Video Ventures, Revenue Rises, and Lisbon Life

Published on

May 20, 2024

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Issue #

014

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7

minutes

What's ahead:
Our new process working with a video editing agency, home page changes that actually bumped up our revenue, and a recap of our short trip to Lisbon for Jason's birthday

We just got back from an incredible 3-day trip into Lisbon to celebrate Jason's birthday! More details on what we did below, but it felt good to take a step back from work after so much focus for the first four months of this year.

In this issue, we also share with you some early results from shifting Teachery's website over to Framer. Enjoy!

- Jason and Caroline

predictable 🔄

Dialing in a process for collaborative video editing

👨🏻‍🦲 👋: For 15+ years I’ve been editing videos. I stopped counting after I hit 2,000 videos filmed, edited, and published.

I share this because after you've done something 2,000, you get pretty proficient at it. That can be a good thing, but it can also be an unintentional constraint because your proficiency can convince you that no one else could possibly take on that work and deliver a high-quality end-product.

This leads many creators—including us—trying to do EVERYTHING in their businesses for far too long.

This year, we intentionally have been trying to challenge ourselves to loosen the reigns a bit and find out what happens when we collaborate. In surrendering a bit of control, we're learning that we can free up our time and mental space to use our creative resources more efficiently.

As an example, we recently started working with an “Unlimited Video Editing” company. (I’m not going to name them or link to them quite yet, as we’d like to have more experience with them before recommending them.)

However, I can tell you that we think we’ve finally started to dial in a process that makes working with a video editor feel much more predictable with better results!

Here’s the process we’ve come up with:

🎨 #0 Create a brand kit. This is a simple PDF that shows how to use our brand elements properly (fonts, colors, backgrounds, graphics, and dos/don’ts).

📝 #1 Write the script. I write the first draft, then 👩🏻‍🦰 comes around to edit, improve, and add more storytelling elements to it.

🖼️ #2 Storyboard the script line-by-line. On an iPad, I sketch very crude drawings of what I want each line of dialogue to look like with on-screen visuals.

🗣️ #3 Record the talking head (A-Roll). For a ~10-minute completed video, it takes about 30-45 minutes of recording with all the flubs and mistakes 😂.

📽️ #4 Record B-Roll or create assets. This can also be gathering extra clips, GIFs, etc.

📦 #5 Package it up and deliver to the editor. We have an interface with our editor where we can link to the brand kit (PDF), script (Notion page), storyboard (PDF), A-Roll and B-Roll assets, and any final notes.

Before working with video editing company, it would take me 10-12 hours to complete a 10-minute video myself. After the process above, we are only spending 4-5 hours per video AND we know that time will get reduced in the future as our editor learns our design style and builds reusable templates.

Saving 5+ hours of work per week is basically getting an entire day back! Plus, video editing is an incredibly focused task, and it’s great to be able to offload such intense creative work and focus on more high-leverage stuff to grow our businesses.

You may be like us and think someone else can’t execute on your creative vision, but as we’ve been doing a lot this year, let this be an encouraging reminder to challenge those limiting beliefs and see if you can free up some of your valuable time!

Ps - You may think outsourcing is too expensive, but sites like Upwork let you define a specific budget for a project and you might be surprised that you actually can afford to do some outsourcing work.

​- Jason 👨🏻‍🦲​

Profitable 🤑

These home page changes increased Teachery's MRR

👩🏻‍🦰 👋: For the past month or two, Teachery's Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) was on the decline. (Not good!) Back in April, we shared with you that we decided to move our entire Teachery website from Webflow to Framer with a fresh new design.

Almost immediately after the switch, we saw an uptick in weekly trial signups (yay!).

However, we knew it would take a few weeks for this change to be reflected in actual revenue, given our 2-week trial period. But now, we're finally starting to see a turnaround in our MRR. Admittedly, it's very slight, but it's nice to see the graph headed in the right direction again!

The results of this change have us wanting to share two lessons we think YOU can take away from this home page upgrade to apply to your own business:

  1. Be clear about your differentiator: We honed in on what sets Teachery apart from other platforms (customization, simplicity, and flexibility) and made sure this was front and center. Instead of vague promises, we spelled out exactly why someone should choose Teachery over the competition.

  2. "Show" rather than "tell": Instead of just listing features or benefits, we intentionally tried to visually demonstrate the value of Teachery throughout the whole page. We loaded the page with examples of courses to show how Teachery gives you the flexibility and customization to make your course look wildly different. We offered many testimonials, and even showed a "before and after" visual of using a more boring competitor platform vs. the fun and branded look of a Teachery course.

How can you apply these lessons?

Take a look at your own home page. Ask yourself two critical questions:

  1. Do you clearly state what sets your business apart from others in your niche?

    • ⚡️ If not, identify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): What makes your offer/business unique? Make sure this is clear and prominent on your home page.

  2. Are you showing the benefits of your offer through examples, case studies, testimonials, images, etc., or are you just telling someone the outcome they can expect when they work with you?

    • ⚡️ If not, add some visual proof: Collect and display case studies, customer testimonials, and examples that illustrate the impact and benefits of your offer. Show real-life results to build trust and credibility.

By focusing on these two aspects, we’ve not only clarified our message but also created a more compelling and trustworthy experience for potential customers. And the early results speak for themselves. We've yet to publish the content from our new content creation experiment, but this simple change has us headed in the right direction again.

Take a moment this week to evaluate your home page with these tips in mind. The improvements you make could be the key to unlocking higher conversions and better growth.

​- Caroline 👩🏻‍🦰​

Peaceful 🧘

Jason's 42nd B-day in Lisbon

👨🏻‍🦲 👋: Oh heyyyyy, someone had a b-day last week 👨🏻‍🦲⬅️. It was my 42nd turn around the sun, and we decided to take a little jaunt to Lisboa (which is a 45-ish minute drive from our cozy beach town).

For the past few months, we’ve been very heads-down and focused on work stuff. Don’t get us wrong, we LOVE it! But, it’s also important to look up, take a break, and enjoy the fruits of all your labor. Here are three of my favorite memories from our two days in Lisboa last week…

Fun memory #1: Dinner at 2Monkeys 🐒🍽️. I love an adventurous restaurant experience, and with only 14 seats per night, 2Monkeys is definitely unique! You sit at a U-shaped table and the five chefs work in the middle and assemble each course right in front of you. Absolutely SO fun and would definitely go back!

Fun memory #2: Vegetarian Dinner at Encanto 🥒🤩. We invited friends to join us for another epic meal. We’ve only ever had a 100% vegetarian tasting menu dinner once before and this one did not disappoint. Every bite of food was magical and it felt so special to be able to share it with friends 🥰.

Fun memory #3: Just enjoying Lisboa 🏰🇵🇹. From ordering fresh-made cookies to our hotel room, to walking the hilly cobblestone streets, to popping into random stores, to visiting a super unique maker space, we made the most of our 48 hours!

This trip felt absolutely peaceful and soul-fulfilling. It’s very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of our lives, and last week’s short trip was a great reminder to us to take a break and close our laptops for a few days (even when it feels like we have a mountain of things to work on!)

​- Jason 👨🏻‍🦲​

gimme, gimme more

Ways we can help you build a calm online business:

  • Start building online courses with Teachery. This is our other business baby, an online course platform we created to help you build beautifully branded online courses that look completely custom.

  • Find out what's holding you back with our Calm Biz Bottleneck quiz. Are you a Time Tangler ⏰, Straddling Strategist 🤸, Invisible Innovator 👻, Penny Producer 💸, or Misunderstood Marketer 🤷. Once you know, we'll give you tips on how to fix it!

Ps. We use ConvertKit to send you these emails and you can find all our online biz tools we love here.

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Join 12K+ readers of Growing Steady for actionable tips on how to grow your creator business and make it more profitable, more predictable and more peaceful.

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Join 12K+ readers of Growing Steady for actionable tips on how to grow your creator business and make it more profitable, more predictable and more peaceful.

Previous Issues

Previous Issues

How we think about shifting our big-picture priorities when we're going through a time of transition individually

The surveys we repeatedly send that guide our decision-making; why it's important to prioritize what’s profitable in your business; and some peaceful moments from our recent day trip to Portuguese wineries

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© 2024 Really Awesome Company. All rights reserved.

Get our Growing Steady newsletter with 3 tips every Monday for making your business more profitable, more predictable, and more peaceful.

By subscribing you agree to with our Privacy Policy and provide consent to receive updates from our company.

© 2024 Really Awesome Company. All rights reserved.

Get our Growing Steady newsletter with 3 tips every Monday for making your business more profitable, more predictable, and more peaceful.

By subscribing you agree to with our Privacy Policy and provide consent to receive updates from our company.

© 2024 Really Awesome Company. All rights reserved.

Get our Growing Steady newsletter with 3 tips every Monday for making your business more profitable, more predictable, and more peaceful.

By subscribing you agree to with our Privacy Policy and provide consent to receive updates from our company.

© 2024 Really Awesome Company. All rights reserved.