LOCAL MARKET MONOPOLY EPISODE 27
Storytelling for Business with Brad O’hara
Podcast by Clarence Fisher
Storytelling for business, Brad O'Hara

About This Episode

Looking for a way to set yourself apart from the competition in your industry—even from the big companies?

In this episode, we will show you how to use a powerful video storytelling technique to build an effective marketing narrative. Video storytelling is a tool that leverages the story of your brand to connect with your audience on an emotional level. It involves identifying and sharing your vision in a compelling story.

Think soap opera meets sales pitch but, with storytelling, your audience won't realize it's a sales pitch. You will be reaching your audience on a personal level that generates leads and conversions.

Listen now for the scoop!

Disclaimer: The transcription below is provided for your convenience. Please excuse any mistakes that the automated service made in translation.

Brad O'hara: And the reality is we're all human beings. And I think one of the things I've seen, which is wonderful during this pandemic and quarantine time and all that, is people are desperate for humanity. Even me. I'll sit and watch the worst cell phone video in the world. If it's somebody being real

Clarence Fisher: Welcome back to the Local Market Monopoly, I'm Clarence Fisher. And this week, we talk with my good friend, Brad, O'hara from Story Catcher. They help people make videos that actually work by communicating what you want to say and what your audience wants to hear. Brad is an award-winning cinematographer director. Storyteller, dude, is the bomb. What we're going to do is we're going to cover the basics of video storytelling for you so you can begin to build trust with your audience and increase sales. Beyond that, we're going to share three specific steps that you can take right now to tell better stories. And I'm going to help you finally understand, well, actually, Brad's going to help you finally understand how to record great video, no matter where you're at. In a studio in your basement, maybe not in your basement. I don't know, outside wherever you're at, and you're going to be able to record great video. Lastly, we're going to show you how to put it all together to make a huge impact on your audience, your engagement, and your sales. So stick around because this is all you need to know about video storytelling in one episode.

Intro: You're listening to Local Market Monopoly with Clarence Fisher, uncovering the tools, tactics, and strategies the most successful small businesses use in their local market and own the block.

Clarence Fisher: All right. Welcome to the show. My buddy, my buddy, my buddy. How are you, man?

Brad O'hara: I'm doing good, man. How are you doing today?

Clarence Fisher: Look now you're going to be like, Oh,

Brad O'hara: I'm professional man.

Clarence Fisher: That's what I'm saying. After we've been clowning around, some of the best stuff happens before I hit record. I've just got to hit record.

Brad O'hara: I'm telling you it's all out of my system now. I'm all. I'm all business. Yes. Yes. Mr. Fisher?

Clarence Fisher: For everyone who doesn't know a really good friend of mine, Brad is, and he is also, should I say, should I say audio file? Is that going to, that sounds, that sounds bad.

Brad O'hara: I don't know what it is. Make me sound like I should be institutionalized or something.

Clarence Fisher: Okay. It means he loves audio, and he is the first person it's been what? Almost 30 episodes now. And I have typically had the best of Mike. And then you show up with an SM7 for who don't know. It's like the Cadillac microphone for broadcasting. I spent about 10 years on one of those bad boys. So say something I'm talking to them. I say something.

Brad O'hara: No, you're good, man. I figured you would try to outdo me. So I'm just pulling up to the party and an escalate.

Clarence Fisher: Wait, when you were busy the other day, when you were busy the other day, I should have just said, yeah, let's do it over the phone.

Brad O'hara: That's what I'm saying? You have the opportunity.

Clarence Fisher: I know, absolutely. Okay. So enough about us just kind of chatting because we can do this all day, you know. What's going on with Story Catcher?. So you've got, this is, this is, this is new.

Brad O'hara: Yeah. So let me tell you the beautiful and heartbreaking story of Story Catcher. So far, we launched Story Catcher on March 3rd, which in theory, was like, man, this is going to take off. Great. And then this thing called a, what is it? Oh, Coronavirus. That thing hit us. And it was like, Oh, shut it down. And so I spent the next couple of months, you know, a little depressed, a little bit sad about it cause it's like oh hey, we just built a studio invested really good money in this thing. That's sitting here unusable in quarantine. And so, you know, we built it to make a video available to everybody if that makes sense. Sometimes, it's so intimidating to think about video production in business because it feels like, man, this will cost an arm and a leg, and it's going to be crazy.

Brad O'hara: And so we wanted to offer a solution that was simple storytelling. We give people scriptwriting guides, coach them in the studio, and just want to help them put their best story forward. So that was really the heartbeat behind it with my past and passion for storytelling. You know, the big problem we specialize in solving is everybody we serve, whether it's a company or an influencer or a speaker, they're experts, they're experts at something. And people need to realize their expertise before they're willing to sit across the table and trust them. And so we try to offer through that storytelling video, it can shorten the amount of time before you can sit across the table and shake hands. It cuts out so many little conversations that honestly take a lot of time and energy, and you can only have so many. If you're selling all the time, you're not doing what you're called to do, made to do, supposed to be doing. And you're just selling and selling and selling. And you know me, I'm not a salesman. And so that can, where the heck out of you, it can tire you out, man. It tires me out anyway, and it distracts me from what I'm supposed to be doing. So, you know, the outcome of that is that trust-building and building trust, shortens sales cycle

Brad O'hara: And shortening the sales cycle makes us feel more fulfilled in life and helps our customers more. So is that a pretty good overview of Story Catcher?

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. I mean so many things that you, you hit on there. Number one, making the video available for everybody, you said when you said an arm and a leg, I'm like, yeah, both of you and I have charged an arm and a leg.

Brad O'hara: Yeah, no lie.

Clarence Fisher: Or there's someone there's someone nodding their head right now. Like, yes, I paid those guys an arm and a leg.

Brad O'hara: If you paid me an arm and a leg, I hope it was worth it.

Clarence Fisher: Brad and I have done projects together. So this is definitely a great thing. And I remember we had the conversation kind of during the height of when things were just started, and you were sitting there and I thought, man, this is just crazy. It's like grand opening and grand closing really, really quick. So that's a whole other thing how you've been able to kind of survive with the idea of that. But you have a process that I don't think that I like the process of, hey, I show up, and you walk them through what it's going to take to create that great video. I can't. There was one time that we were shooting videos on location. It was at that hotel, remember?

Brad O'hara: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Out there in a broken arrow.

Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And to kind of set the stage for everyone who wasn't there, we had probably, I don't know, what was it, 10, 20 people in line to give their story?

Brad O'hara: Some more around there.

Clarence Fisher: Testimonials for this business. And the way we would do it is, you know, everybody would come in and give their piece. Still, the type of business this was, it needed an emotional, they needed an emotional story, and very few people are really good at storytelling. So I remember when I sat, and I watched you ask these questions to the subject and pull out of them, you made a couple of people cry. I think it was like, uh,

Brad O'hara: I'm a pretty mean guy,

Clarence Fisher: You know, it's like everybody on set is like uh, and I was just sitting there, and I go, does that, who has that? Besides Oprah, I guess, but it was just amazing. I'm like I got to work with it.

Brad O'hara: I've been called the bearded Oprah

Clarence Fisher: And Oprah.

Brad O'hara: Well, I hope that doesn't stick. I might get just shot, shot myself in the foot.

Clarence Fisher: I could go somewhere with that, right? At least it's not the other way around, you know? So it's great that you're doing that. What's the advantage that I mean, we could just probably go along with that, but what's the advantage that businesses have of using video to tell these stories.

Brad O'hara: It's a Zig Ziglar who I love and hate some of his stuff. I disagree and agree with some of his stuff. But one of my favorite things that he said is if people like you, they'll listen to you. If they trust you, they'll do business with you. And I feel like that's one of the truest statements ever spoken. So the advantage of storytelling to build trust is simply man, I want to build long-term relationships with our clients at Story Catcher. I don't want to come somebody into getting in here with some gimmick, and then they get in here, and they're disappointed by what we do, or they're not fulfilled by what we do. I want to build trust with them on the front end. And then the aspect of using video to do that, man, it's speaking on a digital stage.

Brad O'hara: Like my audience is so much bigger using video. Then having one-on-one conversations, then going to a coffee shop and meeting with four or five people, then even speaking to a small group. You know, all these things are great and necessary, but I'm going to reach people I've never thought about reaching when I'm using video and putting it out there and pushing it out there. You know, I, a couple of weeks ago, and I'm as nervous about using videos as anybody else. So I understand the shyness of getting in front of the camera. I'm much more competent and confident behind it than I am in front of it, you know? But I, I pushed out the, just the, who we are, our story video on LinkedIn and Facebook. And man, the engagement is through the roof. It's crazy. And it's because people see that and they listen to my story.

Brad O'hara: They get to hear a lot of this stuff that I don't have time to talk about. Or I don't talk about, you know, such as receiving a lot of awards for storytelling or having a rich history and accolades and things like that in the industry of storytelling. But I'm not going to say those things in person, either whether it's false humility or whether it's kind of shyness or whatever it is. I'm not going to say him because it feels like you're name dropping. You know, it almost feels like you're arrogant to drop those things in certain conversations, and it's not, but that stops me from saying those things. But on a video, I can write it down, practice it, edit it, feel comfortable about what I'm saying, and then push it out there, and it's gotten great feedback and great results. I've had a lot of conversations just because of that one video, you know? So I think the advantages of building trust through video are that they're almost self-evident when you start pushing videos out, and getting that engagement and reaction and trust just thrilling.

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. You know, well, you know, we do the FAQ SAQ formula where it's the top 10 questions that they do ask and then also making the list of what they should be asking.

Brad O'hara: I love your SAQ, that you lead people through, man. That broadened the way I do things, Clarence, because I think everybody thinks of those FAQ questions, but being able to have somebody from the outside of your industry look at you and say, man, if I were going to hire you, I would want to know these things. So helping answering questions people haven't even asked yet.

Clarence Fisher: Right. Right. Mean I appreciate that. If it made a, if we've made an impression on you, uh, I think people are right. You don't. You don't share the awards. It's it's funny. And then the conversations that we've had over the years, and I learned, I mean, like, it would not surprise me if you told me that you had an Oscar for like yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, you want all these other things, but you don't talk about it. So the people that come into the studio have all of this power behind them. They don't even really know it. You covered one of the myths of costs, but what are the other myths you run into with video, specifically business owners?

Brad O'hara: So for over about 20 years now, I've been helping businesses tell stories to some extent or another. And a lot of that time using video. Sorry, I'm like coughing into this wonderful microphone. I've been drinking Coke, which I've tried to stop drinking soda. And I don't know why I'm drinking it, but it's making me cough.

Clarence Fisher: It quite a right me if you ruin that microphone right now,

Brad O'hara: If I just pour the Coke on there. Yeah. One of the things I've learned over the past 20 years is business owners believe that they need either a big production company or a creative agency, which puts several other roadblocks in there, right? It puts the price tag roadblock. It puts the time investment roadblock. It puts so many other obstacles in place. When you believe that myth, that you're incapable of telling your own story. And that's one of the things I really love about the business model. You have Clarence where you do the coaching online every week, and you do consulting, and you've really pushed towards that heartbeat of man. It's your business. You can tell your story, and it's, and it might make more sense in some instances for you to tell your story.

Clarence Fisher: And you should yeah.

Brad O'hara: Yeah, exactly. If you're invested in every other aspect of it, you, what if you're losing on the marketing because somebody who doesn't understand who you are at all is trying to do it for you, which is so many of the box-checking, marketing, and digital companies that we've seen around for years, they come and go 'cause they don't customize anything to anybody. They just have the, you know, we do marketing for dentists. We're not going to ask you any questions. Here's the marketing for dentists. You know, it's a packet, it's a packet that you put your name on. Like how many medical websites have you seen where it's the exact same copy with a different doctor's name, you know? And so yeah, one of the biggest myths I think is that you're incapable of telling your own story. And I think the other, the biggest myth to me, is that video has to be perfect.

Brad O'hara: It can't be human, like stuttering over your words or coughing into a microphone because you're drinking soda. Like there are so many thoughts that man, you got to cut that stuff out. You got to cut anything out. That's not dead-on perfect. You got to cut out every, um, and every breath and every everything and make it look plastic, you know, it's gotta be so clean that it's almost untouchable. And the reality is we're all human beings. And I think one of the things I've seen, which is wonderful during this pandemic and quarantine time and all that, is people are desperate for humanity. Even me, I'll sit and watch the worst cell phone video in the world if it's somebody being real. You know? So I think that's one of the biggest myths that I love to overcome is the man making video and storytelling, especially what we're doing in Story catcher. It's not about clean plasticky, perfectionism. It's about authentically connecting with people and adding value to them.

Clarence Fisher: When the pandemic first started, we were instructing clients to jump on cell phone video and, and provide answers and leadership for their, for their audience. I think if you're not making a video without the... Now there are places for full production video. You know, it all, it all has its place, but I think you're really missing the boat right now. If you're not making like you say real video, because like at this point, it's just perfect. I mean, everyone understands that you may not have access to just super clean and all backdrop and all this stuff. They relate better at this moment to just realness, you know? So you could actually, we were telling people, Hey, take out your cell phone and just record wherever you're at, because that's, I mean, that's what people are used to right now. You know, you get on zoom, and your doctor is at his house or wherever just but record the video.

Brad O'hara: Yeah. Just stay in front of people.

Clarence Fisher: Right. Yeah. And I also don't know that people understand when you talk about the engagement or video that, you know, on Facebook, when you run video, Facebook keeps a list of everybody who watches that video for you. You know, when you can put ads in front of those people.

Brad O'hara: Yeah. And that's where your world is. Or that's where you're a giant in your world, man, all the pixels and remarketing and retargeting rather, see, I'm not even using your language right.

Clarence Fisher: It's not, my language is Al Gore's language

Brad O'hara: He built, he built the internet, right?

Clarence Fisher: Right. Okay. So let's talk about the news that we can use with video. How do I get, I'm going to veer a little bit, like how do I get the best video? I'm a small business owner, buy what you're saying about the video, and I'm going to make some video, which is I'm petrified, really?

Brad O'hara: Now do you want, are you asking this question from a technical aspect, a content aspect, or both?

Clarence Fisher: Ooh, that's good. That's good. Well, let's go to church, man, because we can take this and say, well, pretty much I can just walk into your studio and be done with it.

Brad O'hara: Absolutely. But not everybody can or will do that. And I understand that, and I want to help all your listeners win today.

Clarence Fisher: Okay. So thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. See, that's why I like you, man. Let's start with the content first.

Brad O'hara: Okay. Yeah. Content, you know, I think people who know a lot about something feel like they're robbing people if they don't tell them everything, and what you get is the propensity to make people drink from a fire hose. And when people get hit with a fire hose, what happens? Nothing. They get blown away. They're overwhelmed. They shut down, you know? So content-wise, what's the one thing that matters more than anything else that you want them to remember when they walk away from listening to this video, watching this video? One thing, no more. One thing, right? That's the key. And then what do you want them to do after watching the video, right?

Brad O'hara: Your world it's called action all day long. right? Do you want them to do something, click a button, visit a website that you want them to be something? Are you teaching them something to apply in life or business? Or do you want them to go somewhere? Right? Do you want them to leave Facebook and go to a landing page literally, and what's the thing you want them to do. And then man, I have a really, really simple baseline formula, and I'll give away the secret sauce. Alright? It's you start with a hook, right? Like, and the hook is, how do I help you understand that I want you to live your best story in whatever way it is. If you're a small business and let's say, let's say you're a realtor. Okay. Does it work better if I start by telling you I'm going to help you find the best house, the house you want, or does it help by telling you a short story of a client that at all, but given up on home, finding their perfect house.

Brad O'hara: And we, we looked at 20 different houses, and I understood exactly what they wanted. So they found that house, you know. It's putting yourself in their story by helping them see that you care about their outcome. Right? And then the next part of it is the meat, you know? So the hook, the meat. And in the meat, you're going to take that one thing. And the way I do it, as I develop one or two power sentences, so powerful sentences that back up the one thing that points to the one thing that always points to the one thing. They're not their own things. They don't diverge. They don't dilute. They point right back to that one thing. And out of those power sentences, I might say one or two other sentences per thing. And then you go to the close, right? So it's the hook, the meat, the close, and in the close, I'm going to remind them really point-blank.

Brad O'hara: What that one thing is. So what I want you to know is your perfect homes out there, and I'm going to help you find it. To get started, click the button. Right? And so you're going to say, remember, here's the one thing, but also here's how you get it. I love the way Donald Miller puts it when he talks about what it is in Andrew marketing, or he says, I should learn within five seconds, what you do, why I need it, and how to get it. And that's really the close of a video is, remember here's the one thing I want you to remember. Here's why you need to do it or need to be it or need to find it. And here's how you do it.

Clarence Fisher: Absolutely. Here's what I got. Here's what it'll do for you. Here's what to do next

Clarence Fisher: Hook, meat and then close.

Clarence Fisher: Okay. Awesome. Thank you.

Brad O'hara: So on the content side, I can talk about that for hours, but

Clarence Fisher: Do you not see me waving my church handkerchief? Yes.

Brad O'hara: I was wondering what was going on over there.

Clarence Fisher: Seriously. Alrighty. So, if hey, if it was an order, you know, you get the countdown three, two.

Speaker 2: Alrighty. Okay. So now we've got the content. So now, how do I record this? I mean, what do I use

Brad O'hara: And technical side. So if all you've got is a cell phone, right? You got to set it up and get it in the right positioning and use the front camera, not the back one, right? The front camera is always higher megapixel than the, you know, the one you use for a selfie. That's always going to below. That's always going to be lower resolution than the front one.

Clarence Fisher: So, okay. So which one is the higher?

Brad O'hara: The one on the back of your phone? Not the one on the screen side, the one on the others.

Clarence Fisher: So what if I have a flip?

Brad O'hara: Was in 1992, man. The heck kind of phone are you pulling around?

Clarence Fisher: Okay. All right.

Brad O'hara: I got flip. Get a new phone. I don't know

Brad O'hara: If you got a flip phone, you know, send a Telegraph or something, find a steady place to put that is at or a little bit above eye level. So if you're sitting down, even if you've got to put a piece of tape on it or something, tape it. Tape it to the wall above your computer or above where you're going to be talking. If you have a tripod, they're pretty cheap. If you need to get a if you have no other way to make videos. Yeah. Get yourself a little, a cell phone tripod, and that'll hook it up where you need to be. If you've got a good webcam, use that and always try to get yourself a little bit lower than the camera because it's much more flattering to be looking a little bit up then a little bit down.

Clarence Fisher: Double chin. Yeah.

Brad O'hara: We got, I've got the big beard to cover that up, but it's there. And then, and then lighting is your friend. I know not everybody has all sorts of lights lying around. But try to think of it. If you only have two lights, even home lights, lamps, whatever, try to think of it as 45, 45. 45 degrees to the side, 45 degrees above if it's possible at all for you to get there. So, you know, I'm right here, and I have a light on me right now, and it's up this way. It's 45 degrees out to my side. That's probably a little bit more, but because of the doors right here, but it's 45 degrees out to my right side and then 45 degrees pointing down at me. And that's just going to give you a nice, clean, flat light on your face.

Brad O'hara: It's going to push the shadows down. As opposed to the side. If shadows are pointing from the side, it's going to make one side of your face look probably a little bit more menacing. So you're going to look friendlier with that lighting coming down as opposed to straight from the side. So from a technical aspect, if I were just using my cell phone, I would probably use two lights, one to each side, out in front of me, and a little higher than me. And I think you're going to get a really clean look.

Clarence Fisher: Okay, great. So, Oh, by the way, when we were talking about the double chin, I actually had Mike Tedford on the show.

Brad O'hara: Oh man, burn. Mike, are you listening?

Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't say, wow.

Brad O'hara: Clarence is calling you chubby.

Clarence Fisher: No, what I'm saying is he shared with us, and for everybody who's listening, that was episode 20. And we all know each other. So that was episode 20. He talked about the positioning that you can use with your body to avoid double, triple chin and looking 20 years older and all that stuff. Man, you always sort of like throw me under the bus. [inaudible]

Brad O'hara: Listen, man. You're hosting a podcast, and you're making fun of former guests.

Brad O'hara: I'm a little worried. I'm a little worried about my future.

Clarence Fisher: What's going to happen to you, right? I'll tell you what. Okay. So what if I don't have lights? What if I don't want to? I don't want to invest in that. I have a flip phone. Okay. Now I don't have a flip phone, but I have a regular phone, but I don't have lights. What do I do?

Brad O'hara: Do you have a friend?

Clarence Fisher: Yeah. I'm in business. I have friends. Yeah.

Brad O'hara: Go outside man. Yup. Make sure it's quiet. Go outside. Make sure the camera isn't facing the sun. Make sure the sun is behind the cameraman. And if you don't have a friend, I'm sorry. Number one, number two. Tripod still works. Just make sure that if treating the sun like this light, I told you about that's in front of me. So you know the person who's on camera, the light should be more facing them than the camera. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that, Oh, two mistakes. So number one, they hold their phone like this up and down vertical. Turn your phone sideways.

Brad O'hara: You're going to more uses out of that. Number one, it's more of a standard HD video, but you can also easily crop that to a square for Instagram. You can chop it to different formats, much easier than that. The only look you're losing is the vertical look, gaining popularity but not quite there yet. Right?

Clarence Fisher: Right.

Brad O'hara: And then the other one is that they'll put the people don't want sun in their eyes. And so they'll stand with their back to the sun, and the camera's facing them. And all of a sudden, you've got a silhouetted talker, right? You can't see their face. You can't see their expressions. And it's not as engaging as the watch. And then the other thing, technically, if you can, man, get one of those little Bluetooth microphones or if you have one use it when you're recording because cell phone audio is awful and audio, I believe it or not.

Brad O'hara: Audio is like 75% of video in my past. I've produced some really beautiful things that had crappy audio. And nobody wants to watch that. Right? And having better audio and not as good a video quality will fare better for you than the opposite.

Clarence Fisher: That was great. That's great advice. So any other.

Brad O'hara: What's anybody need me for now?

Clarence Fisher: For the same reason I do. Like who wants to do it themselves? If you don't have to, it just doesn't. And that's one of the reasons I'm so glad that you opened the studio because now there's this turn-key process of getting things done. And I know, you know, our process, so I can just say, hey, connect with Brad. As a matter of fact, I sent somebody your way. I'm not going to mention who they are, but I send somebody your way, not too long ago, a couple of months ago, you're like, who is that?

Clarence Fisher: But in that case, it was, Hey, call Brad, you know, call Brad. He already has, you know, the process and everything. I trust that he is going to do what we need. And then also get the best out of you, of the talent who doesn't do this for a living. So we talked about some of the obstacles that prevent business owners from taking that step. Now let's kind of bring this to when you say why would somebody use it, and I'm, and I gave you my number one is because it's so awesome to have it self-contained is someone there who knows scripting, someone there who knows the story that the video needs to tell. And all you have to do is just do what you're asking me to do. So what other obstacles besides price, besides we've talked about knowing what to say, we've talked about the technical part. What keeps people from hiring a storyteller or someone to do the video for them?

Brad O'hara: Oh man. Great question. One of them, I think, is really the hesitancy of what It really is the ROI of this. People can sometimes put a video in the category of expense instead of an investment. And so I think one of the big obstacles for people is, man, if I just go out there and dial for dollars or go to networking meetings or whatever terminology you want to use in a method you want to use. It can feel like, okay, well, this doesn't cost any money, and I'm out there. It's just all on me. I get it. I'll get it done. But the reality of that is it's all on you. And you're not, but you're also not being as effective. Right? And that's what it all comes down to.

Brad O'hara: If you can hire a good storyteller and start putting out meaningful videos that connect with your audience, you're reaching a lot more people than if you're out there sitting in a coffee shop, hoping the perfect customer walks in the door. You're getting people to raise their hands before they ever talked to you. You're getting your face in front of people that hopefully, as you start making your sales calls and emails and connecting with people on social media and all that, you're going to be connecting with people who have seen your face. So yeah, one of the obstacles I see other than what we'd already talked about is that like that fear of ROI. Feeling like it's not measurable. And I think people feel it's not measurable because they can be sold video by people who don't care about what it does. They just want to make videos.

Brad O'hara: But storytelling has a purpose, right? Can I go on a little rant? You know, I think the purpose of one of the big meanings of life and the purposes of life. And for me, especially, as we become experts in anything, you know, you're an expert in marketing and digital marketing and storytelling in a very big way. I'm an expert in storytelling and video and these other things. And our job is to bring order to chaos

Brad O'hara: And people have chaos. Small businesses have chaos, especially right now coming out of this pandemic, wondering what the heck are we supposed to do? I'm scared to spend money. I don't want to spend money on marketing. I don't want to spend money on any of these things. It's much safer just to die slowly.

Brad O'hara: And I think the responsibility that you and I have and other people who are marketers with integrity, I think the responsibility we carry is to bring order to that chaos and say, no, no, no, no. It's still about human relationships and interaction and trust. And I'm going help you build those things so that not just to survive however long this pandemic lasts, but to look future, to be building relationships. Now that there might be people listening to this podcast, Clarence and I hope there are, who are in a place in business where they can't even imagine spending any money on marketing, but they're learning from you. And maybe they've learned from me something, and they're going to go set up their cell phone outside, and they're going to take some videos, and they're going to start getting in front of people and building trust.

Brad O'hara: And you know what I trust and believe that two, three, five years from now, months from now, whatever, when their business is in a healthier place, and they're more confident and comfortable, they're going to want to have a conversation with me to see how to move it to the next step. They're going to have a conversation with you to see how to move it to the next and next levels. And they're not going to have regrets of doing anything when the world is slowed down. I think many businesses that are unfortunately closing their doors now, or will be in the next six months to a year, are afraid to do anything. And, you know, fear is not the best way to live. And it's definitely not the best way to run a business, which is, I mean, it's scary anyway.

Clarence Fisher: All right, man. That's good. What mistakes do you see that people make when they decide to hire someone to help them with their video? Kind of flip that one on you, didn't I?

Brad O'hara: You did. One of the biggest mistakes I see is people don't listen to the expertise of people. Like even the little simple outline, I gave hook meat close, somebody feeling like, well, no, or even the comment about a fire hose. And now somebody wants to make a 15-minute video about a circuit board design. And I laughed because I would fall asleep by step one. It's an awesome thing as it's not my thing, but people ignoring experts' advice, I think, is one of the biggest pitfalls I see. You hire a storyteller to help you tell your story. You hire a digital marketer to help you with digital marketing, right? How silly would it be to hire, how silly would it be for me to hire you Clarence and then tell you you're wrong. I'm wasting my money and your time, right? And I'm not going to get the best product. And I'm sure you've seen that type of thing happened before, and it's, and you know exactly how it's going to turn out. And it turns out exactly how you thought.

Clarence Fisher: It doesn't. Turn out

Brad O'hara: It doesn't turn, it fizzles out. And the other thing is that that whole of the fire hose thing. We can say to keep it simple, stupid, or whatever is really don't overthink it. One of the biggest pitfalls is I think people hear video and in their head, they go to Hollywood, go to green screens, go to drone shots, and go to high budget stuff. And like you said earlier, there is absolutely a place for a big production. And it's awesome and amazing. And I love doing it, but in communicating with people on a human level and trying to connect with people on a human level, it's more important to be human than it is to be perfect. So don't believe that you have to be amazing at communication or amazing on camera to connect with people.

Brad O'hara: You know, I'll confess that when we were doing those videos for here, I contemplated hiring talent to come in and do those videos. And I was over. I was avoiding it. I was making my own, the mistake I just talked about. I was not keeping it simple. And how in the world would hiring talent to come in here to sell something to people that I'm not doing, but is that reality of nobody who can communicate this like me, cause I know it inside and out. I love it. And I live it, and it's okay to feel uncomfortable on camera. You know, I'm a big guy, there's a lot of insecurities and feelings of inadequacy being on camera because all of us think about movies and TV and things like that. When we think about getting in front of a camera, instead of, you know, what this camera is a person on the other side of the table that desperately needs what I do, and I can help them bring order to their chaos. I can help facilitate the transformation that needs to take place in their business and their life in their organization.

Brad O'hara: And so I'm going to make this video because that person is sitting on the other side of the table.

Clarence Fisher: So can you share a story of how you've helped, you know, maybe a time that you've helped your clients overcome these obstacles and succeed and building trust through the use of video?

Brad O'hara: Oh, absolutely. Man, I guess it's okay to use brand names to some extent, huh? I'm not saying anything bad about them.

Clarence Fisher: As long as I get a check. Yeah. Right. No. Okay.

Brad O'hara: So I've had the opportunity a few times in the past five years to work with the University of Tulsa, The Collins College of Business on trying to do sort of documentary-style storytelling videos of the last year of the MBA program, which they do. They form a cohort and solve real-world problems and become real-world consultants to real-world companies. And the process of that, and being able to walk through some of the marketing leads have to use Collins College and build those relationships. They were able to narrow down, not only recruiting on a large scale of using video to recruit but even who they wanted to recruit.

Brad O'hara: So it went beyond even the scope of helping them tell their story, to helping them really dial down more on who they want to tell that story to. So that's been a huge one that goes beyond even just the use of video. And they've used the videos at conventions and conferences and online and on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook and huge response, huge replies, and it's really helping potential students see themselves in the shoes of students who are finishing. You're selling them the story they want to live. And that's it. That's all I do, man.

Clarence Fisher: Hold on, hold on. We got this far into this, and you brought that up. That's big.

Brad O'hara: I got to go.

Clarence Fisher: Selling them. How did you say that? What was that again?

Brad O'hara: You're selling them the story they want to live, and that's, that's all of what storytelling is. If my story, and that's why it's story catcher too. I didn't even say that early on. I meant to. It's about everybody else's story, not mine. Right? If I'm selling something to somebody, who cares what I want or need, right? What's your favorite word in the English language is probably Clarence.

Clarence Fisher: Right? How did you know that?

Brad O'hara: I'm in your head reading your mail. We all love our own name. We all spend our time thinking of the things that hold us back or keep us from where we want to go. And so helping somebody understand that we understand who they want to be and then building the trust that we can help them live that story, man. That's what it is. Isn't it?

Clarence Fisher: That is. Even when we talk about website design, that hero image at the top, the home page, I really try to get people to understand that you need to sell that needs to be a picture of the end result. I mean, that needs to be a picture or video of what they're coming to you for. Like what is it going to look like in that after state? But I really loved the way that you put that. Okay. So I'm a business owner. I've listened to this, and I am. I believe I'm ready. I don't want to do it myself. Right. I don't want to.

Brad O'hara: Put your flip phone away put your flip phone. Right?

Clarence Fisher: I can't do it myself.

Brad O'hara: Put your Motorola razor away.

Clarence Fisher: I can't do it myself. Can I do this in two ways? There's a bunch of millennials out there. Like, what's that? Yeah.

Brad O'hara: Get your beta max out.

Clarence Fisher: What's the most important question that they need to ask themselves when they're considering building trust, using video to build trust?

Brad O'hara: Um, man, I, I think it's more than one question. I think they have to have a little bit of a foundation in place, right? It's they have to know who they're talking to. That's huge. And I'm sure it's huge in your world too. If you don't know who you're talking to, you're trying to talk to everyone, and nobody will listen. Nobody's going to listen when you're talking to everybody. Know who you're talking to and why they need to hear what you have to say, right? I think that would be the biggest thing if everybody that walked in the studio knew that what a wonderful world it would be, right. Who are you talking to, and why do they need to hear what you have to say?

Clarence Fisher: Hmm. Sounds like a service. Taking notes.

Brad O'hara: No, wait a minute. What are you doing over there?

Clarence Fisher: Hey, Hey. Hey. I'm just. I'm taking notes.

Brad O'hara: Some sort of copyright infringement going on. Yeah.

Clarence Fisher: You didn't say TM. Okay. So now, I'm evaluating storytellers. I'm evaluating service providers. What do I need to be asking myself here?

Brad O'hara: Service providers. It's, I think, the standard questions, do they care about helping you achieve? Like you said, do they, do they care about helping you be transformed and living the story you want to live? And do they have the technical expertise and process, right? The process is huge, expertise, process, and equipment and things to help you achieve it well, and as far as storytellers go, any storyteller worth their salt will ask more questions than they speak. And so if you sit down with somebody and they're just telling you about how they're going to change your world and how amazing they are and how good they are and all these things, and I'd get up and walk away. I don't mean to sound rough on it. I've been around for several years, and I've seen many storytellers, good ones and bad ones, and the best storytellers I know they're curious and can't help it.

Brad O'hara: I want to know about it. You know, I love the humanity of it all. So, I care about your hopes, dreams, and fears. If it's in business, if it's in life, whatever we're talking about, I want to know those things because honestly, you know, my life's purpose is to help people live, love, and lead in the story they're made for. And so a storyteller is really trying to help people live their greatest story. And so if I don't know what your dream of a great story is, how in the world am I going to help you live it? And how am I going to help you, help other people live there, which is business, right?

Clarence Fisher: So over the, as we wrap up, because we can go and go for.

Brad O'hara: Four hour podcasts, right?

Clarence Fisher: The Clarence Fisher experience,

Brad O'hara: That's right. That's right. This is a deep dive.

Clarence Fisher: So, okay. What should our listeners who are small businesses, either marketing execs, business owners, you talked about knowing who you're talking to and why they need to hear what you have to say. We went through hook, meat, and close over the next 30, 90 days year. What should, what should they be doing? What should they do?

Brad O'hara: Telling stories. I know that sounds silly and redundant, maybe. But if you are an expert, you know, we serve experts, small businesses, influencers, speakers, coaches, experts in whatever they're an expert in. And if you're not telling your story, guess what nobody else is either. If you're not out there telling your story, nobody else is. And the only people telling any version of your story are either your competitors or your past clients.

Brad O'hara: And hopefully your past clients are telling it well, but that's only going to get so far, right? And they're unprovoked. The likelihood of people singing your praises is very low, no matter how satisfied they are, right? And your competitors telling your story, they're lumping you with every other competitor in one byline of a catchphrase, right? We do it better because, or everyone else does blank. Or if, if you're not telling your story, you're not living your vision.

Clarence Fisher: I agree.

Brad O'hara: if your vision is to effectively help other people live and work and be in a better story than themselves, silence is your enemy.

Clarence Fisher: So many, so many bombs you're dropping here. I was going to call those out, but I have to ask, I have to ask.

Brad O'hara: Six, sorry.

Clarence Fisher: My goodness.

Brad O'hara: My dad, my dad used to always do that to me. Sorry.

Clarence Fisher: You just break up the. That's, that's funny. I was in deep thought too. I was really like, you know, the voice dropped, and I was

Clarence Fisher: What got you interested in doing this?

Brad O'hara: Hmm, I think I always loved story. So I don't know if there's, I don't know if there's a palpable Genesis to that, but there are two experiences in my life that drew me so much deeper into the meaningfulness of what story is to us as people. In psychology, you would say that people are different than every other animal because of several things. But one of which is being we can mentally time travel backward and forwards, imagining different outcomes of the past and the future based on different decisions. And so I think that's part of the power of storytelling, you know, bringing order to chaos so that people can minimize regrets in the future, but the two events of my life or at 18 it's I'm going to get real, is that cool?

Clarence Fisher: Yeah.

Brad O'hara: At 18, I was sitting in a tent with a gun in my mouth, and I was going to pull the trigger, and I don't want to go too big in the faith route, but it was very clear to me.

Brad O'hara: God stopped me and said, no, you have reason and purpose. You're supposed to be here. And I started looking at the world around me as a collection of stories, as opposed to so black and white truth and lies as opposed to so clear cut. We're all formed by our understanding of everything going on in our understanding is formed by our experience, right? And so we all have so much, so many different experiences, which lead us to different understandings of different things. And so I walked out of that tent, I think, with extraordinary compassion that I didn't have before to help people live better stories because I wanted to live a better story and a goal point in my life where storytelling got infinitely deeper. That's when I started getting into film. That's when I started getting into corporate storytelling.

Brad O'hara: That's when I started getting into ministry storytelling. That's really when I started learning the craft when I started studying Philosophy in Psychology when I started studying storytelling and story structure and all of these things. And then the other one that took it to an even deeper level that I didn't know existed was when, you know, in 2017, we adopted Will. You know Will, and some of you guys who are listening knew him as well. And Will had some medical issues, and he lived with us and was our son for about a year.

Brad O'hara: And when he passed away, I reflected on that season of life. And initially had thought we're doing something really cool for a kid that otherwise wouldn't have it. And my mentality was all about we're helping him live a story. That's great. In reality, it was no this experience revolutionized and turned upside down my story, you know. It radically shifted why I wake up every morning, and I was still compassionate and loving storytelling. Still, I became almost desperate to help people wake up and start living better stories and telling better stories. You know, it's forgive me, I don't remember who said the quote. I don't want to mess it up, either writing stories worth living or live stories worth writing about. And I just, I don't know. I think it woke me up in such a big way of being meaningful and telling meaningful stories that would resonate generations of a family that would resonate through culture and society.

Brad O'hara: I think storytellers and I consider you part of this as well. And I think all of us should be. I think storytellers will be either the demise or the salvation of people going forward. We become the stories we tell. And right now, we're telling stories of division and hatred and the stories that break people apart and make it all about them, and us and them is a gigantic lie. We need to be telling stories that unite us, that that believe we can disagree and move forward. That tells us, we can do powerful things while having different opinions on subjects. And I think storytelling has always been and will continue to be the root of what happens because storytelling carries forward the order that's already been brought to chaos. And without, when we lose our past and our people's stories in our future, man, I really think we lose who we are.

Brad O'hara: And I think we lose so much of the order that had already been brought. And we just willingly dive back into the chaos. I know that went way off of what you asked me, but that's it to me. Live and tell stories. Never stop if you have children go in their room every night and tell them stories. If you have friends, tell them stories, understand who we are. And when we understand who we are, we understand where we want to go. And we, I think we can live the story we want to live as a people.

Clarence Fisher: Love it. Thanks for, uh, thanks for sharing.

Brad O'hara: My pleasure, man. I'm thankful that you asked me to come on here. It's very humbling.

Clarence Fisher: It's humbling to have you, so let me, what was it, what was it that you said was, live the stories you said to live the story. You want to tell the quote?

Brad O'hara: Yeah. Either live stories worth writing about or write stories worth living.

Clarence Fisher: Alright. Cool, man. How does somebody find out more about you?

Brad O'hara: Go to storycatcher.studio or storycatcherstudio.com. I know some people struggle with the non.com. You can find out we have a few basic packages we offer that are just clean-cut and easy to understand. We do other things as well. But if you look at that and you're ready to move forward, and you're interested in learning more, go to the bottom of the page, fill out the little form, and we'll have a conversation. See if it's the right way to go.

Clarence Fisher: I love it, and I do love the way that you do your sales too. It is one of the few that I've known that you seriously mean we will just see if it's the right way to go.

Brad O'hara: Oh yeah. I don't want just to spend people's money.

Clarence Fisher: I know. I love it. And I love you, bro.

Brad O'hara: Love you too, man.

Clarence Fisher: Thank you for coming on and we're going to wrap it up.

Brad O'hara: Sounds good, brother.

Closing: We appreciate you listening to Local Market Monopoly. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show and visit ClarenceFisher.com for more resources that will help you dominate your local market and own the block.

Resources

Note: Some of the resources below may be affiliate links, meaning I receive a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you use that link to make a purchase.

LISTEN ON

NEXT EPISODE:
Episode 28: Yearly Marketing Strategy Planning