Transcription
Will editing your videos less make you more money? I believe the answer is yes. So, in this video, I'm going to show you the new way to edit videos so that they pass on maximum value and impact your viewers whilst growing your business in return. And you're going to like it because it's actually less work and it's way easier to outsource, too.
Now, to start, you need to understand just how big a shift in the editing space that I am seeing, especially for businesses. So, you're not putting viewers off with the wrong outdated style. So, the old way was this: You want to use stock footage, advanced animation, tons of B-roll, lots of cuts, music, sound effects, templates, zooms, as much flip motion as possible. Basically, you just want to add a ton to your video to enhance the visual experience.
But Greg and I, who's my editor, have been testing this for over 12 months. And we tried lots of different things. But when we cut out all of that stuff and came up with a new style that you're watching right now that's very simple, I got more comments, more leads, more sales, and conversions. It was just all in all better for my business. It was also faster to make content, too. There was hardly any feedback rounds. It's a game changer. So, it's all we're doing now.
So, now I'm going to show you my editing system. There's only five steps to it. It's easy. So, step one is this: You just take your footage, your A-roll, as I call it, and you load it into your editing timeline like this. Then, you just chop out all the mistakes and the pauses and the stumbles and that bit where you had an existential crisis cuz you messed up for the 15th time. That's it. Just get rid of the mistake.
Then step two, what this will do is it will stop your viewers getting bored and help you get more consistent leads because it's going to stop them from going get to the point which wrecks your trust with viewers if that happens. So, let me show you exactly how to fix that. Okay, so here's an example with the problem. Let's see if you can spot the mistake.
Okay, step three is going to enable you to get so shredded you're grating cheese on your six-pack without getting injured ever. March 2023, I'm at home sipping a cup of tea. I felt a sharp pain in my side for the fourth time in month and it was way worse than usual now. Because of this, I can't train. I'm losing gains and I can't understand. I've been doing everything right. What happened? Then on Thursday, I'm talking to mom. She mentioned that when she hit 40, she started getting all stiff and sore and was more injury-prone. And that's when it hit me. I've been treating my body like I'm 12. No warm-ups, no prep. So, if you want to stay shredded past 40, you got to warm up or you'll spend more time in bed than working on those chiseled dough blanks. Weird.
All right, so let's just have a look at the script there. And I'm going to ask myself, what can I remove so I get to the point faster? So often what happens when people do storytelling is they think they're writing a novel that requires like tons of details. But in YouTube, we don't need that. So we're going to get this line and this line gone. They add nothing. I mean, who cares that we were drinking a cup of tea? So in this stage of editing, your only job is this: Cut every single line that doesn't impact the rest of the video and you'll keep your credibility and your value high without making viewers feel like you're waffling.
She moves us on to step three. Now, we have to be careful here because I literally used to teach people to do this, but now I think it wrecks a business's video. And it's all about this: You see what I just did there? That little jump, it kind of gives you a feeling of a second camera angle. But here's the thing: You don't need to do this consistently to like retention hack your video. In fact, you don't need to do it at all. I use it sparingly now and only when it helps me land a point or dial up the impact. So, one way would be like this: I'll jump in right after a sentence ends. You see how that adds a bit of punch and it draws attention without being annoying. But, it's really only useful when you do it to give more emphasis to a point. So, you have to ban your editors from just jumping around at all costs cuz this is going to wreck your ethos. And never ever let them jump in mid-work like I just did then. It's jarring. It's messy and it pulls viewers out. It makes you look bad. It wrecks your credibility. It feels like a glitch. So, only do it when the sentence comes to a natural stop like that. See the difference?
Now, I've also cut back on jump cuts about 1000 times. But, if you're unsure how to use a jump cut, just don't use it. Just cut on the same width like this. There's nothing wrong with just staying wide, especially when I show you the next steps because it will complement it.
So, step four. It's basically 80% of my edits now. And I think it's made a massive impact on my business, too, because it makes the information I deliver just so much easier to digest. And it's because I just use this text. Now, to make this really simple and fast, working with Greg, all we did was just agree three very simple text styles to use and we never deviate from them. Because if you're always getting your editors to do different stuff or they're always trying different stuff, that wastes your time and theirs and it's more likely you won't like what they've done and endless feedback rounds. What we want is a repeatable editing system, not every new video to look completely different.
So the first style of this text I'm going to show you is really powerful. It's very easy and it works like this: So you know when you're reading a book and you flip ahead to see how long until the next chapter, we do that because we like knowing where we are. And while the YouTube play it will tell people how far they've gone into a video, they still kind of forget like where am I in the video? What step are we up to? So here's how I fix that in the edit. And I put step four on screen. That is it. No fancy animation. Nothing other than a black background and a number. So if your video is 10 steps to something, then at the start of every new step, just drop a number on screen as you talk under it.
Now, the second text style we use stops your videos turning into a boring slideshow. Because let's be honest, nobody has ever gone, "Ah, yes, a PowerPoint presentation. My favorite. Take my money." And this kind of harnesses what works in PowerPoint, but also keeps it personal. By doing this, just a split screen. I'm here on the side talking to camera. And the key points that I'm making show up right here. This helps the info sink in because you just keep them on screen. And look, there's no effects. There was no sound effects. Nothing moved them on; they just appeared or they might have typed on, but we don't use much motion at all. But more importantly, if you're not on screen that often, you kind of miss out on two of your strongest tools, body language and facial expressions. So, you either want to get your editor to simplify your points to add here, or you just write the exact points you want them to add in the edit and say, "Make sure these things go here." And that's it. It saves hours of back and forth if you do this. And it's fantastic for information uptake.
And then the third text style we use, well sometimes you need to show more than can fit in this side section here. And we don't want to make it overcrowded because its readability will crash. It won't work. So what we do when we want to show more is we drop the split screen. We keep the text or diagram like spread across the frame and then we add more info, but I pop up in a little box in the corner like I just did. And you kind of still get that human element. You're not losing out on the non-verbal communication that makes video so powerful. But if it gets to a point where we need all of this space on screen, we can just remove me now. You don't have to be on screen at all. I just see the difference it makes when it's 5 minutes of just a boring slide without you on and 5 minutes where you're just small in the corner. This is kind of the new way to retention hack for me that doesn't give people motion sickness and increases learning.
The next step is the secret source to the scale-back edit. That's really hard to say. Why did I write that line? Try to try that again. The next step is the secret source to the scale-back edit. This is the thing that's going to give your viewers like a light bulb moment that gets your stripe pinging and it's what takes your videos from feeling like just another read-out blog post to something that feels unique and fresh and trustworthy. And that is critical if you really want to differentiate in your niche. And trust me, you do cuz you won't get fired if you don't. But there's a few ways to do it. The first is by simply listening to the words that come out your mouth and asking, "How do I show this in the edit visually so that people can see the problem you're trying to solve?" But if your problem isn't something that you can just point a camera at, what do you do? Well, it often won't be. So, you ask yourself, how can I turn this visible problem into something physical? So, let's use me as an example. So, in this clip, I'm explaining why obsessing over increasing monthly return YouTube viewers isn't always helpful. And here's how I did it: I compared your channel to a bucket with a hole in it. The hole represents viewers dropping off and not coming back. But I said, if you just keep topping up with new people, the right people, it doesn't matter; the bucket stays full and that's how you can still build a business. So suddenly the abstract idea becomes real, tangible, physical and viewers instantly get it which was what makes it so powerful.
Then the next way of doing this is to visually show the solution. So one way I do that it's really simple: I just show each step on screen as I talk through it. So as the video progresses, each part of the process is then added visually in like one or two words. So by the end the viewer can just look at it and go, "Cool, I understand what all of those steps means. I'm ready to go take action. This is easy." And when people feel like the solution is simple, they listen, they get value, they go and action it, they come back, you're the hero, and then they buy your chisel. You've got to figure out what works for your audience. And once you do that, you can tweak this entire framework to suit them perfectly. How do you figure out what they respond to? Watch this video next where I break down exactly how to turn every video you make into a full-blown experience your viewers will get addicted to and that will keep them coming back for more.