[Podcast] Make More Videos, Not Excuses (Lou Bortone)

For over 20 years, Lou Bortone has used his passion and expertise to help companies and entrepreneurs like you expand their message with video strategies that actually work for you. In this episode, Lou discusses a few of his favorite video creation resources, tips on utilizing AI in your business, and a variety of ways you can reach and serve your ideal clients.

Key Takeaways

• Actually be your own boss. Create a business that allows you to prioritize what’s important to you, both inside and outside of your business.
• Monetize what you enjoy. Create income streams from what you have fun creating, like comic books, film podcasts, or marketing strategy.
• Explore to find your video “sweet spot.” Online video can be face-to-camera, animations, webinars, screen capture, or a mix — do what works best for your current stage of business and personality.
• Leverage new tools to cut down video creation time. Tools like Descript and Augie allow you to speed up planning, production, and editing videos.
• Use AI as a brainstorming assistant, not a replacement. ChatGPT and Leadpages’ AI Engine are great tools for helping you come up with ideas you wouldn’t have thought of on your own. They can also be helpful in summarizing your spoken thoughts or creating show notes for podcasts.
• Use video at each stage of your customer’s journey. From opt-in lead pages to post purchase thank you pages, engage with your customers with video.
• Authenticity is more critical than ever. As AI continues to grow in its usage, audiences will be hungry for a more personal connection with the people they’re doing business with.
• Done is better than perfect. Avoid the traps of perfectionism as you create content and programs that serve your audience.

Resources Mentioned

• Take the Cannoli - The Godfather Podcast
• Descript.com
• Discover Descript course (Lou’s Descript course)
• Loom.com
• WarmWelcome.com
• Oasis AI app
• ChatGPT
• Augie
• Video Planner

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Transcript

Who is Lou Bortone:

Bob: Lou, it's so great to connect with you once again, now for The Lead Generation podcast.

Lou: Thanks, Bob. I tried to figure out how long we've known each other. It's probably over ten years, don't you think?

Bob: Well, it certainly has, because when you spoke at my SIMPLE event for video marketing, that was in 2011, and we knew each other for several years prior so that I could know that you would be a good speaker at an event.

Lou: Now I feel ridiculously old.

Bob: Yes. Well, we're going to get into all kinds of really fun stuff because you are one of the most diverse learners and entrepreneurs that I know. But before we do that, in your current incarnation as an entrepreneur, how do you transform the lives of the clients that you work with?

Lou: I try to help folks who have a message they want to get out into the world, and I help them get their message to the world in what I think is the most effective way possible, which is online video.

Bob: That's awesome. And you're very good at that. I know. We're going to talk about some video tips towards the end, but for those that don't know you, they don't know your backstory. Let's just do a couple of quick, concise, golden nugget versions of your background.

First of all, you come from an entertainment background both by genetics and by profession. Can you talk a little bit about how you got started professionally in the entertainment world?

Lou: Yeah, genetics for sure, because my dad worked at the NBC affiliate in Boston for his entire career, which I know nobody does anymore, but he was there for like, 40 years. I would spend weekends at the TV station with him, and there was really nothing I ever wanted to do but go into television. I pretend to be sitting at the anchor desk and stuff like that. So when I went into TV, I went into the marketing side, not on air. I didn't really want to be on the desk or anything like that. And worked in radio and television in Boston and then moved to Los Angeles and worked in the entertainment business there for several years.

Bob: That's awesome. And you got to rise to the ranks of SVP at Fox Family and do some really cool stuff there. What had you jump from that into entrepreneurship? This is going on 20-plus years ago.

Lou: Wow. That's right. I know. I think part of it was I was getting a little bit homesick. My twins were two years old at the time I was in LA. It was like, well, no more premieres, no more red carpets because I have two little babies at home. And at the same time, my division of Fox was being sold to Disney and it just seemed like the timing was right to come back east and raise the kids back here.

So I came back to Boston and honestly, with a little hubris thinking like, oh, well, I worked in LA. I can do whatever I want in Boston. And that's not really the case. So I really kind of just went into hung up a shingle and was shooting video and producing video for non-profits and I kind of almost fell into it by accident. I just had to keep busy somehow.

Navigating Fatherhood as an Entrepreneur

Bob: Yeah, that's a very cool transition. That was obviously accidental, but it certainly has done well for you. You have now had your two twin babies grow up and they've just left college, which is amazing.

Any quick fatherhood tips that you want to give to the entrepreneurs out there who are parents and they're trying to make this work while having a family to focus on?

Lou: It's really hard, but I mean, I think and again, probably by accident, just I always put family first. And the great thing about being an entrepreneur and sort of making being able to make your own hours is I didn't have to miss soccer games and baseball games and gymnastics and all that stuff. I got to work my hours and my job around my family. So that was pretty cool.

Scratching a Creative Itch with a Cartoon Book

Bob: That's really neat. You have explored a lot of different ways of doing entrepreneurship, and one of them is creating cartoon books. A, why did you decide to make a couple of cartoon books? And the one I remember most fondly is one that is called F you Pay Me freelancers kind of guide to getting paid.

How did you think about that? And any tips you have for people that might want to do a little bit of a creative outlet than what they might otherwise do.

Lou: Well, a lot of it came from I was having trouble setting boundaries and I had some, I guess we'd call them dud clients at the time. And being an entrepreneur, we've all been stiffed from time to time. And being a fan of the old Goodfellows movie and Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro is I used that particular expression to write a cartoon book and to sort of make fun of it, like, oh, you're not going to pay me, okay. I'm going to find my guys, Bruno and Rocco to help you out.

Oddly enough, again, sort of being Bootstrapping everything, I did the entire thing on Canva. I mean, I made the rhyme because I can do that kind of stuff. And I pulled images off deposit photos and brought everything into Canva, and it was a totally homemade project that was done kind of as a joke. But then when I put it on Amazon, people actually started buying it. So I'm like, oh, well, maybe there's something to this after all.

That was just a fun little creative outlet.

My wife doesn't like it. She's like, you're going to be remembered for four-letter words, and that's your legacy. And I'm like, well, at least I'll be remembered for something.

Bob: Now, your current…

Lou: She’s not a fan until she sees the, hey, I sold 38 books last week, and that was $412.

Starting a Godfather Podcast

Bob: Your current side hustle that I'd love to talk about just for a minute is your Godfather podcast, Take the Cannoli. You call yourself the Video Godfather. You've been a big, huge fan of the movies. I have to admit I've never seen any of them from start to finish. And I know that we are still friends, hopefully.

But talk to us a little bit about why did you start that side project and what about your most recent trip out west again? What did you learn about?

Lou: Yeah, I don't know why. I've always been sort of obsessed with The Godfather. I think it's because I grew up in a very Italian neighborhood, and real “Wise Guys” lived in my neighborhood, and I went to school with their sons and daughters, and I just felt sort of like, okay, well, this is like our world. I mean, crazy stuff happened. Like, my mom wouldn't take us to the restaurant in Medford Square because the guy got whacked there the day before and stuff like that. So all this movie stuff was happening in real life in my hometown.

So having grown up with that and always sort of been a huge fan of The Godfather movies, I finally decided after resisting for years, that I would do a podcast. And I decided that when I learned that YouTube was the number one platform now for podcasting. So I said, Well, I have to do a video podcast, and I don't want to do anything more about video because I do so much of that. So I'll just do a video, a video podcast about The Godfather and the making of The Godfather. And it happened to be the 50-year anniversary. Paramount was running a miniseries called The Offer. So I'm like, okay, this is as good a time as any to sort of jump on The Godfather bandwagon.

So I've been doing that since about Thanksgiving, and then last week I was in LA. So I decided to be a tourist and take the tour of the Paramount studio lot where some of The Godfather was shot. And the whole time I'm like, no, that's not like the guy talking about this. And then Francis Ford Coppola did this. And I'm like, no, that's not how it happened. But I didn't correct the tour guide, I just kept my mouth shut and took it all in.

And then I went to the Academy Museum because they have a Godfather exhibit about the movie. And that was really cool because you could see the costumes and the original script and set and the actual desk. So last week was sort of Godfather tribute week in LA.

Bob: That's fantastic. So for those of you that are interested in such a thing, make sure you check out Lou's podcast about The Godfather.

Getting Started with Online Video

Now what I'd like to turn our attention to, of course, is video tips and ideas for small business owners, consultants, service professionals and the like to utilize video. We've had a few folks in the recent past of this podcast talking about YouTube growth strategies and things like that.

I want to talk a little bit about some of the variety of videos that people can create. As we're recording this, you're about to start a national video month. As we release it, that month is coming to an end, but you'll do another one soon.

Talk to us, A) a little bit about why should the resistant video maker go ahead and get into it, and B) what are maybe some of the easy dip your toe in the water sort of steps to begin with?

Lou: Right. Well, I was doing a couple of times a year I do a video a day challenge. And to be quite honest, I started that because it would force me to do a video a day and basically bring people along with me. And what I found there were so many different ways to do this and so many ways to come at it that like, okay, I'll do a video a day, but a different kind of video or a different platform every day for 31 days. And that's been, we've done it every year for a few years.

The great thing about it is there are so many ways to do it. So if you don't like being on camera, there are many off-camera methods. And I often talk about finding your video sweet spot. And basically when you experiment and maybe you try TikTok, maybe you try live, you'll eventually find that sweet spot that feels right for you and will help you do a lot more video because when it becomes fun, it becomes easy.

Bob: Yeah, it is. Because you've worked with dozens of people at each iteration of this. I'm sure you've seen the light bulbs fire off. So for those that do come in a little bit resistant, they obviously are willing to take a little bit of a leap by joining you.

What kind of moves the needle for them? What gets them over the hump as they get into their first few videos?

Lou: Oftentimes people will say to me, if I knew it was this easy, I would have done it a long time ago because there's low-hanging fruit. I think live video. Very simple. You can do it from your phone. You can go to Facebook with a couple of taps on your iPhone.

Again, if you're doing a webinar and sharing slides. That's a form of video, really. So people, once they open their eyes to sort of like, oh, I thought video was like you have to be a talking head and you have to be very serious. But there's a lot of ways to come at it. And I think once people find that they can put their own spin on it, then it becomes a lot more liberating.

Favorite Video Creation Tool

Bob: That's cool. And you're a savvy tool tester. Do you have any particular types of computer tools that are helping you make the videos that you're creating or the ones that your students are taking?

Lou: Yeah, right now I love Descript.com, which is, I guess you could say it's AI because you can now edit a text document and whatever edits you make in the text will be reflected in the video.

So I think it's kind of a game changer for video and for video editing, because people who don't want to have to learn camtasia or Final Cut Pro or it's too big a learning curve can now pretty much edit a document. And whatever edits you make on the tech side are reflected on the video side, which I think is crazy cool.

Bob: That is really cool. We use Descript a bit in our production of this podcast, although we still also use some of the bigger suites because we have the talent in house.

But I do know that anytime you can use these types of tools, it can accelerate the release, which I believe is most important. Right.

Increase Your Video Diversity

You do this challenge where it's 31 days of video. You don't have to do 31 days in a row of each day has a release. But being that consistent allows you to produce quite a few videos.

Are you seeing the impact for their businesses with this big giant release of 31 videos or 25 videos or something like that? Or do you find those that are making two or three higher quality videos, getting better results?

Lou: It's pretty flexible. I mean, some folks will say, I'm going to use this as an excuse to create my video course, finally after all this time, because we give a lot of accountability and feedback and things like that.

Other folks, when they realize that there are tools like Descript, they may batch record and that's what I do, frankly. I batch record several videos at once and then I may not do them again for a week or two because I'm creating a lot at a single time, which I think is a good way to do it. Because when you find like, oh my God, it's quiet, the dogs are taking a nap, the guy next door is not mowing his lawn. Now I'm going to do the videos and get him out there.

Bob: That’s really cool. Now, the past few episodes that we've done video conversations, a lot of it's been the face-to-camera folks. So for those of you watching and you want to do that, go check out our videos with Matt Giovanisci and Miles Beckler. We also talked to Alex Cattoni.

I'd like to have you talk a little bit about the screen capture side of things. So number one, why are those still very effective on YouTube? What are some of the ways people are using those types of videos to get their message across?

Lou: People seem to love animated videos, sketch videos. There's a lot of crazy stuff on the short-form videos like TikTok and things like that.

And now that there are so many tools to create those, you don't have to be an animator, you don't have to know, you don't have to know how to draw. I mean, you can use Canva or any number of software to create videos where you don't even have to be on camera. And the main thing is, if the message is there and the stories behind it, then it doesn't necessarily need to have your face on the camera.

Bob: And I know that for many people they're using themselves maybe in a bubble in a corner or something like that. Are you finding that that's helpful to have that human connection even though the dominant visual is the screen?

Lou: Yeah, I love that. In fact, I use Loom.com quite a bit and go on to a lead page and maybe talk about that page while I'm in the corner there in a little bubble.

The other thing I like to do is if and 99% of the time I'll put a video on my lead page because I know it works better. But once in a while I'll put a bubble, use warmwelcome.com to create a video bubble that pops up on the lead page so I can sort of have my presence there. It's not taking anything away from the lead page, but I can sort of add a little bit of a personal touch to it by adding that little video bubble on the lead page.

Cut Down on Video Production Time

Bob: Yeah, that's really cool. I want to talk a little bit more about your use of Leadpages in a minute, but going back to the idea of using Loom or something of that nature, how much editing are you thinking or are you sharing with people to do versus I think editing is one of the hardest things for people to do.

You mentioned Descript already is a good tool, but for those that might be getting started, do you do much pre-planning before the recording starts to help cut down on editing? What other tips would you have for folks that can try to get from recording to production much faster?

Lou: A lot of it is pre-planning and I often make the distinction between what I call a quick video or a keeper video. So quick video, Facebook Live, maybe a testimonial, something that's maybe done on the fly on your phone. Very little editing on those quick videos.

But on Keeper videos, okay, there's a video from my sales page. If I'm selling $1,000 product, they better have a good video. There a video on my home page and about me video all those sort of foundational branding videos I'm going to spend a lot more time and effort on. So typically what I tell my students to do is reverse engineer the video and decide, start with the call to action, what do you want the viewer to do at the end of this video and how are you going to get them to it? And then sort of reverse engineer it that way and decide, okay, am I going to need to have a lot of editing here? Am I just going to have to have a really strong message?

So reverse engineer it. And if you do have to do any editing, you have to decide, can I do this myself in Canva or Descript? Or do I have to farm it out?

Bob: And for those that decide they do want to farm it out, what kind of tips would you have for them?

Lou: I have actually used Fiverr with a pretty good results. It's kind of hit or miss, but there are a lot of online sources. And what you do is, again, when you find something or someone who works, you just sort of stick with it, which is why I've been using Descript so much lately, because like, wow, this has saved me a lot of time.

I know there are other tools that can do this, but I'm going to find a tool that works for me and then just run with it.

Bob: That's really awesome. You mentioned Fiverr. Just a quick shout out to our friends at Fiverr because we do have a Fiverr certified Leadpages sub-marketplace that we've just released back in April. So if you go to Leadpages.com/fiverr, you'll see some folks that are dedicated towards working with our customer base. What's nice as you alluded to is sometimes can be hit or miss on the wider marketplace. These are people vetted just for the Leadpages community. So just a quick shout-out to them for putting together a great group.

Lou: Of, yeah, if you vetted them, then you're good to go. Because that's the biggest issue with that. You're not quite sure what you're going to get.

All this fun AI stuff has just made it so much easier now. Again, you don't have to be on camera there's. I think it's called Augie.com where basically you just put in the audio and it adds all the b-roll and all the images that match the words. And there are several like that.

There's almost too many to mention, but I'm still sort of exploring, okay, what's going to work and still have that personal touch, so that it's not just completely AI-generated.

Role of AI in Video Creation

Bob: I'm glad you brought that up because I wanted to turn to the AI world because we are flooded with that and it can be overwhelming, right?

So I know one of the things I appreciate about you is that you're always looking out and testing and exploring the different tools and you've, I'm sure, found a couple that you really like.

When you think about AI tools, let's talk first about maybe using ChatGPT as an idea generator or a brainstorm board. Are you doing that first of all, and any tips that you would have for people that want to do that?

Lou: Yeah, absolutely. I'm using that. I'm also using your Leadpages where you can kind of use the AI-assisted stuff for headlines and things like that. Because as long as I've been doing copy and Leadpages and things like that, I'm always looking for a new angle or a new idea or a way to A/B test.

And Chat GPT has just been a boon in terms of like, okay, I'm having writer's block or I'm stuck. I'm going to start to talk into this, I'll work into it and see what it comes up with. And oftentimes it's amazing. I mean, I did a lot of what I did with the 31 days of video, I asked Chat GPT for the prompts and I would say I used a handful of them, but it gave me stuff that I never would have thought of.

Bob: Yeah, I think we hold the position of using it as a tool, not a replacement, right? And you mentioned our headline swap, so we do have our AI engine, we have the writing assistant for copy, for our pro and advance. I'm glad that you're using that and it keeps getting better and better as people get trained into it, right?

When you're looking at the other types of AI tools, anything that sticks out, you mentioned this, was it AUGIE.com, anything else that's standing out for I think it's either producing videos or helping get more ideas.

Lou: Yeah, there's a lot of software and AI stuff with it that you can use for podcasting.

And since I started podcasting, I've been using a lot of tools like that Podium, I think is one. So if there's something where I can say, I'm just going to put all this in here and it's going to give me the show notes and the summary and things like that, anything that's going to save me time so that I can do more fun stuff outdoors, I'm going to try that.

I do have this one app that's in beta for the iPhone called Oasis, and basically you talk into it. So I was driving and rambling and talking about another podcast episode and it gives you back a full New York Times-style article, a blog post, a song, a summary, I'm just like, oh my God, my mind is totally blown because I was rambling about, oh, I made this trip to Paramount and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then suddenly I have a 300-word article that's professionally done that made sense out of my nonsense rambling. So stuff like that.

And that's not necessarily video, but I'm using that to start to get video scripts and to start to sort of consolidate my ideas.

Bob: Yeah, that's really cool that we're living in this time where all these things are possible. Those of you that are listening, if you've still been a little nervous, take the jump and play with some of these tools because it really can save you a lot of time in the long run.

Using Video on Your Landing and Sales Pages

You mentioned a bit about using Leadpages for your marketing. I'd love for you to give a tip or two around using video on an opt in page or a sales page. Anything that you've learned about how you go about thinking about marketing a new product or program using video on a sales page.

Lou: Yeah, my philosophy is to use video at every stage of the customer journey so that you're with them and you're taking them with you along this journey. I mean, there's so many distractions and rabbit holes that people can go by.

If I send someone to a lead page for a freebie, I want to have a video there. When they go to download the freebie on the thank you page, I want them to have a video there.

I might send a video email follow-up in a few days to them and say, hey, have you taken advantage of this content and any of the Leadpages that I'm going to do, I'm just basically trying to make sure that I've hit every touch point where the individual may sort of be going through that customer journey and making sure that they see my smiling face there every time, reassuring them, you're in the right place. This is what to do next.

So in a way, it's like having personal shopper with you, going through the store as you're buying stuff, hopefully.

Keeping Things Authentic

Bob: And I think that seems to be, to me, really important in this world of AI because there is this hunger for authenticity while also balancing the search for time savers, right? So we want to use AI in such a way that brings us more productivity. But from a coach or consultant strategist perspective like you have, it seems to me that you still want to have that personal connection as much as possible.

Lou: Absolutely. Yeah. I think, again, that's using video to create know, like, and trust and using video to establish a deeper relationship, really, and especially for somebody like me, that's an introvert.

I'm okay with going on camera and doing that. I'd probably rather do that than do it in person. So if you're an introvert and you want to make that connection, this is a great way to do it because you don't have to leave the house.

Diversify Your Offers

Bob: It is amazing. Now, one of the other things I wanted to ask you about is the different types of programs that you offer. So you are a type of coach and strategist that has recorded products for sale. You have this 30-day or 31 day National Video Month that you're calling it. Now, you've also had retreats in Italy, and I just want to give you an opportunity to share, A) what are the kind of fun ways that you love to serve your clients and B) is there any other ones that are creative that you'd love to share that people might not have thought about for themselves?

Lou: Yeah, and it's one of those things where it's like if I need something and I don't see it out there, I want to create it. So I do a lot of video courses.

I'm working on a Descript course, because I've seen that there are a lot of people who want to use it but don't quite know how. And the company itself is growing so quickly that they don't have as many tutorials as they might want to. So usually I just try to look for opportunities like that.

The only downside of creating video courses is that the technology changes so quickly that you sort of have to keep it fresh and keep re-doing it. So a YouTube course that I created six months ago may be completely out of date, but that's what keeps it interesting and fun and that's why I like doing that.

Aside from the courses, I do a lot of one-on-one consulting and coaching and I also have a membership called Fast Forward where I give them all the good stuff first. And out of that came the idea like, well, what if we do a retreat? But rather than doing it in a conference room somewhere, we go someplace really cool. And truthfully, it's like I was looking for an excuse to go to Italy and not have to pay for it. So I created a mastermind group that went to Tuscany for a week or so and we just rented a big villa and did videos and did brainstorming and all kinds of fun stuff. And I've gone back a few times since then, but the pandemic put a little glitch into the travel world for a little while.

Bob: Do you have another one of those coming up in the next year or two?

Lou: Probably. I'm doing a site survey, which is code word for like, well, I'm going to Italy anyway, and I'm going to look at some villas and things like that in September. And then last May I spent the entire month in Italy because I honestly just wanted to see can I work and live from here and have the business not miss a beat? Which was great because as long as I have Internet connection, everything was business as usual, so that was pretty cool.

Bob: And now that your kids are out of the house and even out of college, you have a little bit more opportunity to test that out a bit.

Lou: Yeah, absolutely. So I've just been working remotely and trying to be able to do videos from cool places and things like that. Still arguing with my tax person on whether or not the Villa is a write-off, but I'm like, well, I did video there.

Bob: Or you need a new tax person.

Lou: Exactly.

Who is Lou Learning From?

Bob: So as we start to come to an end for our conversation today, Lou, I imagine that although you love to do a lot yourself and you love to explore because you are a super curious person, I imagine that you do learn from other leaders in the space. So anybody stick out to who we should be paying attention to?

Lou: Wow. I mean, in the YouTube side, it's really difficult because it changes so quickly.

But again, I go back to you guys at Leadpages because you're always doing really cool stuff and you're on the AI edge of things as well.

I have a colleague in Ireland, his name is Johnny Beirne and he is a whiz when it comes to equipment and setting up your studio. And I've learned a lot from him in terms of I finally broke down and got a teleprompter because if I'm doing a video that's a couple of minutes, I'll usually just wing it. If I'm doing a podcast, that's 15 minutes, I feel like I need a script. And so I have the teleprompter with the iPad and I learned all of that from Johnny Byrne in Ireland, who is really a master of setting up your video studio.

Bob: That's awesome.

Lou: And also on the AI side, I've been learning quite a bit from our mutual colleague Denise Wakeman and Andy O’Bryan, who have an AI Success Club. So they're doing a really great job of sort of curating all the things coming at us and trying to give us an idea of what's worth looking at and what's just another AI flash in the pan.

Bob: Yeah, great call out for her. I know Denise has a really good eye for what's going to stick around and what's going to be, as you said, a flash in the pan. So good to recommend that.

Overcoming Business Hiccups

My last question for you, Lou, is I imagine that in all the things that you do, you run into roadblocks just like anybody else does as an entrepreneur, any quote, mantra or other philosophy that you love to share that helps you get to the other side.

Lou: Wow, that's a really good question. I would say you got to know when to double down on something and know when to say, this is not working, I'm going to give up on it.

I've had folks who tell me, like, well, I did 99 versions of this video. I'm like, well, do three versions, and the first one or the last one is going to be the best, so you don't have to do it 99 times. So part of it is, done is better than perfect. Just get something out there so that your message gets out to the world.

Bob: That's cool. And if people want to learn a little bit more from you, Lou, what's a good first step?

Lou: I have a video planner, which kind of outlines the steps that you can take to do a video LouBortone.com/Planner, which, of course, is a lead page. So there's a nice freebie there for folks.

Bob: Awesome. And again, make sure you're listening in to Take the Cannoli if you have any interest in The Godfather series of movies and the culture around it.

Lou Bortone, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Leadpages podcast was a blast, as always.

Lou: Thanks, Bob. Good to see you again.

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