Interview: Sheryl Plouffe – Use of Video in Learning and Development

Sheryl Plouffe Video Coach
Sheryl Plouffe – Video Strategist

In our adapted, and ever-changing world, video has become a necessity. Not just in the world of business, and not just on your couch, but in our personal lives as well.

Sheryl is a multi-faceted all-star when it comes to video presence. Being a successful Video Strategist, Sheryl comes into this invaluable interview with insight on why video, live and recorded, is the past, present and future of communication and Learning and Development.

Join us and listen to this one-on-one interview with Sheryl Plouffe, and elevate your perception of video being one-dimensional. The use of video could very well be the reason we can keep up with the spinning world around us.

Transcript

Petra

Hello and welcome. I’m Petra Mayer of Petra and Associates consultant and today I am super thrilled to have with me Sheryl Plouffe. Sheryl is a video coach. She’s a virtual video producer and a former Canadian TV broadcaster. She has been seen by millions over the course of her 25 year career in news media. She has produced 1000s of videos and has broadcast over 20,000 hours of live television. We’ve got a real pro here. And I am so thrilled for you to share some of your insights and resources with us here today. Cheryl, welcome.

Sheryl

I’m excited to be here. Petra, thank you so much.

Petra

So Cheryl, we talked about this a little bit before you have you’re coming from broadcasting. So you’ve got a huge amount of experience and in the TV world. Now, how did this experience impact you in your business now?

Sheryl

Well, it’s really it’s, it’s interesting, because it’s the same thing only in a different environment and different industries. So in broadcasting, I was hired to be the brand ambassador, have, you know, that network. And so what I did as a TV broadcaster as a TV personality was communicate value to an audience in the form of content in order for us to build that audience, and then the network monetize that. And so what we do now in the entrepreneurial world is really the same thing. Only we’re in, we’re the network, now we’re the person we’re the mini media company. And so our we are charged to create that content to put out there to attract the audience and monetize it in whatever way we see fit. So I do see that there’s a parallel between both and really what I’ve done is taken the best practices from that industry and brought it into this space.

Petra

And I think this is we’re already right in the topic here on video. I mean, you’re all about video. That’s what you do you help people to create video understand what persona they want to represent on video. So why is this so important in business nowadays?

Sheryl

Well, it’s important because of the world we live in the world has changed. You know, we live especially and I know, we’re doing this at a time and a moment in time where COVID is still very much a reality. But there may be people watching the replay right now, several years after COVID. But there’s no doubt that COVID has changed things. And what we saw during the pandemic was that people were gravitating to video, because they had to, you know, it really served as a lifeline to not only our purse or sort of professional lives, but even our personal lives. So that’s not going away. And and video was a thing that we needed to really take seriously even before the pandemic, but what the pandemic we did was really put a magnifying glass on that and say, it is no longer a choice now like this is the world we live in. So for people who are so marketing, and listen, I am a big Prince fan. So, you know, we don’t want to be marketing, like it’s 1999. We want to be partying like it’s 1999. But you have to mark it for the year that we live in. And we have to be adapting to the changes that have happened. We’re in the digital era. So video is very much at the forefront of that the other thing Petras, that video is the closest thing that we have to being there in person. So I love me in person meetings, I like in person events, but this is the next best thing.

Petra

So I think you’re already speaking about a bunch of different areas how a business owner could be considering using video in their business. So maybe Could you expand on that a little bit?

Sheryl

Well, in terms of the different ways in which they could use utilize video, yeah, actually, I I’ve made a few little notes here because there are so many different ways. It’s interesting because I, at one point brainstormed 30 different ways, but I won’t, I won’t bore you with all of the laundry list of ways. But here are some of the more pertinent ways in which business owners can utilize video. And that is the biggest one, I suppose we would say is content marketing. And it’s that premise that I was just explaining about putting out content attracting an audience. So content marketing, and that can be through the distribution channels of social media. But it could also be distribution channels that you have, say through email, or maybe you choose to do your marketing through messenger bots. Maybe you choose to do your marketing and in other ways that advertising you know, so there are ways in which that content marketing piece could play into that. I think it also comes into play, possibly even from an interpersonal communications perspective. So for instance, Apple, you know, one of the CEOs that I have worked with was struggling getting messages out to her team, now she’s running a team of 60 people, and she just wanted to have a better way to communicate with them. So interpersonal, you know, communications or team communications is another way in which we could utilize video, then there’s social proof, right? So that could be through testimonials and gathering that in video format, and packaging that up. We have authority building videos, we have lead generation, as well as fulfillment. So let’s say you are a coach or consultant, which tend to be the type of people that I work with the most. If you are, let’s say, you’re a coach, you might want to offer some private from private consultation calls or private calls, well, you can conduct those and fulfill on your deliverables through video. And then the other place is through product development. So if you have a course, you know, having video as part of that course, can really help to communicate not only communicate your message, but really help them get the results that you’re intending for them.

Petra

Hmm, yeah, so you, you really spoke about a range of different types of videos from marketing all the way to product and, and also customer service in some ways. And a lot of these resonate with me, because, you know, I’ve been in that business of learning and development, coaching and consulting, have had my own courses where I needed it. And so that’s kind of an area that is really close to my heart. And I would like to go deeper into that, would that be okay with you? Of course. So when we’re thinking about the learning and development area, regardless if it’s a corporation, or if it is maybe a coach, or a consultant, the type of people that you work with, and I also work with? How do you see video play into how they can develop programming?

Sheryl

Well, I think that the really, and this is true of video on the whole, but you have you have your live video, and then you have your recorded video. And ideally, you get to a point where you’re utilizing both formats. Because there’s a time and a place for each of those, you know

Petra

to talk about life video, what do you mean by live video?

Sheryl

So live video, meaning that it’s happening in real time, it’s happening in that moment? It might be it could be that there’s a slight delay, depending on bandwidth and things like that. But generally, it’s happening at that same moment in time. So it’s a shared experience that you’re having with someone, you know, if you are and that’s and there’s an energy around that there’s a specific kind of interesting energy that happens when you’re doing a live training and that both recipients whether it’s a group of people, or even a private call, you’re sharing that same moment in time. And I love that energy. I think that’s, that’s wonderful. So it’s real time broadcasting and real time communication. It’s like the telephone only video.

Petra

Yeah, so I think what you’re and that might be something for us to be really clear what we’re talking about. Even if you do a zoom session, you’re ultimately coming across in a video on the screen, it doesn’t feel like it to me anymore, because I feel like I live in zoom town. But I have a lot of zoom sessions, we have a zoom session. Another one could be doing a Facebook Live or to do a LinkedIn live event where that’s part of a training program or an interaction with your clients, something like that.

Sheryl

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so that live environment is just I think, like I said, there’s there’s an energy, it’s a shared experience, whether you are doing that, like you said on a zoom meeting. And maybe it’s a private zoom meeting where it’s just the two of us, or you’re taking that to the next level, and you’re broadcasting that zoom meeting out to social media, or possibly you’re using, maybe you decide, we’re going to use a multi streaming tool. I’m a big fan of Restream. And I love it and use it a lot. You can go live on multiple platforms at the same time using that tool. So there are different ways, but that that piece around live streaming can be really impactful.

Petra

And particularly in in a training environment, where you have your clients who are part of that program, and only they have access to it. So it really becomes a very, it’s not as much a commodity anymore, you’re really kind of providing your personal time to your participants, and they can probably engage with you and interact with you. And that really is a value add.

Sheryl

Yes, absolutely. Because then they can ask questions in real time.

Petra

Mm hmm.

Sheryl

And so their questions answered in real time. Now.

Petra

Go ahead. Sorry, there was a little a little delay. Here’s the tech thing when you’ve worked with video, right, that little delay. So we’ve got the live video and then we have pre recorded of course being on the other side of that. So tell me a little bit more of the super big variety of types of videos that somebody could be considering here.

Sheryl

There, there are a lot, there are a lot. The thing of video with recorded video that we have to keep in mind, especially from a business perspective is that it requires post production, it requires there be some level of production after it’s been recorded post recording, right? It’s not it, I can go and take my phone or take a webcam and I could record the piece. But then what do you do with it? Like there has to be that next step. Otherwise, it’s not becoming anything. So that but the problem that people face often in that post production piece is, well, who’s going to do it? Who has the skill set to do that? sometimes there can be businesses who do have those people and have those skills on hand? Well, that’s great. But it takes time. And so the recorded piece, I like to say that, ideally, we get to a point where you have both types of videos, and they can be both used strategically in different ways. But the the piece with recorded is that yes, it does require more work. The thing I love about live streaming is that it’s the fastest way for us to get content online, because you are, you’re getting around that piece of post production. So you know, these are just the things that you have to kind of keep in mind. Sometimes we’ll have people say, Well, we want to outsource that, you know, we want to do certain parts, or maybe it’s a hybrid, and we want to outsource certain parts of it. Great. So they’re not now we have to talk about a budget. You know, there needs to be a budget for that.

Petra

Yeah, yeah. And I think what you’re speaking to I, I see that a lot with my clients, when they’re thinking about, okay, we want to create a training program, and then you have to make that decision about what is it that you deliver live versus what is it that you might want to deliver in a pre recorded way? And then how do you get there? What is what’s the process, the path to get there? How do you make the decision? what goes where? And then what’s the process for you to actually create those those content materials and those pieces? And it’s always a big debate and a big question. And yeah, you’re, as you said, you know, that post production struggle that a lot of people have. And it’s something where, yes, you can outsource, and you need to have a consistent quality. It’s a brand representation, isn’t it?

Sheryl

There are so many things to consider when you’re outsourcing video, because you have to understand well, what kind of video is this going to be? And is it aligned to my brand. So sometimes I’ll see, let’s say Petra, for example, someone has a high level coaching program, you know, it’s a high ticket program. And yet, then they go to outsource the video and they’ll go to Fiverr, nothing against Fiverr. But there’s a misalignment there between the quality of video, you’re going to get there to the high ticket program you just sold. So that’s where we have to be really careful. I’m not a fan of videos that don’t have a on a non camera representative, or someone who, at least for portions of the video, are communicating on camera, because people want to connect with people. So I’m not someone who is really a big fan of the doodle art and the doodle videos and those type of explainers. I’m more of I would prefer to see live action videos, so people who are actually speaking on camera. And so you have to be careful when you’re outsourcing and making sure that the level of quality matches the level of program that you’ve put together.

Petra

Yeah, I mean, you were speaking about doodle. And doodle is the kind of the on on whiteboard kind of hand designs things we’ve seen it before. It has its place. But if you can’t build an online course and learning program, simply out of doodle videos, and they do lose their appeal as well when they come in big buckets. So I think each style, that’s probably some

Sheryl

story I was gonna say you can use them sparingly portions in certain types of productions. Yeah, but to two outs, what I meant was that you can’t, you can’t you shouldn’t outsource your entire video recorded video strategy and the content all to that style. You know, you can use it sparingly within a larger production. Maybe there is a point where you need to explain something and there needs to be some type of show and tell of this goes to here. And then this goes into this box. Okay, great. That would be a place where we might have 15 seconds of doodles to describe that thing. But it does comprise the entire video. Yeah,

Petra

yeah. And I think I’m totally aligned with what you’re saying here is that is the different styles that can translate different concepts in in different ways and to make decisions about what are we translating how Are we using it? I think that’s the real bigger question about the overall strategy and learning strategy. So how can a learning professional so let’s think about the corporate environment? How would they make best use of video for their content creation? Any thoughts on that?

Sheryl

Well, I mean, I think it’s it’s really about what are you? What is the intent? You know, what is it that that you’re teaching and has more to do with strategy? Maybe it could be something like, well, we want to be able to have a whiteboard. So I’m going to teach on the whiteboard. And we’re going to capture the entire that in its entirety, you know, so it’s really looking at Well, what is it that we’re teaching? What is the best way in which you the, the, the professional wants to teach it? And then looking at the video part of that and saying, Okay, well, why don’t we capture that? For the most part, what we’re doing is we’re doing talking head videos, for lack of a better term, right? Where we might take someone who’s expressing an idea on camera, and then capture that and build around it. But those are the considerations. Sometimes you could have as I have my iPad over here, you might like to draw on an iPad? Well, there are ways in which you could create videos where you’re showing the iPad on the screen, at the same time. So I think it’s it’s just looking at different situations and say, Okay, what is the best way for us to communicate what we’re trying to communicate? What is the message we’re trying to share? And how might be the best way for us to? To technically put that together?

Petra

Yeah. And I think what you just alluded to and use, you said the B word before the budget work, I think it very much depends on how repeatable is this content? What’s the volume that you’re creating for? And so what kind of budgets Can you assign for it, if it’s a video that will be watched by five people, it’s a different story than a video that’s watched by 50,000 people, and you can put different budgets behind it and then get the appropriate resources.

Sheryl

Yeah. And sometimes what happens too, from a budgetary perspective is you need to look at it and say, okay, you know, what, for example, there are traditional video production companies out there, and they do an amazing job, they have videographers, they’re going to do, they’re going to scout locations, now we have hair and makeup, you got to come to a studio, or they come to you. And it’s great, the video is going to look fantastic. But there’s also a cost with that. Now, generally speaking, it’s about $1,000 per finished minute of video. So if you are doing a 12 week course, you can imagine now that it starts to become cost prohibitive, for the most part, to have them produce those type of videos. So you have to kind of think about, well, you know, there’s going to be a cost, but is there a way that we so for example, we do virtual video production, we’re not a traditional video production company for that reason, because for a course, we don’t need to have hair and makeup or go on location or have a videographer we can capture what we need to capture on zoom. So there are some efficiencies that we can find there. And I think that’s where you have to be careful, there is a time and a place when you’ll need a video production company. But we are not that. And we’re really, I believe, filling that gap in the place between that and having nothing.

Petra

And I what I really like about what you’ve just said, because it’s a it’s a faster way to get there. It’s, it’s more adaptable, because you know, we know when we spend a lot of money on something, we’re not going to scrap it or easily, we’re going to keep it going longer than perhaps we should. And so this type of video production makes it possible for smaller companies or budget, budget poor companies to provide still that video content that can become part of a either your marketing campaign or your learning and development programs or your sellable marketable programs. So now that we have an idea, we have all these different options. And there’s different productions, there’s all these pros and cons that the business owner has to weigh. And you’ve mentioned that you help people to do this even through zoom session. So tell me a bit more about how your service works and how you make it work for your client.

Sheryl

Well, it’s all rooted in my experience as a broadcaster, you know, after 25 years of interviewing people, sometimes in studios sometimes on location, I’m taking those concepts and bringing them to the space. So what I do is I can interview someone for an hour and I can create 12 videos from that one hour interview. And those 12 videos can be you know, we in our case, we turn it into the three three different aspect ratios, three different sizes, and we brand them and caption them and headlines and colors and branding and logos and all of that, so that we can customize the experience for the viewer to be able to have that brand recognition. But also the videos are produced in such a way that the person who I’m interviewing is coming across in an authentic way. They’re coming across in a natural and conversational way, which is really what’s working today. So we’re getting away or, you know, from those corporate videos, those stoic Hello buttoned up to hear, right. And, and corporate Hello, I’m reading from a teleprompter, you know, type of videos, getting away from that and getting more into a place where people are at ease. And they’re simply asked answering questions. And that’s what we do.

Petra

Yeah, and I think it’s typically easier to listen to, to follow and to understand, I find that when we’re really spending a lot of time on scripts, sometimes the scripts get so short, they have so much information, nobody understands it anymore, because it’s just so packed. Because the filler is missing, that helps us to digest the information. Anyway, script writing totally different topic, let’s go.

Sheryl

But it’s interesting, because the thing is that with business owners, they know what they know, their stuff, what’s lacking is the ability to capture it. Yeah. So they do know, it’s, it’s there, it’s already there, our job is to bring it out of them, and capture those nuggets of wisdom. And those are the pieces that position that person as an authority as a leader as a resource in their industry.

Petra

And I think you’re just saying some really important words here and authority, a leader in the industry. So that’s really part of the brand development. So the personal brand, or if they have a corporate brand, their corporate brand development, maybe say a few more words to that?

Sheryl

Well, it’s all about authority. I mean, you know, if you are positioned as an authority in your marketplace, and you’re seen as a go to person, everything becomes easier, everything becomes easier, it becomes easier to generate leads, becomes easier to get clients, it becomes to get attention of not only your ideal customers and clients, but more importantly getting the attention of other people who have stages that might like to bring you on as an authority to get you in front of more people and leverage their audiences to you, right, so it’s, that speaking piece is really, really key. So it’s great, you make videos, and you put them out there, that authority piece has to do with connecting with people on the other side of the lens. But it also has to do with attracting people who have podcasts, live stream shows. You know, they want to find they’re looking for guests, they want to put you on stages virtual arise. And that is a great way. every industry wants to do that not every CEO is looking to become a keynote speaker. But there may be people within your organization who could go and do those speaking engagements or, you know, be able to expand and expand the reach and get that message out to more people by virtue of being positioned as the authority in that case.

Petra

Yeah. And I couldn’t agree more with you. I think that once you are considered an authority, and video is a great way to portray that because, as you said, at the beginning, you said something like, you know, yes, we love to be in person, but video is the second best. So it’s it gets us closer to our audience, it gets a closer to our market, and particularly the market that we don’t even know yet. And they have the feeling that they know you and they get to to like you trust you and and build a rapport even before you first time talk to them. And video is so powerful in that. So where can our listeners learn more about the services that you provide?

Sheryl

Well, the best way is through my website at Cheryl pluff.com. Cheryl is with an S. And if you go there, there is a Contact Us form. So if you are someone watching this and saying hey, I’d love Cheryl to come and speak to our audience, there’s a forum there you can ask you we’ve been answer any question that you have about services that we provide. We do challenges, do accelerator programs, I do a lot of speaking, it’s one of my things to do during production. So a whole host of ways that we can help people really gain that authority. position in the marketplace.

Petra

Awesome. Yeah. And you you mentioned your your challenge. A great way to get your your toes in the water is to follow Cheryl’s challenge so that you get a video out and you start being seen as as that authority that we talked about. Cheryl, thank you so much for being with me here today. sharing your wisdom, your insights and you tips and tricks about what to consider with regards to video because I think it’s a super important topic. It’s very relevant these days, and certainly an important topic in the learning and development space. Thanks for your time.

Sheryl

Thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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