Most founders we film say the same thing in the first ten minutes: "I'm bad at this." They usually aren't. They're good at explaining their business in a meeting and bad at talking to a lens with three strangers watching. Those are different skills, and only the first one matters.
Here's what we do so they sound like themselves.
1. Interview, don't direct
Our producer sits next to the camera and asks the questions. The founder talks to a person, not a lens. Dan at Ledgerly explains cash flow brilliantly to a customer and stiffly to a camera, so we give him a customer to talk to.
When we need eye contact with the lens, we ask for it on the last take, once they've said it twice already.
2. Outlines, never scripts
We bring three bullet points per video, not sentences. Founders who read sound like they're reading. Founders who talk through three points sound like they know the subject, because they do.
3. Let them do it twice
First take is as planned. Then we say "great, now tell me like you'd tell a friend," and they do it again. The second take is the one we use about 80% of the time. It's shorter, warmer and usually has a better first line.
4. Fewer people in the room
Three of us, maximum. Nobody from their marketing team watching over our shoulder, nobody from their team waiting for the meeting room. We put a monitor outside if people want to watch.
5. Keep the bad bits
Founders want to cut every pause and every "um". We leave some in. A small stumble is what makes a founder video feel unscripted, and unscripted is the whole point.
What it takes from them
Three hours a month, usually the first Tuesday. Dan's videos are now what Ledgerly's sales team sends to prospects before a demo. He told us he still doesn't enjoy filming, but he's stopped dreading it, which is all we ask.
Want this for your brand?
A 20-minute call. We’ll look at your feed and suggest two formats.
