Recently in Video Category

35-year-old Kristen Denzer was ahead of her time before the concept she is currently franchising was so desperately needed.

Quality daycare is a must for so many parents-not just a place to "drop the kid" for eight hours because you both need to work; but a lovely, enrichment filled environment that can also help shape the child's future with education and activities nearly impossible to duplicate at home for these busy parents!

Thus, Tierra Encantada was born of an idea out of a working mother's head.

The then 28-year-old Kristen was that working mother. With two small children she yearned for a better quality daycare experience for her own second child and with her usual tenacity and thorough research (and buying a vacant church!) this young entrepreneur created a Spanish Language Immersion daycare concept.

Why not educate while caring for these young children at an age where they soak up knowledge?

Kristen started her first entrepreneurial endeavor in 2008 - an event rental company. She grew that company from 20 events to 500 events annually in just 6 years.

While operating the successful event rental company, she started a second business in 2010 with a childhood friend called The Woof Room - a dog daycare and boarding facility.

She managed to grow both into profitable companies serving thousands of clients annually. In 2013, while searching for quality early education for her young child, she founded Tierra Encantada's first location in Eagan, Minnesota.

She continued to operate all three businesses until 2016 when she sold her event rental company and dog daycare facility to focus solely on Tierra Encantada's growth.

In Spring of 2019, she launched Tierra Encantada's franchising expansion to provide access to language immersion education to families across the country. Today, Tierra Encantada is an Inc 5000 company.

With waiting lists for spots at each of the Tierra Encantada centers, she and her team find themselves helping parents who are Covid-19 first responders by providing tuition free placement for their children.

Thanks to some great families who CAN stay home with their children, spots are being voluntarily given up for first responders' children. A great example of how we can all find ways to help.

Why read about it when you can watch it on NBC-KARE-TV.

When you are a big well respected company like Jacksonville, Florida based Paul Davis, lots of people come to you for your knowledge and expertise. The area of restoration and repairs, particulary after this awful spate of hurricanes, floods and now fires, is a busy one.

Unfortunately, most of the calls that the EMS division of Paul Davis (Emergency Services--damage evaluation) receive brings them to an unhappy scene.

A house severely damaged or even lost, a teary-eyed family searching through what belongings may be saved. One can't help but sympathize with the emotions and difficulties these victims experience.

A full Paul Davis Restoration team then moves in to clean up and repair the scenes after evaluation. Not a happy time but often it does end up with a happy ending.

Even without Mother Nature's huge events, common hazards of life can cause chaos. One is extreme cold; but surprisingly, there are easy and inexpensive things to do so you never have to deal with this particular problem.

On December 7th Paul Davis' "flood house", a demo home at their state-of-the-art training facility in Jacksonville, was used by consumer journalist Jeff Rossen to demonstrate all the ways in which one can avoid bursting pipes and other cold weather hazards.

We have shared here: https://www.today.com/home/how-avoid-bursting-pipes-costly-repairs-winter-t119612

Full segment: http://on.today.com/2zX7kTK

I have talked about User Generated Content(UGC) videos and touched on Do-It-Yourself (DIY) videos that got a few of my colleagues discussing the pros and cons.

Of course a lot of us would be happy if everyone who needed a video would just hire a professional!

After all, that is how a lot of us make a living and I don't want to discourage anyone from using a professional. However there are times when a DIY video is just what you need. I've touched on what are the best types of video to use online in the past and different occasions call for different types of video.

My friend Jack Brumm of Pixel Wire Media pointed out that if your business strategy involves being "high-end" then producing substandard videos doesn't help your strategy. He then went on to say that he was talking to Steve Garfield, the online video expert from Boston, who talked about his concept of "business casual" videos.

The idea is that a lot of people are becoming accustomed to DIY videos on YouTube and if the information is compelling then just do it and make the video. This makes a lot of sense in a lot of instances.

For example a lot of business is not conducted in formal settings or corporate board rooms. A lot of business is conducted at informal networking events in khaki slacks with an open collar or out in the field in work boots and jeans. There is no reason why some of your videos can't be the same way.

Perhaps you are on the run, on the plant floor or at a conference and a quick video blog on your flip phone is the way to quickly and efficiently get content out. That gives the video a bit of urgency, immediacy and a bit of personal connection that is not found in many online videos. I would say experiment with this and try it.

I would caution against a one-size-fits-all approach to business videos online. There are times when you have to put on the white shirt, red tie and black wing-tipped shoes for that professional look. And by professional I don't mean stuffy business look, I mean a well-crafted, effective message.

Take a look at your marketing strategy. Where do style, content and professionalism count? Where is it appropriate to loosen your tie and be more casual? Who is your audience? What are you trying to accomplish? What will they respond to? Where does this fit into your online and social media strategy? Match your online video to match your business marketing strategy.

When do you think a "business casual" video would work? Is anyone trying it?

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This short video demonstrates to franchisors how we were able to create such powerful, authentic videos from people who are usually not that good on camera.

Video is a much better way of capturing a franchisor's enthusiasm and passion for their system than just words.

That's it for now. Let us know how we can help you or your clients with our Social Video Marketing by connecting with me on LinkedIn.

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The Massive Open Online Courses can teach you some important things about your own training videos for your franchisees.

While, I've seen many outstanding videos offered on the MOOCs there are still a distressingly high percentage of them that do not even meet the minimum standards of Public Access TV.

Your franchise training videos likely have one or more of the same problems.

If your franchise training videos has one or more of the following production quality issues, you will have a low viewer completion rates.

1. Bad Sound Quality: Sound is the Achilles' heel of most educational videos. Most people will put up with poor video but if you cannot hear or understand what is being said there is no use in watching any further. These problems are usually caused by poor microphone placement, low recording levels, background noise and talent who do not speak well on camera.

2. Poor Lighting: Even bad cameras look good when there is plenty of light yet many videos look as if they were videotaped in a closet. If a student is going to stare at your video for 15 to 60 minutes at least make the images visible.

3. Poor Graphics: Just like unintelligible sound, unreadable graphics are useless. If the viewer cannot read or follow the graphic why include it? This is more than a PowerPoint slide with small text, this includes flow charts that are so dense and detailed they cannot be followed or photographs of such poor quality it is hard to tell what they are.

4. All Text Presentations: If the only thing the presenter is doing is reading the text off of one PowerPoint slide after another why not just send the student the PowerPoint slides?

5. Talking Heads: Or even worse, talking shadows on a distant stage. Videotaping lectures is probably the quickest and easiest way to record educational content but it does not have to be the most boring way to present educational content. (I've written several blogs on videotaping lectures, including how I think the TED Lectures get it right.)

6. Long Videos: One of the best features of online videos is that the presenter is not required to lecture for 50 minutes as they are often required to in a scheduled class. They can make the video segment as long, or as short as it needs to be. Yet many online classes are 50 or 60 minutes because that is the length of a traditional classroom lecture. If students fall asleep in a classroom during a long lecture they will fall asleep faster during a long video lecture.

7. Not Using the Medium: Why, in this new world of television production where an inexpensive HD video camera can fit in the palm of your hand, do so many of the online video classes take place behind a lectern? Are cameras not allowed in the lab or out in the field? Is it impossible to interview an expert or illustrate a concept with animation? Television is personal and mobile. Take advantage of its strengths.

There are ways to improve production quality and the quality of your programs that will improve the effectiveness of your overall online course.

Are you involved in producing video for training?

What are your biggest production quality challenges?

What obstacles do you face in producing your videos? Let me know in the discussion section below.

If you are involved in producing educational or training video and would like some feedback on your production quality then contact us for a video consultation.

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Or, for more information on the Franchise-Info Business Directory, call Joe at 1-443-502-2636 or email Joe direct [email protected]

Joan Immediato and Jack Rickenbach are the principals in Aranco Productions. Joan and Jack have attended almost every franchise convention in the last 30 years.

One of the products that Joan and Jack create caught my eye - it is a modern replacement for the business card and 60 second elevator pitch.

They call it the "VID-eCARD™".

Not sure about the name, but it is a short video embedded into what looks like business card. It is a terrific presentation.

Here is Joan to explain herself, on Vimeo site.

Joan Immediato presents Aranco Productions from Aranco Productions on Vimeo.

There are 5 neat uses here:

1. You could have this video hosted on your LinkedIn profile.

2. You could download the file on a memory stick to give to clients, with some supporting written documents.

3. You could use it to practice your elevator pitch.

4. You could use it as replacement for your LinkedIn business card for your Franchise Info articles.

5. You could have it as an app and share it.

Looks very cool & I must get one!

If you liked this, you should sign up for the LinkedIn Marketing & Advertising Tips from Franchise-Info newsletter.

Or, for more information on the Franchise-Info Business Directory, call Joe at 1-443-502-2636 or email Joe direct [email protected]