Episode 258
Why Your Visuals Aren’t Working Anymore (And What to Do Instead) with Andy Crestodina on Video, AI, and Content That Connects
The internet’s relationship with visuals and video has been a rocky ship over the past few years, constantly pivoting and evolving. And most creators are either playing catch up or are stuck playing by the same old rules with limited success.
But luckily, we have Andy Crestodina, Co-Founder and CMO of Orbit Media Studios, on the show to share his current strategies on how to make your visuals truly effective.
Andy explains some of the top content mistakes he sees people make, how to use visuals to better deliver your message, and the number one thing you should never do with your website’s videos. We also hear his take on using AI as a “thought partner” to enhance your work by testing ideas, finding content gaps, and acting as your target audience, so you can talk to them whenever you need their perspective.
Learning points from the episode include:
- 00:00 – 02:10 Introduction to Andy
- 02:10 – 03:39 Andy’s biggest tip for using images or video
- 03:39 – 05:50 How AI has changed how we use the internet and video
- 05:50 – 07:37 Why you need to develop an elevator pitch for AI
- 07:37 – 09:26 One mistake to avoid when using videos on your website
- 09:26 – 12:18 Why you need to pretend to be your audience every week
- 12:18 – 14:35 How to get better results with AI
- 14:35 – 18:15 How Andy’s use of images and video has evolved
- 18:15 – 20:30 The secret to continuous improvement when recording videos
- 20:30 – 24:23 Why authentic is better than perfect
- 24:23 – 25:10 Why Andy uses AI to improve quality rather than boost speed and efficiency
- 25:10 – 29:12 Speed round questions
- 29:12 – 29:55 How to connect with Andy and Orbit Media
- 29:55 – 31:17 Andy’s final take
- 31:17 – 32:14 Outro
Important links and mentions:
- Connect with Andy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andycrestodina/
- Follow Andy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crestodina/
- Follow Andy on X: https://x.com/crestodina
- Orbit Media Studios: https://www.orbitmedia.com/
- Orbit Media Studios on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Orbitmedia
Transcript
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::The tools today have changed. Take a look at your
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::tools, look deeper. I'm not here to really, you know,
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::speak just about Camtasia and Snagit, but
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::get a tutorial, watch some videos, figure out how to better use these tools
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::because you're sitting on more features than you know. I learned
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::this today. So the stuff you already
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::have, look deeper into it. It can
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::do way more for you probably than you knew. Of course,
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::Camtasia is a great example of that. I'm grateful to Tech Smith and Matt
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::for all the help. But yeah, before you sign up for anything new,
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::research what you've already got. You're probably sitting on a gold mine.
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::Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever you are and wherever you're watching from. My
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::name is Matt Pearce, host of the Visual Lounge. Today we're gonna be
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::talking with someone who is a fantastic marketer. He's got great
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::ideas to help everyone use VIS better and video better. His name is
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::Andy Crestedina. I'm gonna introduce him in just a second. But I want to say
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::something here real quick is that the reality is I'm
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::gonna go on a limb and I think Andy's gonna agree with me, maybe he'll
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::disagree with me, but the the world is using visuals wrong
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::on the Internet. And if you thought you got it right, guess what, it's all
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::changed in the last six months. If not, it's changing every single
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::day now with AI. And so we're gonna talk about that in just a second.
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::But I just want to remind you, if you ever have questions, thoughts, feedback, you
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::can always email us at the Visual Lounge. So, so with that said, let me
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::go ahead and introduce Andy. Andy Crestedina is the CO
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::founder and CMO of Orbit Media, an award winning 50
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::person digital agency focused on web design and website
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::optimization. Over the past 24 years, Andy has provided digital
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::marketing advice to a thousand plus businesses. Andy has
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::written 600 plus articles on content strategy, SEO,
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::GA4AI and and visitor psychology. These
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::articles reach more than 3 million marketers each year. He is
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::also just a fantastic human. So I want to welcome Andy Crestadena to the
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::Visual Lounge. Hi Andy. Hi Matt. Thanks for
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::that nice intro. I'm glad to be here. Well, so glad that you're here. We're
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::going to start where we always start, with our guests. What's one tip
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::that you would give my audience about using images or video better?
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::Well, I say this a lot. You simply cannot overstate how visual the Internet is.
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::If you're creating a piece of content that you hope Connects. You need to
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::fear long stretches of words.
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::And the simple remedy is
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::put something of visual interest at every scroll depth
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::in your content. So when the words start to get too long,
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::stop, think, wait, don't hesitate. Spend whatever time it takes to put
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::a compelling visual at every scroll depth in each piece of content.
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::Is there a defined length for scroll
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::depth? Like, is it like, whatever I can just like I scroll with my finger,
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::I go, bloop. Is that how far? Like, is there a rough estimate of how
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::far that should be? Well, if you're on desktop, actually,
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::analytics will tell you if the majority of your visitors to your content tend to
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::be on desktop or mobile. But let's just go to the desktop. That's where you
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::probably wrote it. As you scroll down through even
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::your draft, as the one image is disappearing up through
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::the top of the viewport, the next image should be rising up from the bottom
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::of the viewport. The idea is just that
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::it's like a desert and images are like water. Give your
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::readers a sip. It's too hard
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::to consume and you're making their brains work harder than they'd like if
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::you don't include enough images.
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::Okay, so I made a statement at the beginning. We talked a
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::little bit about it, but I think we're seeing a shift in the world and
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::the Internet. Right? It used to be we've seen, we've seen lots of shifts in
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::the Internet, so it's not a surprise. But it feels like people are maybe getting
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::it wrong more often now because things are changing.
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::Agree thoughts on if that's right or wrong?
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::I agree. These things are changing. There are new
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::channels. AI has changed how people use the Internet.
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::AI is like an upgrade to the whole Internet. And for a lot of people,
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::they are simply going straight to a chatbot and asking it for advice,
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::for ideas. They're trying, Trying to find answers or
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::researching a provider. Now, you got to pretend to
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::be your audience for at least a few minutes every week. But if you ask
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::AI to recommend a company in your category, the likelihood
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::that you appear in that AI response is partly a function of just the size
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::of your digital footprint. Are there lots of instances of your brand
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::name appearing nearby those related industry terms that they just typed into
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::their prompt? So how do we do that? How do you make sure that there's
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::lots of places like digital pr? Like, it's kind of. It sounds kind of squishy,
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::like, I'm trying to like, oh, what? I just want to get mentioned everywhere, but
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::not just mentioned, but with the brand Kind of like links used to work or
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::still do work in Google. Yes. And images are an
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::opportunity because podcasts get
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::transcribed, videos get transcribed, and these transcriptions get ingested
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::by the language models. So, pro tip,
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::anytime that you are recording something, don't just
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::say, yeah, you know, Camtasia's a,
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::a video editing tool. Get really specific and add those extra words and put in
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::a tiny elevator pitch so that those words
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::appear in close proximity to your brand name. Because that's how AI works. It's a
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::giant, like, probability matrix of like, what's the next likely chunk
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::of language in this, in this body of text?
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::So, yes, now there, because of the new opportunities,
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::this is a moment when we need to adapt a tiny bit our video
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::strategy and include those extra words near
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::the brand name. I highly recommend it.
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::Yeah. So I love that. I wonder though, and
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::maybe this is my own kind of Midwest, nice kind of approach to things. I'm
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::like, well, gosh, that seems a little like, ah, I don't want to talk about
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::my. I don't talk about myself too much, but help me relate this because I
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::think so. A lot of my audience is training focused. Right. They're probably going to
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::be thinking about, like, their internal systems putting things on it,
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::internal content management system or learning management system. And they're
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::probably feeling like, gosh, I don't, I just don't know
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::if that's the right thing. Even if they are customer focused, it feels a little
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::hard to do that. So what advice would you give us about doing that a
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::little bit better? Sounds like there's a pitch that needs to be developed. Is that
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::something that should be consistent across these opportunities? Is it
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::like, do we want it to be more organic? Do you have, do you have
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::any suggestions? Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily make
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::it a standard thing. I think that the way that
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::it all works, you sort of want there to be a variety of language that
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::appears nearby your brand. And if any of those training materials are going into a
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::knowledge base that appear, you know, publicly on the, you know, on the public
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::Internet, then, yes, this is a moment when you should
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::not miss the chance to just add a few words. You basically
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::did it in the intro, Matt, I'm grateful you already checked that box. All you're
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::doing is saying what your company does, and then maybe next time say who you
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::do it for. And then maybe next time, like, where are you? Where you do
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::business? So it's, it's really just about being a
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::little bit more descriptive when we talk about our brands. It's
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::not. And I'm Midwest nice myself. You and I are both from the same region,
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::college in Iowa, born in Milwaukee, live in Chicago. But you know,
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::I think that it may not come naturally at first,
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::but those eight words near the brand actually can
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::make a difference if you're making, you know, if you're doing these things over a
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::long period of time. So, Andy, in your work, because you're
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::working with a lot of different organizations and I'm assuming you're consulting on
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::this and helping people to see this, what else do you think
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::people are doing or should be doing with images or video
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::that is kind of ripe for opportunity that maybe they're not?
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::Because it does seem like there's a lot of things going on in the world.
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::There's a lot of change and AI is a part of that. And I love
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::this kind of eight words to maybe influence the AI to
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::know you. But what else should we be thinking about from an image perspective?
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::Well, this one maybe not everyone needs, but I think that it's worth
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::repeating. There are two kinds of pages on your website. There's
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::the content marketing program where you're helpful and useful, and Midwest, nice in teaching and
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::giving resources to everybody. And then there's the sales pages, which has
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::more like direct response copywriting. And those pages are filled with answers and with
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::proof points and evidence and testimonials. If you've got
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::a video on one of those pages, this homepage, the service page, the pages
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::about your products, those should not be in YouTube.
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::People, please don't put those in YouTube anymore because there's just too many ways for
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::the visitor to click and sneak away and go over to that platform. And YouTube
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::spends millions on UX testing to keep that visitor
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::engaged. And on YouTube, the suggested videos and notifications,
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::you don't want them to go to YouTube. So invest a little bit, please, in
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::a pro player for those conversion focused videos.
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::The explainer, the about us video, the story, you
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::know, the, the video testimonial. YouTube
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::has no place on the conversion focused money pages
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::on your website. It's just not an appropriate tool.
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::So I want to, I want to go back to something you said earlier that
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::I think as I'm thinking about these videos. Right. And I love that you just
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::distinguish between kind of the content marketing, the content helpfulness
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::and the sales direct, direct language. But you said something about
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::pretend to be your audience. I think it was a few times a week.
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::I want to dig into that a little bit because it does seem like that's
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::a Content opportunity where regardless of your role inside
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::our organization to start to make better content which ultimately
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::then does these things like influences the AI, allows you to be more direct and
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::helpful or whatever it might be. So what did you mean by that?
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::Pretend to be your audience? Well, I've always believed that
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::marketing is a giant test of empathy and the best marketers win.
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::And when the marketer create something that
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::answers a visitor's questions. Let's take a sales page. I just
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::call them sales pages. These are like your product pages or homepage or about page
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::or service pages. The pages that are designed to persuade
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::if that page is not answering a question or if that page fails
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::to address an objection, or if that page doesn't provide
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::supportive evidence to back up your claims, it's missing something.
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::And the so called conversion rate measured in Google
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::Analytics as the key event rate will be lower.
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::These pages really have to do a lot of work, right? They have to address
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::this person's concerns. What are this person's concerns?
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::So yes, it's a giant test of empathy. Analytics is always kind of a way
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::to do that to see like is the engagement lower or can I improve the
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::click through rate of this call to action. But now Matt, with AI, this is
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::a golden opportunity because you can train AI
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::on your audience's information needs and then
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::make a detailed. It doesn't have to be super detailed. In fact, it's a weird
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::Persona. Make a Persona that's like a composite Persona of all your target audiences because
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::websites have to speak to all kinds of different people and then give
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::AI your page and your Persona and talk to
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::it about what's missing. What are the most important
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::concerns this person has that I didn't address. What are the top questions I
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::failed to answer? This is it.
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::It's an eye opener. The first time you try this, make me a list of
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::every unsupported marketing claim I made on my homepage from my
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::Persona's point of view. It will do that. You can basically today make a synthetic
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::member of your target audience and then give it that script
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::before you shoot the video or you know, have it
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::do a full page screenshot. Snagit's your tool. Get the full page screenshot of
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::the page, upload that to AI and have a conversation with the
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::AI about your key pages, the pages where that do
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::or don't generate a lead. The moment of truth, the page where they decide whether
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::or not to click a CTA and fill out a contact form and just
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::ask it, right? Just talk to it about that page from the Persona's perspective,
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::super interesting. Yeah, I love that.
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::That's, that's super practical because I think, you know, again, in all these
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::audiences that we're talking to here on the show, there's always a Persona, right? There's
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::the, you know, you're thinking about somebody that's out in maybe a factory floor. You're
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::thinking about the person behind the des. So I, I love that. What
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::advice would you give here? Because I, I think we're still in the age of
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::AI where there are definitely people on the forefront doing a lot and pushing it.
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::And, and they're, they, they've designed, they've have learned how to design
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::what they're going to get from AI. There's a lot of us, I think are
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::still in that medium kind of space. We're playing, we're doing stuff, but maybe we
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::haven't got to where we built the library. And then there's a whole, the whole,
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::of course, laggards of people who are like, I don't know about this AI thing.
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::It's a, it's a scary thing. I don't know. So thinking about this
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::Personas or even thinking about that conversation you might have with AI with a full
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::screen screenshot, what are some tips that you've learned along
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::the way that help people, that helps you to get better results? Because I think
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::that's always a concern. Like, I'm gonna put an AI. Do I trust it? Is
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::it gonna give me what I need? Is that gonna be helpful, things like that?
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::Yeah. Strange to me, the most famous and
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::popular use case for AI is to have it write something,
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::make me a thing. I'm making this thing. Can you make it? And it quickly
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::makes content. And then you basically just
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::threw yourself into the, I think the least
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::interesting and the most risky way to use AI because there
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::you've got concerns about bias and accuracy and you know, is
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::this thing hallucinating? But really, I never worry about
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::those because the way that I'm using these tools is mostly to help me spot
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::gaps and to give me better ideas. You
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::could basically say to AI, like, I'm making a video on topic X,
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::but I want to make sure that it connects. Scanning
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::the Internet give me a sense for
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::the ways in which topics X is not covered by the
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::other big blogs and thought leaders and influencers and videos. And it will tell you,
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::it'll give you new perspectives, it will put you in a better direction, it
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::will help you find something you missed. So you basically just
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::avoided all of the Worst problems with AI? You kept your
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::job as a content creator, which I want everyone to be able to do by
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::just using it as a thought partner. Use it as a strategist, an
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::analyst. Use it to help you not make more stuff, but
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::make better stuff. I love that.
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::And one, we like people keeping their jobs. We like to have a very
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::human approach to how AI should be used. Me too.
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::So, Andy, I know because I'm actually a reader of your blog. I get it
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::every week. I can't say I've read every word, but I definitely. I
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::skim and find the ones that are applicable to me, but they're
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::long and they're detailed and I love it. How is your
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::kind of journey, if you will, of using
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::images and video in your work? You've got
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::an agency that you've got lots of people that you're working with, lots of clients.
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::How has that evolved over the last, let's say a decade? Because, you know, a
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::decade's not a long time in the world. The Internet is, is. It's
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::absolutely a long time. No, but I like
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::that time horizon because I think we're a generation
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::that has seen this change and like, been through disruptions and recessions
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::and tech changes and like new trends. My
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::content strategy has changed a lot. Some of the ways in which I've,
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::I've adapted is that I've prioritized offline experiences. I love building
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::communities. I love doing events, I love hosting events, I love being part of other
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::people's events. I try to, like, avoid there being
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::a, you know, big tech in between me and my audience.
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::SEO big tech is between you and your audience. Social media, big tech is between
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::you and your audience. But there's lots of formats for content and
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::channels and ways to do marketing where there's, you know, it's disintermediation. You can talk
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::to them directly, but what's the next best thing? It's to turn
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::on the camera. This I just. Every
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::year I make more videos animated the year before. I'm
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::not really trying to make. It's a gap in my strategy. I don't really do
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::anything short form. I'm making kind of like, you know, long
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::pedantic things that show you detailed approaches to doing, to solving some
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::problem. That's just my approach. It's working well.
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::So the cure for what you just said,
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::I don't read every word. Text is just a little bit. It's a. It's
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::a greater cognitive load for our audiences. And if that's the only option you're
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::really missing a chance to help them get your content in their preference.
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::Topics are an information need. The person needs that answer. Right.
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::But formats are a preference. So if you make your audience
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::has a problem, you're going to fix it. You're going to give them information and
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::some advice and tips. If you only present that in text
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::with an image at every scroll depth, no matter how visual you make
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::it, the person still has to work harder. They got to lean in. It might
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::be good for search engines and there's advantages to it, but if I'm serious
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::about any topic, I will turn that thing into a video.
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::I'm trying to make them a little bit shorter. They were like 12 minute videos,
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::but I'm getting them down below 10 now a little bit with the help of
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::Camtasia. Thank you. Your tools make everything in my job easier
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::than. Very grateful that TechSmith exists in this world. It would be a
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::failure of the Internet and of the economy if TechSmith didn't exist. I am,
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::I use your tools literally many times a day. But when you make the
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::video for the thing, wait a minute, like it is, you know,
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::watch time. I've got videos with hundreds of hours of combined watch time.
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::People are very, are immersed. They're, they're, they're closer
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::to you. They, they hear your tone of voice, your body language. They can tell
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::you're excited or you're skeptical or, you know, that thing was weird.
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::If I write the words, that thing was weird. You didn't hear it the way
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::I said it, right? So it's just so powerful, it's so
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::compelling. That's why we need these video testimonials, the about us
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::videos, the explainer videos, all those things in those sales pages. You
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::can measure the before and after and the impact. It's real. Yeah.
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::Well, Andy, as you said, you've been doing a lot more of these and
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::obviously it's, it's always a challenge. It's easy. It's like the old Mark Twain
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::quote. If he, if he really said it, I didn't have time to write you
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::a short letter, so I wrote you a long one instead. True with video. Right.
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::I'm curious from your perspective because you have evolved and I've watched that
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::evolution. You know, we had you actually on a. You were one of the very
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::first guests of the show when it actually started, the podcast, like five years
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::ago. But I'm curious for you,
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::what's helped you get. Maybe I don't.
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::Better is not even the right word. I want to Go with. Because I think
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::better implies, like, it wasn't good before. I think it was. But I think
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::what's helped you to. To make that step in that journey? Because I think a
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::lot of people have hesitation, right? They, they're afraid of their. They don't like their
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::voice, they're afraid of the camera. They're afraid they're going to say, like, there's all
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::these hesitations. So what's maybe helped you
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::to feel more confident, more capable in being able to make
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::more video? Well,
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::I don't know anybody who loves their voice. I don't know anybody who
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::wants to see themselves on camera. It's. You're not alone.
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::I am. You know, I wish my lighting was better. And I don't know, I
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::might feel kind of shiny and like, this is not. No matter when I'm on
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::camera. And by the way, most of us are on camera for like hours a
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::day now. It's called zoom. You're. We're all constantly on
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::camera, so really, what's the difference? What are we doing here anyway?
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::All you're doing is recording yourself. It's like a
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::voicemail now, right? You're just making a video. You're just, you're just recording
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::yourself explaining something. So. And you're going to cut it
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::up anyway. And you know that ripple cut, you know, in Camtasia or
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::whatever the thing, you just, just keep talking, just redo it. You'll be
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::able to fix it. It doesn't matter. So press record
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::and blow it on the first five takes like I do. So what?
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::The stakes are actually really low. People who are worried about how they come
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::across are like, is this thing perfect? Or, you know, can I tighten this up
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::a little bit more? It's going to take a long time before you grow much
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::of an audience anyway. And in that time, you're going to get far better at
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::production anyway. So your audience probably isn't
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::huge. The stakes are much lower than you think. It's really hard to get
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::traction in any channel. So the key is to get started and
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::just press the damn record button. Hey, it's
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::a callback to Brian Fanzo. Push the damn button. I thought of
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::him just now. Yep, that's a Brian quote. I just stole his line. Think
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::of you, Brian. I was. I channeled you just now.
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::I love it and I love what you said that. Because I do think there's,
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::you know, and it does feel like if you haven't made a video at this
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::point, like, really, how have you not made a video like you make probably a
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::thousand of. You don't even realize. So I. But I do love that, right. That
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::there's always a place to start. And, And I think, and tell
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::me if you. Your experiences maybe, maybe different this. I do think the Internet has
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::become an Internet globally as a general term for the people that
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::are watching. I think they become much more
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::forgiving of quality. Right. Like it used to be. I think
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::we might be seeing higher quality come out and people are, you know, ooh and
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::awe over a lot of the AI videos that are coming out because they're pretty
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::crazy. But it's like, I think if you are holding your
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::camera and you're doing a selfie video and you're talking to
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::your audience and it's meaningful and relevant, I feel like
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::generally speaking, people are like, no, that's good stuff. It's helpful.
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::I'm okay that it's a little shaky, or maybe the audio wasn't
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::perfect. You can clean it up in Camtasia, but like, you can do
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::those things. And as long as it's meaningful content. Right? And meaningful. I want to
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::say meaningful versus good content, because I think meaningful trumps
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::what we'd ever classify as good. I
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::totally agree. Authenticity is way, way
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::more important than production quality. I know in Audiate,
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::there's a feature where you can press a button and it removes all the ums
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::and all the, all the spaces and gaps. And that's
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::useful and I like that. But I also don't want it
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::to be super polished. That's not really what I'm doing
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::here. That's not really what we're supposed to. What our job is. If you're a
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::content marketer, even for those conversion focused videos, content marketing videos posted
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::on YouTube, conversion focused videos on your, on your key pages,
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::the same as the way you consume video. Dear
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::viewer, you don't really judge based on whether the
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::person said, but you do judge if they seem fake
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::or if their content is really trite or shallow, or if
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::they're off. You know, I actually think there may be a
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::benefit to not being uber polished and perfectly
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::smooth and, you know, getting it all in one take. That doesn't. Your,
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::your viewer doesn't care. I just, I've never seen any evidence of that. And
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::I have pro podcast editing, podcast production
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::friends who say they like those gaps. They want those little words. They don't want
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::it to sound perfect, they want it to sound real. And guess what? You can
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::do real. That's all you can do. And that now, by the way, is the
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::biggest way to differentiate because AI is, is banging out stuff
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::that's super perfect and it doesn't feel real. That's why it's not real.
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::So be human. You have a face. AI
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::does not. This is a moment when you can be different.
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::And partly why you're different is because you're not perfect.
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::Yeah, great advice. And it is interesting to see
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::as more and more AI stuff comes on board and we're seeing more
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::of it, that it is that perfection like we hear the debates about. Well, use
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::an EM dash. You must be AI because it's perfect writing. They'll
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::use an EM dash, I guess. But then I've noticed in like even
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::Chat GPT, if you go into the voice mode, right, they'll add some hesitations
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::in. Or Google LLM. It does. That's right.
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::They're building it in. But I, I, but to your point, I think that this
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::is what will set us apart. Right? The, the, the stutter, the,
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::the imperfection, the not saying it quite right. The, you know, it's more human.
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::Maybe it might be a little less efficient, but I think it'll be what thing
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::that will make a difference, so. Well, Andy, as we are. Oh, go ahead. No,
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::please. If you ask me a question
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::and you see me think about it, you're more likely to listen to the answer.
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::So what's the benefit of having everything cut perfectly with no
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::gaps or spaces or filler words? It's actually less
401
::effective, less authentic, less real. Yeah, I love
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::that. Well, Andy, as we get ready to move into our speedrun questions, any last
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::things you'd say about using images, video and, or
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::AI? Well, I like the
405
::use of AI to spot gaps, as I mentioned. I think if you have,
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::if you create a Persona and then ask it what's missing from a thing, you're
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::going to get better ideas for how to make a better thing. I really don't
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::love the obsession with using AI for speed and efficiency. I love the obsession with
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::using AI for quality. So it's a moment when
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::we all decide our relationship with this technology. And
411
::I'm just a huge advocate of
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::AI for marketing performance and training performance and
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::making a difference instead of just cranking out more
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::medium quality stuff faster. Yeah, I love that.
415
::Well, Andy, we're going to, we're going to move into our speed round question where
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::these are quick questions, quick answers determined by the roll of dice. So here we.
417
::Go. I'm sure it's every podcast you come to that you get a dice
418
::roll. Right. I'm Worried? Yeah, no
419
::questions. I'm gonna do my best. Let's see it. All right, well, let's. Let's go
420
::over to the dice cam. It's back up and running. So here we go. It
421
::is going to be question number two. Okay, so
422
::here, here's the premise, Andy, that you obviously
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::know a lot about SEO content marketing.
424
::You've been in the industry for quite a while. You speak at tons of events,
425
::you run events. How did you get to the point where you.
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::And you're gonna probably say, I'm not a master of it, right? You haven't become
427
::a complete expert, but how'd you get to this point? What's led you to be
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::as good as you are? And I will posit that you are really
429
::good. So we'll put trust. Just trust me. I think you're really good.
430
::Well, I try really hard. If I have an advantage, it's that I was going
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::to be a teacher. I was a foreign language major. I got a Mandarin degree,
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::and my plan was to become a teacher. There were only two high schools in
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::Iowa that were teaching, that had secondary Mandarin programs at the time.
434
::So I decided not to be a teacher. But I studied learning styles
435
::and curriculum development. And I also
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::volunteered as a docent for the Architecture foundation here years ago,
437
::now called the Architecture center here in Chicago. And I gave tons and tons
438
::of tours. So I've been speaking for a very long time.
439
::And I think a lot about learning and learning objectives and
440
::aligning, you know, building lesson plans and trying to like, change
441
::the, change the audience's mind a little bit. Of course, that all aligns with
442
::persuasion and marketing now. But I don't really try to be like a
443
::great presenter. I'm not really a presenter. I'm never a keynote, I'm
444
::a session presenter. But I think of every one of those as teaching. That's
445
::what I want to be. I want to be a great teacher. I love it.
446
::I love it. All right, next question. Here is question
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::number one. Okay, so you work in an industry where things are
448
::changing rapidly all the time. You're always constantly putting out
449
::new things, especially as marketers. Like, there's always the next thing, the next trend.
450
::Where are you turning for inspiration?
451
::Well, my clients push me forward, my team pushes me forward.
452
::I'm living in the real world. I'm not like on an island somewhere. I spend
453
::all day, every day, like in meetings with people who are trying to solve problems.
454
::So it is the roll up sleeves, it's the feet
455
::on the ground. It's the actual
456
::practical application of methods and measuring their performance.
457
::That is how I know what to talk about, what to do, what works, what
458
::doesn't work. So I'm just very, very close to the market and
459
::I'm constantly in touch with. Some days I have like eight conversations with people who
460
::are really working hard at solving problems. So really, I
461
::have my. My clients and my team to be grateful for that.
462
::Awesome. Love it. All right, here's our last one. Let's see if we get a
463
::good one. We got a real fun one. Okay, question number four.
464
::You know what? I don't really love this question because we already asked you sort
465
::of this, but we'll go with it anyway. We'll go with it anyway. It's not.
466
::It's not as a fun one. What tip or best practice? Have
467
::you not mentioned today that you would. You would want to share? Is there anything
468
::that you didn't get a chance to say? It doesn't even have to be about
469
::our topic, but something that would help us be more successful in the work that
470
::we do. Quick, weird idea. Make
471
::marketing improvements from the end of the experience of your prospect.
472
::So if your contact form is weird and confusing or doesn't have any
473
::social proof or evidence, fix that first. Then fix the calls to action that send
474
::people to the contact page because the verbs might be generic or there might be
475
::nothing compelling about it or might sound complicated or difficult.
476
::Then after that, fix the sales page that has the call to action. So
477
::work upwards, backwards through the funnel. I think you get better
478
::results faster. A simpler kind of lightning round. The
479
::way to say this, Matt, is to fix the mousetrap before you go. Make more
480
::cheese. I love it. I love it. All right, Andy.
481
::Well, I appreciate you being here today. If people want to reach out, they want
482
::to learn from you, they maybe want to connect with you and your newsletter. Where
483
::should they turn? I'm more active on LinkedIn
484
::than anywhere else these days. I've got my. I get a lot of
485
::noise there, but. So the blue button says follow. I invite everyone,
486
::everyone watching or listening to this to skip the blue button and find the connect
487
::button and just say, hey, heard you on the visual lounge. And that way we
488
::can chat with each other and connect, send messages. Also,
489
::Orbit media is on YouTube. Also orbitmedia.com
490
::orbitmedia.com blog is where I post everything first.
491
::But I'm a pretty easy guy to connect with, so anyone's welcome to reach out
492
::anytime. Perfect. All right, Andy. Well, we
493
::like to wrap up our show by asking our guests to give their final take.
494
::So, Andy Crestedina, what is your final take?
495
::The tools today have changed. Take a look at your
496
::tools, look deeper. And I'm not here to really, you know,
497
::speak just about Camtasia and Snagit, but
498
::get a tutorial, watch some videos, figure out how to better use these tools
499
::because you're sitting on more features than you know. I learned
500
::this today. So the stuff you already
501
::have, look deeper into it. It can
502
::do way more for you probably than you knew. Of course,
503
::Camtasia is a great example of that. I'm grateful to TechSmith and Matt
504
::for. For all the help. But, yeah, before you sign
505
::up for anything new, research what you've already got. You're probably sitting on a gold
506
::mine. Great advice. And there's always. And every.
507
::And that's every tool, right? Like, I mean, power tool.
508
::Oh, yeah. Chatgpt. I mean, everything. Google Docs, you know, you can
509
::type docs new and it starts a new Google Doc. Chrome. Just search for
510
::Chrome hacks and you'll find 10 things. Like, there's so many things you can do
511
::on your keyboard without touching the mouse. But Camtasia, I didn't know it
512
::has. I was using a third of it. And
513
::today I leveled up. I hope everyone else has the same experience.
514
::Yeah. Well, Andy, I wanted to just thank you for spending some time with me
515
::in the visual lounge. Thanks, Matt. This is great.
516
::Yeah. All right. You heard Andy. I mean, there's so many things, so
517
::many opportunities. AI is opening a whole bunch of opportunities. It's not just about speed.
518
::It's about getting better content. It's about making better things, about using your
519
::images that you're already going to make, the video you're already going to make or
520
::you should be making and using those to leverage them in more ways and
521
::better ways to allow you to connect with your audience and make those
522
::experiences for your audiences better. So with that said, we are fans of
523
::learning. We're so glad that Andy talked about his teaching experience and wanting to be
524
::someone who teach, teaches people, and helps people, because that's what we're about. We want
525
::to help you learn, grow, develop your ability to make better
526
::images, videos, use those in your workplace, whether you're making, training, learning, development,
527
::marketing, you're doing sales, content, whatever it might be. And as we
528
::end every show, we recite our mantra that, hey, we want you
529
::to take some time to level up every single day. Thanks,
530
::everybody.
