My Tog Blog About Awesome Content Creation

Secrets of a Luxury Brand Videographer, with Christian Schu

• Tim (Mytogblog) • Season 3 • Episode 34

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Discover the secrets of a luxury brand videographer with Christian Schu!

Thanks to Riverside.fm for sponsoring this episode. I use it to record all my podcast interviews, and you can try it out with a 15% discount using the code MyTogBlog. Check it out here. (Note: This is an affiliate link, which means I would earn a commission if you make a purchase using this link.)

Christian Schu is a videographer with over a decade of experience working with luxury brands and creating award-winning videos. He's created video content for the Mallorca Open (Women's Tennis Association), Bang & Olufsen, Tobias Beck, Naim, and the Sherton Grand (Hotel Dubai), and he's won awards at the Los Angles Film Awards, the Las Vegas Movie Awards, and the Paris Film Festival. 

In this episode, Christian shares how he transitioned from being an insurance broker to luxury brand videographer. He provides insights into building strong client relationships, the importance of storytelling in video creation, and overcoming challenges in filming high-quality content. 

Aspiring videographers and creators can learn valuable tips on growing their own content businesses. Tune in for an inspiring conversation filled with practical advice.

If you'd like to get in touch with Christian Schu, you can connect with him via his website.  

Thanks for listening! Do you have a comment or question about a topic or episode? I'd love to hear that. Feel free to contact me via Instagram, LinkedIn, or the Contact Us page. You can also check out these links for resources and merch for content creators.

[00:00:00] Tim: Hey everyone, my name's Tim, and this episode is brought to you by our sponsor Riverside. 

[00:00:04] So, you know, Riverside's the tool I've used to add up my podcast interviews since I got started nearly three years ago Now. And I've always been impressed with the new features they've been coming out with, like AI cuts, B roll, pause recording, live tools and more. 

[00:00:20] But especially the way that they've been supporting creators like myself through sponsorships and also the information that they're putting out in the form of guides, blog posts, and other resources that can really help to level up your podcast or YouTube channel.

[00:00:35] These guides they offer from experienced creators and the Riverside team on everything from social media promotion to tips for growth and monetization, how to book your dream guests, and more, are just a few examples of these resources. 

[00:00:49] If your podcaster or YouTuber, I highly recommend giving Riverside a try. And if you want do that, you can head over there using the link in my description and put in the code, MyTogBlog for a 15% discount. 

[00:01:02] And now, onto the show.  

[00:01:09] How would you like to travel the world making awesome videos for luxury brands and get paid for it too? Well, my guest today, Christian Schu, is living that dream. Christian has more than a decade of experience creating cinematic stories for brands. His content has won international awards in competitions such as the Los Angeles Film Awards, the Vegas movie awards, and the Paris Film Festival, and he's created video content for high-end brands such as a BM audio.

[00:01:38] Name and bang on. All of sudden in this episode, Christian shares with us how he landed some of his first high-end clients, what he does to build and maintain their trust and the principles that he applies to make high-end luxury videos. And whether you're an experienced videographer or just starting out, I think there's a lot we can all benefit from listening to his advice about how to take our own content up to that next level.

[00:02:06] So without further ado, let's get into it.

[00:02:08] Hey Christian, welcome to the show. 

[00:02:09] Christian: Hi, Tim. Thank you for having me. 

[00:02:12] Tim: Oh, it's great to, be here with you. I'd love to start just by learning a little bit more about your story and how you got into what you're doing. 

[00:02:19] Christian: Okay. Well, to put a long story, very short, I was not happy with what I was doing.

[00:02:24] I was an insurance broker and selling insurances, and I wanted to get, actually, basically, I've been sworn to myself, I will never do that again, just until I reached a point in my life where I had to decide to do it again. To make money. And sustain living and life or do something else.

[00:02:45] And then I remembered my childhood. I was building with Lego Studios, with Lego bricks. I've been building TV studios instead of police stations and fire stations. So when I recall back this memory, it. Suddenly appeared in my brain. When I was like a little bit, desperately searching for some I don't know, like, purpose in life and what should I do, right? And then it hit me. Yeah, it strike me like a lighting, basically like that. And I couldn't get rid of this thought anymore and of this idea. And one month later I said, okay, that's it. I've sworn to myself I will never do insurance anymore and sell insurance.

[00:03:22] So I started. Yeah, with zero and zero knowledge, I've been never to film school. I had this dream and I, maybe I was bursting with creativity, but I had no idea how to do that. So I had a friend, a good friend, helped me to build a green screen studio. Back then in 2015, it was maybe the peak of virtual studios, right.

[00:03:45] You know, everyone was. Doing a green screen recording for their online course and this and that. Maybe I was a little bit too late, but No, no problem. It was great learning. Yeah, so he helped me to build that up. And one month later I had my first paid client, amazing. More or less out of nowhere. And that's how I got into it.

[00:04:07] This is what I actually really always wanted to do, but I never dared before. Yeah. In 2015 there was this kind of way to go. Either you go left or right. And I decided to stick with my dreams and take the leap of faith and just go for it. And I never regretted it. It's not always easy. 

[00:04:27] But no matter what you do, you have ups and downs. That's my story in short form. 

[00:04:32] Tim: That's amazing. Well, how did you get the first clients? Was it social media, was it advertising? Was it word of mouth? 

[00:04:39] Christian: In fact it was word of mouth. But the most funny thing for me, is that this was a friend or a business partner of another business partner of me. So I've been introduced like, oh, you know, Christian, he is very good in marketing and now he's doing filming. You should talk with him. And that's how I got to know this guy. And this guy was so easygoing.

[00:05:00] He never minded that I had zero experience and he gave me, actually, my first paid job was filming the WTA Mallorca Open. It's a Spanish island. My job was to capture the B-roll in the back, you know, the celebrities cheering, talking with each other and make some compelling and emotionally clever video from this. That was my job to do. 

[00:05:26] But the client was, basically the company who set up this Mallorca Open, the WTA is the Women's Tennis Association. That was a big gig. All the stars were there. All the women tennis player from the top 20 was there competing with each other because it was the last grass tournament before Wimbledon. So they all came and I've been doing that the whole three years when there was the WTS Mallorca open. So I must have made something right. But at the same time it was a steep learning curve for me. To make that work out.

[00:05:58] Tim: That's great. I mean, it shows the importance of that word of mouth kind of connection, leveraging your personal networks when you're an entrepreneur, especially starting out. Yes. A lot of creators focus on social media almost at the expense of that, and I think they're making a mistake in a lot of cases in terms of where the proportion of the effort should be going at first. 'cause you desperately need those clients for your portfolio? Yes. I'm sure that was a huge boon for you, like you're saying. 

[00:06:26] Christian: I totally agree with you. In fact, until today, which is now, 

[00:06:31] 10 years ago, yeah, 10 years I'm in this business. And I love it, but most of my clients are word of mouth. They're calling me up. Oh, I've seen you did this and that for this client. Can you do something like this for us? Of course. They are not contacting me via social media. But they are sending me an email or ringing me up because they got the number from somebody.

[00:06:51] Exactly. You know? I mean, I believe that nowadays you have to be present on all of these platforms. You need to have a portfolio up there. These clients will also check you out. At the end it will decide that, and at least that's my experience. They will decide, because I did something already right in the industry, or I did something for somebody they know. 

[00:07:12] Tim: Yeah. That's exactly what another guest of mine, said, Daniel Yores. He is a fitness expert. And he's like, yeah, I get most of my clients through word of mouth. But social media is critical because my portfolio, it's where people go. They've heard of me through a friend and they're like, okay, I'll go check out his socials and see if I like 'em. Yes. And then it's like a funnel. I like thinking about it as a multi-channel approach.

[00:07:33] You can get some clients through social media, but a lot, especially at first, you need that trust factor. On social media, if you're starting out and have less than a thousand followers, somebody goes to your profile unless they have some pre-knowledge of you they won't think that that's impressive. It's unfortunate, but like, maybe they're not an expert. But if they've heard from someone in their real life, oh, this is a good person to work with, you know, that's where it doesn't, the follower count doesn't matter as much.

[00:08:00] Yeah, I think your experience shows a good example of like how these pieces fit together. Absolutely. 

[00:08:06] Christian: I see social media and all those profiles as like maybe 20 years ago, the calling card, right? If your business card was very fancy and had a nice title on it you've been somebody. And they were like maybe trusting more than if you gave them a paper cut out card that you designed by yourself, you know? 

[00:08:25] Tim: Exactly. 

[00:08:26] Christian: And, that's social media now. 

[00:08:28] Tim: Yeah. So you had your first clients, the business started to grow. What do you think was the main factor in getting beyond that first stage where you've done your first work and now you're trying to scale it up. What helped in that phase? 

[00:08:44] Christian: That's actually a very good question. I believe with me it was my compassion, the first gig turned out quite nice, and of course I had ongoing business with this client. 

[00:08:55] But then it slowly evolved. They've seen the videos that I've done. I also did some networking, on this, uh, Majorka Open event, because all the European press was there and businessman and also rich people who just wanted to enjoy life.

[00:09:10] And of course they've been seeing me jumping around there, right? So, what they didn't know is that I was so shortly in the business, but they've been guessing. Yeah. If he's jumping around there taking videos and doing that for this company, he must be doing it good. Exactly.

[00:09:26] So of course, I collected numbers again; I did some networking. I was invited to the VIP party as well, not only to film, but also to do some networking. A few people hit me up and asked me. Hey, who are you? Where are you based? What are you doing? And so from this, I also took the opportunity to do networking and to get to know those people and to ring them up later.

[00:09:49] Again, ring them and again, ring them because they've been busy and they've been not here and they've been not there. Right. And then I traveled a bit to meet them because maybe they are only in Spain. So, yeah. You need to sacrifice a few things, especially at the beginning of your career.

[00:10:03] My working days were long. And my resting time was not so long. The first 3, 4, 5 years, I believe it's important to show up. I mean, you need to show up every time, but maybe invest more into this to have a base laid out.

[00:10:19] Tim: Yeah. What you said there really reminds me of a story from early in my career. I had written a book for the Canadian Gas Association for their hundredth anniversary and got invited to one of their parties, for the book launch they were doing.

[00:10:30] And, you know, I'm a little bit introverted myself, so I was kind of standing, around just with my drink and one of the people from the Gas association came up and said to me, Tim, what are you doing? This is a room full of potential clients. I'm like, yeah, you're right. So I got out there.

[00:10:46] It's tough, though. I think, you know, especially when you're starting out. Do you have any tips that helped you kind of push through, the nerves when you're networking and at an event like that? 

[00:10:55] Christian: Oh, at the beginning, that was also not easy for me. I wasn't confident in what I was doing because for me, I know already. When I go to Majorka, for filming, I've been doing it maybe one and a half months, two months around, and I was more or less watching YouTube tutorials day and night to achieve the level they needed for the video to be. And I've trained a lot and I tried out this and I tried out that before, you know, in the evening shooting in the afternoon. I was trying to make this move. How is it working with pulling focus at the same time and so on. I've been doing it totally alone. All by myself. So you need to learn everything, you know? You need to learn to do a good sound, a good lighting. A good camera movement and everything must be in focus. 

[00:11:42] So I was not very confident back then, but I was lucky that the people were easygoing. And then I was like standing in the middle of that. I was confident. And lucky me, I guess they took what I was doing before and said, well then he's good in what he's doing now.

[00:12:00] And so from this I've been becoming more easygoing. And from that on, I just, maybe I still needed five minutes standing somewhere listening to some conversation first and then stepping in. 

[00:12:11] Tim: Exactly

[00:12:12] Christian: I a hundred percent agree. For me, it's also not always easy to, I'm not the guy jumping in and saying, Hey, here I am. The world waited for me. Finally, you are all lucky that I'm here. I'm not that kind of person. 

[00:12:24] Tim: I think you take a few minutes get your bearings most people are probably more easygoing than we realize or perceive. If you just start the conversations, 90% of people will be receptive yes, there will be those ones that are kind of cold or what have you, but, it happens. You just kind of keep going. That's great. Keep the end goal in mind, what you're trying to achieve there. 

[00:12:45] Christian: Yes. 

[00:12:46] Tim: One of the things that I noticed on your website was that you have this idea of story building. And I think that's really important for the success of, of video creators.

[00:12:55] So I'm interested, what you said about how you offered to help make your company or product ready for the movies. I thought that was an interesting approach. How do you go about doing that? Because like we're talking about people not getting past the nerves of networking. I feel like that's multiplied a hundred times when you're saying okay, get in front of this camera and we're gonna put this video on the internet. 

[00:13:17] Christian: Yeah, yeah. True. 

[00:13:18] Tim: So how do you get people like a business owner and not an actor or, a media personality? How do you get them to be comfortable with doing this?

[00:13:27] Christian: Well, when it comes to story building. What I basically do is I listen, I listen a lot. I take more time at the beginning before I even do more or less anything. I have calls with this business owner or with the marketing department, depending on the size of the company, mostly it's just a business owner, CEOs I'm dealing with, and I just listen what is important for them, what. Do they want what kind of product service or, what are they offering and who is their target group? And I found out in for sure, half of the time that I have somebody sitting in front of me that they don't know who is their target group.

[00:14:06] Exactly. They are like, we are doing products for everyone. Who is buying? Who is the persona your targeting? And then they don't know. And then I need to sit down and either talk with the marketing department to figure that out better. 

[00:14:21] Tim: Yeah. 

[00:14:22] Christian: Or it's my job, to do a project that targets the right group for them 

[00:14:26] Tim: right 

[00:14:27] Christian: At the beginning, when it comes to this kind of story building, storytelling approach that I have, I'm listening a lot. And I'm figuring out. For who is, for who is the service or the product, tailored to, right. Who can we sell best? And of course, I have some experience after doing this for 10 years, so I roughly know who are we talking about. 

[00:14:48] And the second question you asked, how to get the people like A CEO who is right, usually not in front of the camera. Comfortable is tough. I can tell you it's really tough because they maybe are used to speak in front of hundreds or thou even thousands of people. 

[00:15:09] And that's no big deal. They have a shareholder meeting and yeah, he talks there, but it's all here. They are feeling uncomfortable. And that's happening between the two ears. If we, let's say doing a brand movie or something like that mm-hmm. And they have to talk in front of the camera or have to host that, I will tell them, which is really important. They need to know their text. I had one time where the CEO didn't know the text and he didn't train for it on production day, and I packed my things and I've been leaving because I know it will not work.

[00:15:42] Yeah, I know this is totally wasting his time and my time. It will not work. They need to know the text. So if they know the text, what they want to say, because we need to make it repeatable. That's the thing about video. If you are standing in front of a thousand people and you are having shareholder meeting, you can talk, talk, whatever you want, as long as it makes some sense.

[00:16:02] And you have some like, like common threat. You mm-hmm. You've been, going through everything is fine. But with the video, it must be repeatable. Mm-hmm. That's the most important thing. So they need to know the text. Okay. Long story short, yeah. They know the text. And then I have a little trick that most of the time works, which is I tell them, okay, listen, I need to set up the camera.

[00:16:25] I need to set up the sound right. I need to set up everything we do. One test. Yes. I'm not filming yet. We need to do one test. I see everything. And then we film. Is that okay for you? Yeah. Yeah. That's okay for me. Sure. No problem. So now we are not filming, right? Yes. Now we are not filming. Of course I'm filming.

[00:16:44] There was not only one time when the only footage I was able to use was this footage. 

[00:16:50] Tim: Yeah. I've experienced the same thing myself as a creator, okay, I'll do my first take. But it's just the practice take. It's better sometimes for the later takes where I'm actually trying to act, and since I'm not an actor, it's not as good.

[00:17:03] Christian: And that's really a problem because the CEO especially, he got a image of himself and he needs to also show this image. Of course. So he's the people I'm maybe sometimes too stiff. Right. They're not loosening up, they're not easygoing. Yeah. This is not just for them, it's something big.

[00:17:19] Maybe they do that only once or twice a year. Right. So they are like this? Yeah. You know, like in front of the camera, like this and what was my text now? And then it's over. Yeah. And then we go line by line. Um, okay. Yeah, I can cut there. Yeah. Okay. No. Now this one you need to give me try again.

[00:17:37] The full, full two or three lines, then only I can cut. And then they are super insecure and this is something, it will only go away with training. With a lot of doing. 

[00:17:49] Tim: Yeah, I know that. And that's the challenge. 'cause you don't have time to train them. 

[00:17:52] Christian: Yes. And we don't have, and they don't have, have time to like, I mean, of course I can stay there for one week and they will pay that, but it's no point. You know? Yeah. It's no point. It's not good for them. It's not good for me because it's like really wasting time and money. 

[00:18:04] Tim: It's not like, yeah, I'm gonna practice this for a few days and I'm gonna be good at it. 

[00:18:09] Christian: Exactly. No, it's, it's not going to be like that. So if nothing helps, what sometimes helps is if they drink, two sips of wine to make them more calm and more relaxed, or just me being alone with them, you know?

[00:18:24] Yeah. Sometimes there is. A whole bunch of people around marketing. I could see that department telling, no, you cannot say it like this. Another lawyer standing around the corner saying, oh, we need to make sure that you are saying the right words so we are not attackable by somebody else. And all of this.

[00:18:40] Then you have, and then you have a bunch of people, 10 people standing around the set and the CEO is like Uhhuh. Okay. Hmm. Doesn't feel good. Sometimes I will just compliment them out of the room. And say, all right. Now it's just the two of us. Yeah, that's right. Easygoing, relax. Yeah, I know we can do that.

[00:18:58] So now you calm down and basically you just talk with me. Yeah. And you know what? I'm right behind the camera. You see that lens there? Right. I'm only looking on my monitor. Front of the camera. Yes. I have a big bigger screen or what Sometimes they can see that I'm really looking on the monitor and I'm focusing on you.

[00:19:16] Mm-hmm. You look at me, right. If you want to look at me, you need to look into the camera. And now you talk with me. 

[00:19:20] Tim: I always record more effectively if it's me or like me and one other person, but as soon as there's people standing around, it becomes almost distracting.

[00:19:28] Christian: Yes. And you're thinking, oh, what they're thinking now and oh, now I have audience. 

[00:19:34] Tim: Yes. Then it's like, oh, that was a bad take. Now I'm wasting the time of all these people. 

[00:19:39] Christian: Yeah. And so you are feeling more uncomfortable and it's like a circle of death maybe.

[00:19:44] Tim: Yeah, totally. It's not good. So, that's really great about the customer avatar and figuring out who you're talking to. I think that's so, important with video marketing. 

[00:19:57] Christian: Yeah. 

[00:19:58] Tim: Defining who you're talking to is so important.

[00:20:01] Christian: Actually, yes. Sometimes you have a marketing department who got some ideas already. Have some plans, some ideas, but it's always my job, more or less to guide them into the right direction. You're working with a big company then you have a lot of egos everywhere.

[00:20:17] And you need to please them because I'm externally, I'm not internally in this company. When I have a new client like this, then I need to be a friend with the marketing department, especially if it's a bigger company, they need to like me and they can't see me as an enemy.

[00:20:32] Tim: No. 

[00:20:32] Christian: I need to be their friend and have some good ideas that they can sell as their ideas to the CEO. 

[00:20:39] Tim: I could totally see that. 'cause, like, all it takes is one word from the marketing department. We don't like working with that guy. Yeah. It's like, okay, we'll try someone else.

[00:20:47] Christian: This guy is difficult. Yeah. And that's it. 

[00:20:48] Tim: Yeah, and so I think your target market, when I look at your website, I'd say like, you're a luxury brand for video marketing. And you're working with high-end clients. And so you gives us a little hint there, but what do you think is essential to landing high-end clients and then keeping them. 

[00:21:06] Christian: First of all, there is like the fundamentals, I would say, and this is good work. Maybe not good. But already great work, right? You need to know what you're doing. You need to be confident in this and you need to do a very good job. Nobody need to talk about that. 

[00:21:24] That's the very, very first thing. And then I believe your videos need to sell. At the end, it's all about sales. Everyone want to sell. I mean, even if I have a client come to me and tell me, Christian, we need to have a better image of ourselves. Alright. Why do you want to have a better image of yourself?

[00:21:45] Yeah, because the people don't buy our products. Yeah. Alright, so it's about sales at the end, right? It is always the same, even though if you do a image campaign like that. A positive image campaign. It's about how the people see you as a brand, see the company or personal brand, how they, how they get to know you, figure out who you are.

[00:22:05] It is about sales. So at the end. The question is always that I also ask my clients, even the high ticket clients. What do you want the viewer after watching this video to do? What are they supposed to do? Do you want them to go to your website and watch the whole video because now they only watch five seconds or 10 seconds on social media, or you want them to buy a product or you want them to tell about this funny advertising they've just seen to a friend, what is actually the plan? What is your customer, your potential customer supposed to do after this? 

[00:22:42] This is really important because, it's a different way of conducting a film and doing a commercial. It's a different approach. You guide the audience in a different way if they are supposed to click on your website because they are curious. They want to know what's going on after this. Why the film is suddenly stopping at a time where I want to know more, then they will click maybe. Your target group hopefully will click and now they can see the whole three minutes. And then after that, what are they supposed to do? Newsletter, product placement, like on social media?

[00:23:19] It's really all about that. And that's what I need to know first. Then only I can dive into the project 

[00:23:26] Tim: And I guess with your clients, a lot of the call to action is more like, visit the website or learn more as opposed to buy now because like you say, it's a short video.

[00:23:37] You can't buy highend or most people don't buy high end luxury electronics or something like that. That was a great ten second video. Here's $10,000. 

[00:23:46] Christian: Well, basically what my clients are selling is. Something that everybody wants, but nobody needs. Let me give you an example to help my clients, understand that, let's say there is a client of mine, Macintosh Labs a big uS manufacturer of very masculine, devices. One device easily is 10 grand. Easily, the range is a lot higher than 10 grand. They start with eight or 10 or 12 grand.

[00:24:11] It's just a receiver. With this receiver, you can't do much. You need a source, you need a loudspeaker, you need a lot more than that. So after they are finished setting up, they spend 50, 60,000 grand depending on whatever you want. 

[00:24:26] But this brand is very manly, like I said, very masculine. You have a lot of metal, a lot of typical like masculine form. Right. 99% of buyers are men. Who would have guessed that? What you can do is you can tell a story by, let's say basically put some smoke there. Reveal the device. And maybe you put that device into a, some kind of lunch club atmosphere.

[00:24:52] Right. You know, like those typical kind of nice men club kind of atmosphere. There you go. Alright. Done. Sold. The man will be like, oh, oh, nice. I need that. 

[00:25:04] Okay, next client is Bang & Olufsen. Bang & Olfufsen got a very diverse buyer, like buyer A set 50% man, 50% women. They buy together, right? A couple comes into the shop.

[00:25:19] Bang & Olufsen is a luxury brand from Denmark. And you can customize more or less everything. You can customize your loudspeaker by choosing the wood and the wood color and what kind of wood you want. Oak or you want a walnut or you want whatever wood you can choose, right?

[00:25:37] Or you would rather choose to have metal, no problem. So what you need to show in advertisements or in social media content, website content is a warm home. So the wife feels comfortable, right? She see that and she's like, honey, we need to buy this because this is nice. And it's like a statue anyway.

[00:26:00] What they create is like more or less like statues that have a very nice sound. So totally different approach. Right? And that's I would say how I managed to keep high ticket, clients happy and with me. They know my work is good. My work is working for them. 

[00:26:18] It's selling. I hit the right target group. And of course there is one more thing that also applies which has less to do with me, is the fact I know what they want. They call me up. Christian, can you help us? You know what we need, right? Yeah. I know what you need. I can help you.

[00:26:36] Right. We can do that. What is a bit short time in two weeks? Yeah. All right. Yeah. I can make it. I don't have anything on this date. Yes. Right. Let's, let's, let's hit it. Yeah. That's, that's why they call me. That's why they pay flight tickets for me. Mm-hmm. You know, because they are used to me. They know I do what they need.

[00:26:52] Tim: Right, right. Yeah. Like the trust, factor. And I think what you're getting at, when you're talking about the different types of videos that you're creating, concept that Jonathan Hayes and I talked about in our episode. Emotional resonance. And how do you create emotional resonance? And I think those are a couple of good examples of how it's not necessarily something overt. Right. It's not always delivered through words. It's through the whole video messaging 

[00:27:15] Christian: That starts with lighting, background, the whole setup. Where are we filming? Are we going to a forest? Or at least it looks like a forest. The audience thinks it's a forest. Yes. Because, you know, reality and video filming has nothing to do with each other. How is it portrait? What does the audience see and feel?

[00:27:35] What I learned in these 10 years is that soundscape, for example, is so important, so important. You need to hear it. If the sound is not there, it helps already to have no emotional resonance. It doesn't transport it. If you show a forest and there is not these sounds from the forest, like there is a person walking and it doesn't fit, like the person is walking on wood or on this muddy on the ground or whatever you are showing. It doesn't work. 

[00:28:07] 

[00:28:07] Tim: These are great points. Yeah. It needs to all of this, it's about the details, right? Yes. And we have to think about so many of the details. I think that's what makes creating video content so challenging to do well. You're right. One little thing. That's a disconnect. You might not think about it as the creator, but the viewer will notice it. 

[00:28:25] Christian: Exactly, and that's what I always say when I've been often asked from other filmmakers, but also from clients, they say, yeah, we want to film a little bit by ourselves.

[00:28:34] What is important? Do we need a good camera? And I say, yeah, the camera should be fine, but what you really need is the best microphone you can get. Because if this is not working, if this doesn't sound good. Your viewer will not like the video. 

[00:28:49] And don't even know why. Yes. Very interesting. The sound is not good and the audience will reject this video without even, like, there is something right in the subconsciousness that triggers them. I don't know why it is. Maybe we need some scientists to explain that. Yeah. But I also found that in my experience, if the sound isn't good or isn't fitting. They won't like it. They will reject the video. You have the most nice visuals. But the sound doesn't work. The video doesn't work. 

[00:29:22] Tim: Yeah. Exactly. So, yeah, that what, um, and that, that kind of reminds me of, uh, another thing I wanted to ask you, which is like, what, what do you think are the coming trends that video creators should be aware of?

[00:29:33] 'cause it's getting easier to create good visual. Yes. Like people have access to better equipment, people have access to editing software that can do stuff automatically, that used to take, expertise to create it. So what, where's the competitive advantage then?

[00:29:50] Or what, what's the trends people should be aware of to stay relevant as a video creator to differentiate yourself? 

[00:29:57] Christian: I will stick with storytelling as an answer for this question. The content nowadays that you are seeing on social media is so flat in terms of depth, in terms of story.

[00:30:09] You can easily get a hook, like a viral hook. You see something happening, you know, those kind of funny situations. And then from that they, those creators, they take it, you see a video where something bad happens to a person and then they slide into this situation alright. You have my attention. But then what, right. What happens after this, and I believe this is, like a good concert. If you hear the first five seconds, maybe you don't like this concert, no matter what music it is, heavy metal or rock or classic or pop, doesn't matter.

[00:30:44] Maybe the five seconds you are like, what is that? You need to take the time. To watch it and to get to know that. Yeah. Yeah. I believe it's crucial for content creators and for filmmakers in the future to have a good story. You know, this to me, this kind of trend that you are talking about, and that we, yeah.

[00:31:06] Like what is the trend of the future? I think the, the trend of the future is authenticity. Yeah. Back to the roots. Back to real filmmaking. Yes. The Marvel Empire and Avengers. And DC comics. Yeah. It's all very successful in terms of box office. Yes. But it's empty. Yeah. It doesn't have a soul.

[00:31:28] It's different. If you like the big feature films, if you film on location and the actor or the actress don't need to pretend something. Don't need to pretend there is a big, we are in the universe and there is, something coming up a meteor, and now I'm shocked. 

[00:31:44] You know for sure you know about Interstellar and Christopher Nolan, directed that with Matthew McConaughey. Mm-hmm. He did that as good as possible on location or, yeah. For the, for the scenes in the space. He projected the space mm-hmm. Onto some studio screen and hang up the glider where they were shooting inside.

[00:32:08] Matthew, of course he's a great actor, but it's different if you're acting in front of green screen. Yeah. Imagining something. Or if you can actually see that, yes, you can focus on other things. You don't need to imagine there is something you can just focus on. Mm-hmm. Acting itself. You can be this person, right, who is now in space losing time with the daughter. Precious time. Yeah. Because of being far away and, and different time is, time is change. Time is running differently and so on. And I believe this is, this is actually always the, the deal is good storytelling. You also don't need a viral hook.

[00:32:45] Tim: Exactly. I think those things are like, you know, they're trends and they're effective for a while, but then after people are burned too many times by like, okay, there's this hook, and then it immediately changes, to something else. Suddenly I'm watching a video about somebody's online course that I should buy, and I was like, I thought this was about a guy sliding down the hill.

[00:33:07] Christian: I like to compare that a little bit with fashion. We have fashion trends every year. When I grew up, now I'm 38. When I grew up going to school, it was very popular to have those kind of pants that have buttons all at the side. You can just tear them open. That was for a few years, two or three years.

[00:33:27] Very fancy. Everybody wanted to have it. Or all the girls were wearing, those kind of buffalo shoes. The plateau shoes that were in the nineties. Yes. Everyone want to wear that. But very honestly said, if you see somebody dressing nicely and classic timelessly, classic Italian fashion or French fashion, or British fashion, they are right quite good in this, 

[00:33:52] Tim: yeah, 

[00:33:52] Christian: 30 years ago.

[00:33:54] And you see them now. They are dressed well, right? It still works, and yes, of course it is more expensive. No doubt you will pay maybe a thousand bucks for a pair of shoes. But these shoes. You wear 20 years. And you just need to change the soul. It always works because it's a timeless design. And I believe good storytelling is timeless. Is really timeless. 

[00:34:18] Tim: That is a great way to think about it. Christian, I, I just wanted to ask like, what are some of the things that you're working on right now? 

[00:34:24] Christian: Right now, I have my usual clients that I have projects with, ongoing projects for social media, for, their websites.

[00:34:32] In May this year, we are just planning, this is high end again. High end is the biggest, fair in the world in Munich. Last time in 2025 in Munich, then they will move to Vienna. So maybe it'll be, a little bit more. That's usually four days of running around.

[00:34:49] Yes. And filming whatever I can. But besides this, I am just in the last steps of having my first feature at is, is a short film. Actually, it's not a short film because short film is 20 minutes. But after we started with the script and so on, we realized we have so much to tell. So it had became 40 minutes.

[00:35:07] Oh, nice. And it's just in the last steps of post-production, I'm actually waiting to have the music and the sound back from the Music and Sound Department to finalize everything, putting that together. And then of course the first step will be to bring that to as many film festivals as possible.

[00:35:26] Cannes will be coming up, in March, if not mistaken. Tribeca in May or June. Something like that. So of course we want to show that yes, compete. Compete with other films on film festivals. So I believe this year will be quite interesting when it comes to this. Amazing. I don't want to talk too much about it's basically a story about a woman who is lost in her life and lost in aging and can't accept. The way she's aging, but it's also some kind of film, Noah thriller. Where there is a young woman and she want to take the life of this young woman. And, uh, yeah. It's, it's interesting.

[00:36:08] Tim: Sounds very interesting. We look forward to seeing that. I wanna wish you all the best with those competitions. Thank you so much. And so just as we wind up, how do people get in touch with you? 

[00:36:19] Christian: Oh, pretty, pretty easy. I have my website. 

[00:36:21] Tim: Absolutely. I'm gonna put it in the description. 

[00:36:23] Christian: They can easily find me on social media as well, on all the major platforms, I'm active. They just hit me up if they need anything. If they need me to help them with video and film, I'm very happy to set up a initial call and see 

[00:36:38] if we are a good fit, because it always needs to fit on both sides I need to feel comfortable with this person or with this client in general with the values they stand for, they represent. I don't want to work for everyone. If I can't stand behind the products, for example, they are producing, 

[00:36:56] Tim: I think that's so important. I, I feel the same way as, you know, as a, as creator, I always try the products that I recommend. 

[00:37:02] Christian: Yes. You need to like the products, you need to like the people. And if you're not feeling comfortable with how they do it or what they are doing. Why you want to help them? In my case, why do I want to help them sell more, if I don't think it's a good thing. 

[00:37:19] Tim: Exactly. Yeah. Well, thanks very much Christian. It was great talking with you today. 

[00:37:22] Christian: Thank you so much, Tim. 

[00:37:24] Tim: So there's a key theme from the start of this episode that I think is just so important to highlight here, and it's about what Christian said with respect to getting his first high-end client through personal relationships. 

[00:37:36] And this lines up almost exactly with what Daniel Yores said about his experience in the fitness industry, what Tiago Faria said about his experience with digital marketing, and with my own experience as a content creator and in life in general. 

[00:37:52] And so here's four people who have never met one another before, never talked about this before, all saying the same things about the importance of personal relationships in business.

[00:38:01] And maybe this seems like an obvious point, but I see it time and time again with digital creators or business people, and especially with students, who will spend hours sending resumes off into the ether on the internet, but they're not doing personal follow up or outreach, or they're not leveraging the networks that they have.

[00:38:21] Look, I get it. It's tough. As I said in the episode, I don't even like doing it that much myself, but I'm gonna tell you two personal stories about why it's so important and why it's worth the effort. 

[00:38:33] So one of the jobs I did to earn money to pay for university was cleaning office buildings. And one day I was in there dumping garbage cans and I ran into this guy who was a manager within the building and we got to talking and he asked me how I was doing or something like that.

[00:38:47] And I told him how I had this problem, that I needed a summer job so I could earn money for university. The next thing I knew he was saying to send him a resume. And two weeks after that, I was working in the building on his maintenance crew making double the amount of money that I was making before.

[00:39:03] And you could say that was a bit of luck and it was. But, I wouldn't have had that luck if I hadn't told him about the fact that I needed a job. And, you know, I'd seen him before in the building and we'd talked a few times before, so we did have like a bit of a relationship, at least at a, a surface level, right?

[00:39:21] And so it's an example of like how, you know, you should tell everyone about what you're doing with your business and you never know what connections they might have or how they might be able to help you, but they won't be able to do that if they don't know what you do and like why it would be great to work with you. So you have to build those things and it takes time and it takes consistent effort. But as we've heard from so many other fellow creators and business people, this is the way to get those crucial first clients that you need to help building your business. 

[00:39:58] You can say, okay, this is all well and good, Tim, but what if I don't have a personal network? Well, this is where going to events, any kind of events, related to your industry or customers, or doing active personal outreach comes in. And I'll give you just one example of active outreach here before we move on. 

[00:40:14] So when I first started this podcast, I didn't know a lot of people who were into content creation, and I also didn't tell anyone at work about what I was doing, so I couldn't leverage those connections either. That's a story for another episode. 

[00:40:25] So my episodes got like 10, 20 downloads per show at first, back then. So there was like no business reason to be on the show. 

[00:40:32] But what I had done is built a personal connection with dozens of other content creators from around the world via social media. And, at the time, you know, I didn't have any specific requests of these people. These were just organic relationships that were formed as we supported one another and shared our common wins and struggles as content creators. 

[00:40:49] But that network had huge value when it came time to get the first guests for this show. So even as I just started and I didn't have a big audience or track record in podcasting, I was still able to get guests like Ginger Starr Borden and Nok Werner, who had thousands more followers than I did- partly because they knew me and they wanted to help me out. 

[00:41:09] And those were relationships I had built much earlier through online networking. And I'm not talking about just dropping likes or leaving some emojis and comments. I'm talking about genuine comments, replies to stories, dms, those kind of things. Experts in social media know that the relationships are really built in the dms. But again, topic for a different episode. 

[00:41:30] What I wanna finish on here is this question of emotional resonance in video content, and it kind of fits with what we're talking about in terms of building a relationship with your audience. And, you know, I really liked what Christian was saying with respect to emotional resonance, not necessarily relating to over the top acting in your video content. Because, I mean, most of us aren't actors, right? It's about creating a particular emotion or mood or vibe through things like scenery, sound, staging, and storytelling, and of course lighting.

[00:42:01] All these things come together to build emotional resonance, and when we talk about storytelling, we're talking about stories that are authentic and relatable as much as they are dramatic or exciting or what have you. But when we think about how to do that well, the structure of the story does matter, and that's where you're gonna wanna watch this next episode here to learn more about that.

[00:42:24] Thanks for watching. I hope you have a great day, and we'll see you in the next episode.