This post is the first in the "How They Do It" series, where I will be featuring entrepreneurs and the solutions they are using to launch and run their businesses.
In this edition, I’m chatting with Desiree Moore. Desiree Moore is an attorney, author, and speaker. She works with entrepreneurs, small business owners, lawyers, and others on presence, presentation, and communication skills. She is the founder of Greenhorn Legal, LLC and Greenhorn Bold and is the author of Thrive — A New Lawyer’s Guide to Law Firm Practice (ABA, 2012). You can connect with Desiree here. (And for lawyers, check out what Desiree is up to here.)
[Nikole] The videos you do for both the sales pages and the membership product on your site really look professionally done. Can you tell me a little bit about your filming setup and what you have tried to accomplish the polished look?
[Desiree] I spent a lot of time looking into the best ways to film. I wanted a professional look, but did not want to be wedded to using a professional videographer every time I wanted to film anything (because both of my websites have membership components with on-line video training, I end up filming a lot). As a first step, I invested in a great camera (Sony HDR-CX160). Next, I picked up a white background screen to get a clean, minimal look no matter where I film. I also tried a variety of mics but have found that, if you are not using a boom mic (picture a mic that is positioned from above – widely accepted as the best option), the mic on the Sony camera is a good one to use. Finally, I enlisted my husband to help me figure out the best ways to light a set. We settled on using two medium sized umbrella lights to light up the background as well as one larger umbrella light to light up the entire set. The overall look is professional but completely DIY!
[Nikole] How do you edit your videos to get them ready for upload to Vimeo?
[Desiree] After filming, I spend a good amount of time adjusting both the lighting and sound (the lastest version of iMovie has some excellent features for doing both). My goal is to ensure that there is a warmth to the videos and that the sound is not echo-y or tin-y, which is one of the bigger challenges of not filming in a studio.
[Nikole] I know that you have used both the Vimeo site and the dropbox to Vimeo upload; and that we chose Vimeo as your video hosting service because of the plus-level privacy features and user-friendliness of the service. Do you find it easy to use?
[Desiree] I do! I’m so glad that you recommended Vimeo. While it’s not as mainstream as YouTube, I find it to be incredibly user-friendly and the site interface is cleaner overall. I like how you can see all of your videos in large thumbnails on the same page and that there are a number of privacy options. The settings on the videos are easy to change, too (for example, the video thumbnail can be changed at your preference).
[Nikole] Your site uses a combination of the WooThemes Canvas theme, WooSidebars plugin, and Wishlist Member to deliver content — have you found this setup to be a good experience for your customers? Have the people using and testing this system found it to be user-friendly?
[Desiree] Absolutely. In the first week that we launched the Greenhorn Legal membership site, I had several people tell me they loved how easy it is to use and how clearly it is laid out. The process is straightforward and intuitive, which is important to me when I am the user as well as the provider of the content.
[Nikole] You went through a few mailing list services before settling on iContact as your newsletter provider. Besides the integration features between iContact and Wishlist Member, was there a specific reason that made you chose iContact?
[Desiree] I love iContact because of the customer service. They are widely available, incredibly knowledgable, and happy to help anytime I call. This is so rare these days, no matter the company, and so I’m pleased to work with iContact over the other newsletter providers I tried.
Thanks Desiree! I hope you guys enjoyed that little insight into her business as much as I did. Questions or comments? Please feel free to ask below!