about posting videos on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, or even X. And so creating content for video is one of the fastest ways to grow your audience. We all know that. And so that is why today we're talking with Scott Millard. He is the founder of Videospark, an online animation studio specializing in creating short content for independent and vc backstage companies. So basically, he helps companies make more money by creating videos for them. And we all want to make videos, and we all want to make more money.

So, Scott, I'll let you kick us off, tell us a little bit more if that's spot on or what you're doing, and tell us more about video. Spark.

Yeah, 100%. Well, first off, thanks for having me. This is always fun connecting people. I'm probably going to call it Twitter, honestly, but it's always a blast chopping up with people from Twitter. Just thanks for having me, first off. But yeah, so essentially you summarize it pretty well. Basically, we specialize in doing these short motion graphic videos for really any tech enabled brand. So whether you have a software platform, app, extension, plugin, you name it, we kind of specialize in that.

But yeah, the reason that we do that, and really the purpose of the business is I've been doing video since 2016, and what I've found is that video is, if you look at marketing as a whole, video is the best mechanism to basically do everything at once. So that's educating potential users, getting people emotionally invested, getting them excited, showing them how something works. And you can really wrap that all into one medium. So we can go into that more if that's relevant in terms of comparing it to other kinds of content.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, look, video is great for definitely, like pushing a message through, telling a story. And so I assume, what would you say, is your main goal when you're working with someone or when you're working with a client? What is the goal of a video at the end of the day?

I think at the end of the day, it's really regardless if it teaches you anything or makes you want to try something out or whatever, I think it's just to inspire your audience. If you go back to really the origins of what video is, it started with movies, right? Like a really long time ago. And the purpose of those movies was really, one, to tell a story, and then two, hopefully have that story inspire the audience. So a lot of people overlook actually the narrative part of video and telling a story. And so that's really important.

So how do you think of intention? I feel like a lot of people are just making content. There's no intention behind it. And it seems like putting in the work for having the intention. It is more work, but it's worth the effort, I think. Neil Patel, I saw something today, like over 200 million videos get uploaded to social platforms daily or something. You need to have intention into how to stand out. So how should people think about intention in terms of their video roadmap?

Yeah, I mean, really, intention should be in front of everything you do marketing wise. Right. And so when we talk about intention, I guess specifically for video, it's what message are you trying to send? And let's use like viral short form content as an example, because that's what everyone is familiar with. If you see a video on Instagram and it has 3 million views, it's typically because it either pissed people off a lot or is something that they really resonated and agreed with or both at the same time, which is actually a deal, having it be polarizing. Right. So in terms of strategy, it's just what message are you trying to send? And then based on what message you want and what messaging you want, that's where scripting comes in. So I would always recommend, I think a big problem with the volume of content is a lot of people are, like you said, they're doing it not intentionally. And a lot of times that means they're not really scripting or practicing or even just getting good in front of the camera if that's what you're doing.

So, yeah, it's really just around the messaging that you want to put out there. And so coming back to what might be helpful for your audience is what do people care about with your product? What are they struggling with that your product solves, and what are their goals and dreams and desires? And what are they afraid of in really framing your video content in the lens of what your audience actually cares about and not what you care about?

No, I was just going to ask Scott when it comes to thinking through, because you guys have had the pleasure of working with so many different clients. I know the way that myself, Ramona, and you got connected was back in the day, DTC pod, we were creating content, and Scott was like, oh, my. Like, I can make you guys a sick trailer. And that's kind of how this all started.

Remote was my first. Yeah, that was like early, early days.

I was client number one, right?

Yeah. I think.

Since then, you've obviously had the ability to work with a whole bunch more clients. You've put out a whole bunch of content. I'd love to kind of get an idea of when you sit down with someone. Right. Like, you see there needs to be intention behind the content. There needs to be a plot to it, a narrative. What emotion are we going to evoke? But I'd love for you to kind of just go through your process when you're onboarding either a new person or a team, or they have something that you're trying to get out there, how do you evoke that message from them and then be like, okay, got it, let me do my thing. So just break that down for us.

Yeah, so it's formulaic. Like, if you make 100 videos, or if you've made 100 videos, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And so it's a reps thing in terms of our onboarding and our process and everything. It's really basically what we talked about in the last question. And that's really, what does your product do? Why does it do that? What pain point is it solving for your target user base and how is it going to benefit them? And that's really all you need to know, because that's what your messaging should be about, is basically those four or five questions. So in terms of messaging, yeah, that's basically it.

And then going one step further beyond the messaging, Scott, when it comes to, because you guys do these really high produced, animated, scripted sort of videos, how do you go from that, where you've got that portion done? How do you decide what needs to actually go in the execution to produce and get the end result that gets the video across?

Basically, what is going to represent that messaging in the most simple way, the most effective way, the most quickly, I guess, with how we're niche down in the tech enabled space most of the time, that's through particular features on a platform or software or whatever, right? So yeah, it's really showing these are product led companies. So what is relevant in their product for the problem they're solving? If it's like a sales led strategy or something like that, then it would be less about features and more about really digging into the pain points of the customers. So it's in the lens of what is your strategy in terms of how you're pushing that outbound too, which is good to mention, like product led, sales led and stuff like that as well.

I think you mentioned something really important, which is like you mentioned your vertical of tech enabled. You serve SaaS and you focus on that niche and you basically dock for your own product. You use video, you sell video so companies can monetize their audience, et cetera. But then you yourself use video to monetize your own audience, which was posting your work on Twitter and x to really focus on that niche and build and start your agency. So you grew your account to over 7000 followers. You close over 250k in sales and customers through showing your work in an initial sprint. And then you went into YouTube. And we can talk about YouTube, but tell us about that phase initially of focusing on that niche, focusing on x as a channel to kickstart your.

I. Before getting on x, I'd never had luck with really growing an audience anywhere. Probably wasn't trying hard enough, to be honest. But I'd had Instagram for a while and that was like the whole Jay Alvarez era type thing, like the personal brand. And I was like, oh, that's so cool. I want to be like that guy.

I need a helicopter and jump.

I was too young, I was like 15 or something. So that could happen. But yeah, so with Twitterx or whatever, basically the thing that really kick started, it was basically just like shutting up and listening to people. So I had a friend who knew I did video stuff and he told me. I feel like also to take it a step back, one of the biggest points of this, this or biggest themes in this podcast is just to keep things simple. He basically told me, look, there's this guy who's posting videos. I think you can make these even better. Why don't you just try it? So I started doing work for free, which is something if people try to want to get into the video space or really do anything.

I just really recommend starting for free if you're a total beginner. But it was really the giving value first thing. And so we started tagging founders and making videos for them for free. I started writing threads about how to use videos, how to make better videos, like where to source particular royalty free stuff if you're like a bootstrap startup. And really just posting all of this stuff about what is going to, again, messaging, what is going to help the people that I want to work with. And then, sure enough, we started charging a couple of $100 for video, then we started charging a couple of $1,000 for video and it just really skyrocketed from there. And what really changed for me, or was crazy, is I tweeted something a year ago and it was like my first viral thing. And that's when I really saw the potential of just building a personal brand and putting stuff out there, because we tweeted a thread and we booked 50 calls in like two days and that was for free.

And they were basically, two thirds of them were qualified. So yeah, it was pretty awesome.

And so I assume that by focusing and narrowing on the tech, a lot of the growth then happened through word of mouth from there.

So a lot of it was yes and no. It kind of depends on, we didn't really focus on a specific community. That's something we're doing now with the vc kind of space in a particular stage of startups. But it really was just staying consistent with Twitter. So the thing is, Twitter x, it warms people up to the idea that you're the right person for the job kind of thing. And then a lot of people, most people aren't ready to actually engage in video until they are, and then when they are, they don't know who to go with. So being in front of those people just at the right time and being consistent was really important. Now we are taking, yes, more of like a personable or community kind of approach where we'll be a lot more referral based.

But up until now, not really, honestly.

Yeah, but now you're going into YouTube. And so you stayed consistent on Twitter for a long. So how, what is it that ticked that made you say, all right, let's go into YouTube? And what is different about trying try, if you tried YouTube back then, do you think it could have prevented your growth because the platform is so different or do you think you should have gone earlier on it?

Oh, man, we could get really into the weeds here. So let's start with X versus YouTube, just in general completely unrelated to me. So YouTube, the reason that and the reason it clicked for me and is clicking for a lot of people very recently is because, let's say you spend an hour writing a thread on Twitter and you post it and whatever happens, right, if the likelihood of it going viral is very low, that happened to me once in basically tweeting every day for like two years, or you spend an hour producing, which it takes longer than that, but you invest an hour writing a YouTube script, right? You now have a YouTube script. Obviously you have to record the video and stuff like that, but that script now is going to live on YouTube forever, whereas Twitter is purely chronological or for you feed. And so once something blows up, like that viral tweet, for example, that lasted for like three, four days and it was done. If a video goes viral on YouTube, it does not stop almost ever. The algorithm just keeps putting it in front of more and more and more people. Twitter doesn't really work that way.

And the thing about YouTube too, that's very important and why video is so powerful is because if someone's reading your thread on Twitter, one, they're not getting FaceTime with you. So, like on YouTube, your face is in front of the screen, right. You're on the video most of the time and so it's less personable and they're only there for maybe a minute, right. Just kind of scrolling through the thread. YouTube, you have their full attention for like eight to 15 minutes, one on one, full attention. And so you're building what's called a parasocial relationship, where they're starting to feel like they know you as a person and then they are more likely to trust you, work with you, buy from you, learn from you, like, whatever your goal is. And that's why YouTube is so powerful, because it's a lot more personable. The algorithm reaches a lot more further.

It's a lot more sustainable in the long term.

And so what have been your results so far? Just like, I know you're just getting started, but I'm curious, what are you seeing?

Yeah, on YouTube specifically? Yeah, let's see. I've posted like twelve videos on there, maybe, and I'm up to 1200 subs. What I'm noticing is, one, I'm getting a lot more data than I got from Twitter. So in terms of who is my audience. And the thing with video is it adds another layer of analytics, so you can see when people, the viewer retention is dropping off. So I'm seeing where people are dropping off, who's watching, why do they care? Right. That's the first thing. The second thing, which you can get on X.

But compared to when I started, the sentiment is a bit different now. But on YouTube, people are commenting, great feedback. This is so great. Can you talk about this topic? They're asking really thoughtful questions on X. It's a lot of just kind of whatever, right? So I really am enjoying that part of YouTube. But yeah, to answer your question, full circle, mainly, really enhanced analytics, really good community feedback and feeling. And I'm getting a good amount of people too, even though I have only 1200 subs that are like, hey, I saw you on YouTube, or I saw your starter story episode, which for reference, it has like 150,000 views, I think. But imagine if it had 1.5.

I mean, I'd have people like, I've had people cold email me from just seeing my YouTube stuff and I only told them subs. So I'm a big believer. That's huge.

And I'm excited to see how the journey goes there. But going back to the intention thing, I'm curious. People are always talking and debating, like, oh, I'm either going to go into short form or I'm going to go into YouTube. How do you compare short form with long form? Who is short form right for? Is it even worth it? How do these two compare?

Yeah, it can be pretty nuanced too, depending on platform. For example, short form on Instagram is amazing because it grows your following really fast. If you post short form on also, you can get the same amount of traction. But the issue is you're attracting an audience that is not going to want to watch your long form videos. And so that poses kind of an issue, right? Because long form is really where you make the big gains. Again, not even just financial, whether know, building trust with your audience or whatever. And so for Instagram, it's great, I'll stay away from it on YouTube. And I've talked to multiple people about this and watched videos and stuff on it.

So the other thing too, with short form is, again, back to intentionality. The purpose of short form is to get people to take the next step and stop watching your short form as fast as possible. So if someone, there's some exceptions to this, but if one of your audience members watches 20 of your short form clips, you're probably doing something wrong, like get them to download your guide or watch your long form on YouTube, you want to convert them to the next step as fast as possible. And that also includes the best one, which is owning your audience, which is basically an email list, as you guys know. Right? So you're using the short form to basically increase the chances of virality and then take that virality and that attention and convert it into something that's more meaningful.

So for individuals themselves, I know you produce high quality videos for companies, et cetera, who want to get a message across in the features. But for individuals themselves, how do you think about quality of the production of the content they make? So your quality of content is amazing, and that's what you do. But I'm sure people get confused of like, shit. I'm hearing UGC and raw stuff works, and then I see this creator with super sick highly produced content. Which one should I do? How do you think of high quality versus sort of like raw produced content?

Yeah, again, I think there's a lot of nuance to it. For example, as you're probably the expert at Ecom, like, UGC is better basically being low quality than with a camera and stuff because it's viewed as more trustworthy. It goes back to your messaging and the audience. Again, like, what is your goal for e commerce? The reason UGC works and is so popular is because it's very trusted by the audience. Because it's like someone who is like them using selfie mode on an iPhone and promoting a product, but not really promoting it. Right. Versus something very high quality in terms of production is like if you're a b to b tech company who is making not a demo, but basically an authoritative piece of content that walks someone through how to do a process. You want to be professional, right? Like, you're not going to have an iPhone in selfie mode making that video.

And so it all goes back to the messaging and the positioning of your content and really what your audience is going to care about. Right? So if that's a way to answer the question, it's basically thinking the end result and who your audience is and what they would respond best to.

Yeah, Scott, I think that's a really important way to think of it and kind of following up there. One thing that when video comes up, a lot of people in our space, there's so many tools popping up that are quick for clipping. People just post random things from their podcast. How would you be thinking about if you're trying to grow a personal brand or even just from the video side of things? Because like Ramon said, you guys are produced to the max. Obviously, people don't have the time or budget to produce thousand dollar single clips. Do you think it's something where you just go in and you spray and pray and hope something hits? Or do you think that even being more strategic about what clips you're sending out on short forms matters?

Yeah, there's a spectrum, for sure. I think the main thing, and especially what's relevant to the tool you guys are building, too, is if you have something recorded, like we're recording now, it's a waste to not clip it up and have it be short form and editing it a little bit. Sure. Which, again, is like, what your tools are great for. So you're not just posting like a raw video, because that's probably not going to work at all. But I think that should also be combined with very strategic scripting and topics because the way it works is it's like a funnel, like anything, right? So the very scripted and strategic stuff, that's what's going to go viral. But when that goes viral, people are going to click on your profile and be like, who is this? What are they talking about? All this stuff? And that's where kind of, this kind of content comes in, where it's like the longer form stuff that's clipped up, because the intention of that is not to go viral. The intention of that is to take a little bit of that rapport building and put it into a clip.

Right. And so it's kind of like backfilling. So you have the viral content, then you have the authoritative content. And so content like this is authoritative. This episode of the podcast isn't probably going to go viral because I'm not out here saying some crazy hook that's going to get people to stop scrolling. Right. But if Ramon tomorrow gets in front of a camera and says something that is polarizing, people are going to want to know who Ramon is. So they're going to come and watch the clips, maybe from this episode or other episodes.

So that's kind of how I view that.

Well, now we know where.

Yeah, Ramon just might. And hey, never say never, Scott. Hey, the other thing I wanted to talk about with you is, like Ramon was saying, you guys obviously do your really high produced stuff and you've seen some really great traction already on the YouTube side of things. What is the type of content that you're putting out on YouTube? What are some of your videos that have hit? How long are they, what content are you covering?

Just take us through that. Well, yeah, so I'm still really early on YouTube. I'm by no means an expert on YouTube. I only have 1200 subs, but I've been doing video. I do consider myself like an expert on video, so I'm really just trying a bunch of different things. The main thing and how I'm positioning it right now is what can I do? So also, for context, the people that would buy from video spark are not watching my YouTube channel. That's kind of not what the purpose of it is. It's almost a personal experiment for my personal brand.

And so I'm making a lot of videos that are honestly just related to what my expertise is in video and just making stuff based on that. So it's been like tutorials. So my most two popular videos are basically just tutorials, some kind of like advice, beginner stuff, and kind of things that are similar to what I was tweeted. It's just positioned a little bit differently, and I'm just trying to give that away. And then another thing I'm starting in the next, basically, week is pretty much a podcast, like an in person thing, where I'm going to be going around and interviewing industry leaders in the video space and really asking them about what their journey was, how they got started, how they're monetizing video as a skill and as a service so that I can just bring this information to the public. And then in terms of monetization, which we didn't cover on YouTube either, and why, it's a lot more powerful than, you know, once you get an audience of a certain size, you'll have adsense, sponsorships, your own info product on the back end, and a lot of stuff like that. So that's kind of how I'm starting out. It's just an experiment.

As we wrap towards the end here, I'm curious, how would your business have looked if you didn't build it from your audience on x? How would you have grown it? How different would it be today? Do you think it'd be smaller? Do you think it would have been a lot more uphill? In other words, how did building an audience help you grow your business?

I think it would have been maybe half as successful. Because it's like pouring jet fuel on a fire is really what it is comparative to. If someone has 100,000 followers on Twitter, I mean, you can make a lot of money, even 10,000. You do not need a big audience at all. You guys would probably know if you have a newsletter of 10,000 people, that's like a full side income right there. So my perspective has actually shifted from two years ago, where I kind of ignored the audience building thing, and I was doing it because I thought I could make a quick bag in my business. But now I've flipped it to where the real asset is not the money you're making from the audience, it's the audience themselves. Because that will really take care of the rest.

So basically, take everything we've talked about in this episode and use that to your advantage in building your audience. And I think you'll do just fine whether you're b to b or b.

To c. Yeah, I love that. And Scott, now we're going to hit you with just a couple of questions from the lightning round. So who's a creator that you really look up to and why?

Man, there's a lot. I would say a real OG in the video space is Parker Walbeck. So he's full time filmmaker, and he was in the YouTube game a long time ago, but he basically has done all the monetization and given a lot of value to his audience and stuff that we talked about. So I'd have to go with him in terms of video space, really set the example.

What about on X?

Daniel Fazio, cold email wizard. Yeah, he's. He's great. Those guys changed my life. Him and Andre Heckle, the knowledge X guys, client ascension guys. They taught me all the fundamentals of business that got me to where I am now. And they're hilarious. I love that.

And last question for you. Why don't you tell me about your 2024 strategy for YouTube? We're talking about YouTube. Obviously you do video. We're growing the business. You've tested the waters. You're at 1200 subs. What's next? Tell me about your plan for your next 20 videos.

Yeah, I think it's going to be tough to hit this, but I want to get to ten k by the end of the year. We'll just have to see how the videos perform. I want to get to ten k. I am starting that podcast. So I want to do basically an episode a week starting. Like, we need like a couple of week buffer to just get them recorded, but basically expect like one episode a week for that. With the video industry leader thing, that's going to be called video vitals. And I also have a course called video vitals that's kind of on the back end of that.

And then in terms of the strategy for what I'm actually going to be posting on YouTube, I think it's going to be a mix of tutorials, stories about previous video, things I've done with whatever I've documented, like some stuff from my camera roll and stuff, as well as the interviews. And then probably just like general tips, kind of like Iman Godzilla type stuff, but for video people, not business people stuff. Nice.

Well, we're fired up to follow along. And for anyone who's listening, where can they find you and connect with you?

Yeah, my handle on basically everything is Scott C. Mallard. So that's Scott with two t's, the letter C, and then M-I-L-L-A-R-D. That's X. YouTube and Instagram, basically. Sweet.

Well, thanks so much for coming on the show.

Yeah, appreciate you guys.