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In episode #25, I'm joined by Gareth James of Clockwork Eye. An ex-Army Corporal tuned IT Manager and then Video Marketing and Production business owner. For the past decade. Gareth has pioneered video and digital marketing training, helping his clients better understand how video and digital marketing work.

We discuss how you can go from leaving the army to starting a business and why having a good sense of humour is a real asset as a business owner, and when working with your clients. Gareth shares openly a big lesson for life and business and why reaching out for help in your time of need is nothing to be ashamed of. And how Covid as ade it easier than ever to network with one another, sharing his new One Hour Networking Format gives more time to attendees to do business!

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The Full Show Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi everybody. And welcome to episode 25 of the Visualise You show I'm your host Beth Hewitt. And I can't believe we are already at number 25 and we are so, so close to 2000 downloads. I set myself but go back in December of reaching 2000 downloads at, by the end of February. And we are so, so close. I'm really hoping this episode is the one to push me over that mark.

Now in this episode, I'm joined by Gareth James of clockwork Eye. Gareth is somebody who I have worked with in the past, and he has gone from army officer to working in IT to then start in his own video marketing company. And he really reminded me that you can retrain at any point in your career. I also love Gareth’s sense of humor and how he uses humor to not only bring his own videos to life but also, how he helps.

Put people at [00:01:00] ease when he's working with clients who are maybe a little bit fearful of getting in front of the camera for the first time, I know that I'm not a natural in front of the camera, and it's really good to have someone like Gareth who can support you and direct you and make you feel completely at ease.

So in this episode, we talk a lot about some of the technical training type aspects of video creation, the importance of being able to showcase your content in a way that will increase the dwell time. When people look at your content.

The importance of things like adding subtitles to your video when people are scrolling on social media platforms, when the sound's off and you want to really capture people's attention.

Gareth mentions Facebook, creative studio. Are you somebody who is still using maybe Hoot Sweet or tweet deck or the platforms that we've used from yesteryear, but actually there's some really great tools already within the platforms that we use already? I love what Gareth says [00:02:00] about creating private client early content.

So this is using video. That you would only use on a special occasion. So if you are answering a particular question again and again for your clients, it really helps to have a video that answers that in a quick 30, 60 second clip, which means you don't have to keep repeating yourself and you only have to do the work once.

And stay tuned right to the end of this episode, where Gareth shares his top tip for people who are frightened about getting in front of the camera for the first time. I really hope you enjoy this episode. I would love to know what you think of the show. Please do leave me a review.

I will be picking out one lucky.

reviewer to get a 30-minute clarity consultation with myself. [00:03:00] So welcome everybody to this episode of Visualise you I'm joined today by Gareth James Gareth has been involved in providing video marketing and production services to businesses for the past nine years. He has also pioneered video on digital marketing at training services, helping people to better understand how video and digital marketing works.

Beth: [00:03:51] He is also a presenter. And has given talks on video marketing at business shows and expos. And he has also worked with the digital knowledge exchange, which [00:04:00] for those of you who know me will know that I was heavily involved in that, for a number of years where he's delivered training workshops and mentoring businesses in video and digital marketing strategies.

Welcome Gareth to the show.

Gareth: [00:04:12] Hello.

Beth: [00:04:12] lovely to have you here today.

Gareth: [00:04:14] It's good to be here. Thank you.

Beth: [00:04:16] So the first thing that I like to do is find out a little bit about your journey. Tell us what you've been doing previously and how you've ended up in the world of video marketing.

Gareth: [00:04:24] A long story as short as I can make it. At 19, I joined the British army, and I was in the army for 12 years in 2001, I came out to the army and, ended up in the North of England. And my ex-wife was from Lancashire. I got a job working in IT in the army I fixed guns for a living.

And then, I basically went into IT, worked in IT until 2009. When I was made redundant and started an IT business. But in the meantime, I developed a bit of a passion and a hobby for, Theatre and TV, et cetera.  I did some theatre work and then I [00:05:00] thought, I wonder how they do it on TV.

So did a bit of extras work, got some bit parts with one-liners, stuff like that. And then started up my own little film group, as a hobby, we were making, adverts for, competitions and stuff. And basically, just making short little films on a bit of fun. As I said, I got made redundant in 2009, but I saw video, had a future in business.

And if I'm honest, I really wasn't passionate about IT. I found myself not enjoying my work and I thought, you know what? I think I’ll start doing this video stuff. And me and my business partner, he was made redundant at the time. I had the thought and here we are nine years later.

So 2011, August 2011, we started Clockwork Eye and here we are nine years later, still producing content. Yeah. And enjoying it. And that's the main thing.

Beth: [00:05:56] So you've had a number of pivots there and quite different [00:06:00] shifts. So first of all, what did you do with the guns?

Gareth: [00:06:03] The civilian term is a gunsmith. So I fixed and repaired and tested them when I was in the army. So everything from and pistols, handguns all the way up to 30 mil, rotten cannons, mortars, and stuff.

Beth: [00:06:17] So how does somebody with that experience then move into IT first of all? Is there similarities in terms of that

Gareth: [00:06:26] No, I enjoyed computers, and basically, I knew that there wasn't going to be any work for me when I came out of the army because there's not many guns on civvy street. There are some, but. The pension scheme in Broadmoor didn't appeal to me. So I didn't even go down that route. I stayed away from it.

 So in the army, you get to do retraining. So I did retrain into IT, and basically it was something I enjoyed, and I just got into it that way. And it was a career. I was an IT manager of a law firm in Leeds at one point. And it was a career, but my hobby at that time became [00:07:00] theatre.

Beth: [00:07:01] So have we heard of anything that you've been in then?

Gareth: [00:07:05] I've done lots of Emmerdale extra work, lots, and lots of it was a regular at one point.  but I was Jim Broadbent’s driver in the train robbery, the Coppers Tail, the best part of that job was actually driving round in a mark 1 Jag.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Normal, I was an MP in that one, and, had lines in the train robbery as well. But yeah, it was just, know I'm a firm believer that life is a series of tick boxes. And that if you want to try something, you just go and do it.

You don't just sit there thinking, Oh, I wish I could do that. It's a case of just. Getting up and doing it. Because with that in mind. Yeah, I did the theater. I did the extras work. The TV started up the film group. I've done standup comedy and it's all just about challenging myself.

 I don't want to be a standup comic traveling around the country, doing the circuit. I take my hat off to those guys, and I don't want to be an actor. I actually fell in love with the [00:08:00] behind the scenes stuff through doing the films.

Beth: [00:08:02] So was it in doing the TV work that you saw the other side and you actually thought, Oh, this is quite interesting. And

Gareth: [00:08:08] Yeah.

Beth: [00:08:09] to find out more about that.

Gareth: [00:08:11] Yeah, I got a part in a film Retirement Job, which was, a student film in Leeds. So I went to an audition and I got this part in this film and it was fine. It was, but I was just watching everything I could get up close. To, to the behind-the-scenes stuff. And, it was just fascinating to watch, and learn things from a distance and to also pester them and ask questions, which I'm sure they didn't appreciate at the time when they were trying to make their film.

But I’m a curious person, essentially, it's like, the clapperboard.

Beth: [00:08:42] Is it to do with the sound?

Gareth: [00:08:43] It is to do with the sound because they film sound and visual separate and especially more in the olden days, film sound and visuals separate. So when you do the clack, it makes a noise and you can see the spike in the audio, and then the editor can marry up the [00:09:00] visual and the sound.

Otherwise you'll have that. Speech thing.

Beth: [00:09:06] Yeah for those of you who are listening because it's a podcast, Gareth is moving his lips,

Gareth: [00:09:13] oh, sorry. Yes. Great TV.

So visual radio, nothing like it. Yeah, so that was that really, I just really fell in love with the behind the scenes.

Beth: [00:09:25] So let's talk about videos and let's talk about what you're passionate about now. So why video? I think most people are cottoning on that there's a need to do video and it is becoming a lot easier and more accessible for people to do.

But if somebody who's just listening today, who hasn't maybe picked up the mobile phone and started on that journey, what would you say to them?

Gareth: [00:09:44] In reality video now should be an essential part of your marketing toolkit.

Beth: [00:09:49] Huh.

Gareth: [00:09:50] It pretty much is a fact I always say to people, video is only a medium. But it's the best medium, because quite simply its show and tell you get to [00:10:00] show off your expertise, you get to show off your personality and you get to actually show your product.

So if you're not engaging with video at the moment and more people are thankfully, then basically you are falling behind in the marketing world so much so that people like Facebook and LinkedIn and Google, YouTube, et cetera. Google, they all favor in video. As a medium. So when people are putting videos onto those platforms, they are ranking them higher.

There's one of the things about LinkedIn at the moment is they've just, I follow a chap who does all of these tests and stuff. And one of the things they focus on is dwell time rather than anything. So how long does somebody stay on the post? But if you make a good video, then basically people will, stay longer.

They'll stay for the minute and a half that you are actually there. So the dwell time goes up, which banks you post higher. But not only that, there are still a lot of mistakes that people are making. For [00:11:00] example, people are not using subtitles on LinkedIn or Facebook.

Well, LinkedIn videos and Facebook videos play automatically silent. And 80% of videos on those platforms on Facebook and LinkedIn are actually read. Yeah. If you think about your own habits and if the listeners think about their own habits, when you're on these platforms, whether it be on your phone or on your PC is scrolling away.

And a video will start lot of the time, we would just go straight past it. And a simple thing like putting a subtitle would then help them go, Oh, what's this then. And they would be able to get that first couple of sentences. And then they may show interest.

 So it is massively important part of any, marketing toolkit now. And people don't seem to realize that whenever I talk about YouTube and I do a lot of training and, and stuff, we would set it up training packages very early on in our business, because [00:12:00] we saw the way the mobile phone was going and how it was making it easier for people to create content, and that's really good. That's all well and good. But I always say to people, perception is everything okay. If you make rubbish, you look rubbish.

So essentially if I was at a networking and I met you and I handed you my business card and it was a piece of A4 paper badly printed cut out with scissors and I give it to you and expected you to take me seriously then.

Yeah. I'm an idiot because your first impression is going to be, Oh my God. Can't even be bothered to do business cards. Same thing goes with rubbish video. Same thing for all medium, if you see a poor picture, or you see a badly written blog, then perception is everything.

What we decided was all right, we see people trying. So we started putting together training packages, and that's how I got involved with the digital knowledge exchange. And that's how I met yourself.

Beth: [00:12:55] so do you want to talk a little bit about the training that you provide then?

Gareth: [00:12:59] Yeah, [00:13:00] sure. So there's several different things that we provide, everything really from how to film yourself with your phone, how to edit that content. But essentially what we touch on is not so much the creation of the video, but also the whole distribution afterwards.

 When you create a video, you think that's the hard part. That's not the hard part. The hard part is then getting underneath the nose of your audience. The same actually goes for movies. Anybody can make a movie, but marketing.

It is the hardest thing. Yeah. So essentially. We teach people not only how to create the content. So we will talk about scripting. We'll talk about presenting, framing, lighting, audio, all these things that can, that we take into consideration, to make good quality product, but then also the, what we do with the product afterwards.

So yeah. A lot of people think, I need designers and web designers and, other creatives who say, use Vimeo because Vimeo has got a nicer [00:14:00] platform and it doesn't do this. And it doesn't do that like YouTube does. But at the end of the day, from a marketing perspective, Google owns YouTube. And as I say to people, when was the last time you saw a Vimeo video come up in a Google search?

So from a marketing perspective, YouTube is a must. Even if your audience are not on YouTube, For the whole SEO side of things, you get your videos up there, then you've got your Facebooks and your LinkedIn and your Instagram’s and all the rest of it. So we've developed tutorials to actually show people how to put together a Facebook company page, then how to use the creative studio.

Cause there are a lot of people out there who are now thinking creative studio. What's that? So we've got tutorials on how to use the creative studio, because you can preload all of your content into there and then share it.

And basically, again, upload into LinkedIn when people are not adding thumbnails, they're not adding subtitles?

They're missing a trick massively. So that's the kind of [00:15:00] tutorials we've put together. We even. I have a tutorial on how to create subtitles for free. You can create subtitles as easy as pie, to be honest with you. It's just, yeah. And it doesn't cost you a thing.

And I know people who pay for subtitles files to be made and it takes five minutes. Yes.

Beth: [00:15:19] there's normally a free version of something isn't there. If you're willing to have a look for it, but, Yeah, I think it's really important that I think, yeah, it's the start of the journey that when you create your video and actually you cannot just distribute it but using that to repurpose it for all the content pieces.

So even like the podcast that I'm doing, I'm repurposing the transcripts for blog posts and other things as well. So I think it has so many different uses after just making that one piece.

Gareth: [00:15:48] Yeah, it does. I totally agree with you. And the thing is, this is one of the things that, I found a big misunderstanding where people feel like they have to create new content all the time.

Beth: [00:15:55] Huh.

Gareth: [00:15:56] And they don't realize that you can actually repurpose stuff [00:16:00] as you go along. If in three months you will use the same video, nobody's going to ring you up and say, hang on a minute.

I remember that from three months ago, it's not going to happen. It's hit and miss when people see your stuff. That's why, when we do our video marketing strategies, it's more about targeting people who are after your services. So then you create content that will engage with them at what we call the problem zone in their head.

So I always use divorces a good example because everybody understands divorce and they know what it is and all the rest of it. So people are not Googling good solicitors near me when they're getting divorced, they're Googling. How do I get divorced? What are my rights as a father?

This kind of thing. So when you start looking at the pain points people are experiencing, and then you can start creating content because at the end of the day, nobody's going to watch solicitor's videos for fun. No, nobody at lunchtime says, do you know what I'm going to get my sandwiches.

I'm going to sit here and watch some good solicitor's videos. It just [00:17:00] doesn't happen. But people who are in that problem point will watch solicitor's videos, and that's the thing with business videos. At the end of the day, people will go onto the internet and watch more. Entertaining stuff like, a hundred greatest goals

They only watch business videos when they have a need for that service. So essentially what we said, we have 10 rules and bit tongue in cheek, bit of fun. And we all said to people, rule one, don't make a video about you, because nobody cares. And rule two is get to the point. So sit in there and talking and waffling for 30, 40, 50 seconds about who you are and what you've done and what, how long you've been doing it for all.

Nobody cares. Nobody cares at all. If I'm typing in what are my rights as a father, I don't want to hear your life story.

Beth: [00:17:48] What's in it for me? What am I going to get out on this?

Gareth: [00:17:51] Exactly. So this is where we've developed our hook and all the rest of it, where you can engage with people. And when you engage with them, then they will be drawn into [00:18:00] watch the rest of the video.

You only have five to seven seconds to engage with them. That's an essential time because one of the things I started saying earlier was basically there's different types of video as well. People think of video, they think YouTube. But at the end of the day, there's client only content.

There's private content for the business. Now we've got an accountant client who went up against two larger accountants and we've made with them some videos explaining how. They will transition the client from their existing accountant to themselves in a minimal, disrupted way.

So we created this content explaining who they were and what they do and how they do all this. And it was several different videos. So they only use that when they go to a presentation. And they keep it private. They won quite a large account. And when they asked for feedback, they were told it was because of the videos.

And essentially what happens is that they went to the presentation. They did, [00:19:00] their presentation, showed the video. Then when they sent their proposal through the included the videos again. So essentially the other directors who couldn't make that meeting saw the proposal, but then got to see the videos.

And because of the way people will ingest the video much better. Cause its case I press play and sit back and then take the information rather than this 400 worded PDF that I haven't got time to read it the moment. Yeah. I'm not going to read that now. I'll read it later, but you put a video in there explaining things and explaining the way you do stuff.

So that's a private video. That's not going anywhere. That's for you to use in these circumstances. Client only videos, people like IT, companies and, and a telecom company. These guys who have support desks, how much time is wasted on a support desk answering. A very common question, which could simply be solved by saying, I'll [00:20:00] send you a video on how to do that.

Beth: [00:20:01] That's one of the things that we did with a digital knowledge exchange was the digital audit aspect of that program was we used to get asked, how do I complete the digital audit service? So Mel I don't know if you remember seeing that video Mel did that, how to do that, which increased the number of digital audits that were completed, because I think people were getting stuck at that point.

So how to videos have an incredibly.

Gareth: [00:20:25] Oh

Beth: [00:20:26] Powerful impact on your processes within the business

Gareth: [00:20:29] And how much time did it save Mel? That's the

Beth: [00:20:31] she only had to do it once didn't share.

Gareth: [00:20:32] Yeah, exactly. And then email, how to do it. When people phone the last, she didn't have to sit there going through it with them.

Beth: [00:20:40] so one of the things I've seen in your videos is you use humor.

Gareth: [00:20:44] Yeah.

Beth: [00:20:47] which is great. Not everybody's got funny bones, but if you have, I like to think that I'm quite quick-witted, but I wouldn't necessarily do like a comedy type videos. But although you're saying it's not about you, [00:21:00] is it important to get your personality across in, in, in the videos that you do create?

Gareth: [00:21:05] Yeah. We always say to clients, don't pretend to be somebody you’re not. Yeah. And always show you true stuff. Yeah. So basically, I do like to use humor. As I said, I've done stand-up comedy. I think it's a really. Good way to make something that, maybe be construed as slightly dull, a little bit more interesting.

And I think that you've got to understand your audience. You've also got to be willing to take it on the chin when people think it's rubbish. And I always say to people, there are three types of people in the world who will, especially when it comes to social media, who will comment on your stuff, people who agree with you, great to have a conversation.

People who disagree with you. Great. Have a conversation. You might learn something and idiots, and unfortunately the world is full of idiots. So you don't never get rid of them, unfortunately. You can go along, and I think just be yourself and personality. and [00:22:00] having a bit of humor?

 At the end of the day, if we use the divorce topic, people who are going through a bit of a rough time, not really want them happiest go luckiest solicitor in the world. You've got to have empathy in that case. But I think that if you do in a topic, I don't know which ones you've watched, but, the, the ones that we do, I've even put a dress on before now.

Beth: [00:22:18] That was the one that I saw. Yeah. I saw you where you were talking about what you should wear when you do videos. And then the last clip is you wearing a dress.

Gareth: [00:22:26] It's very true though, because we have been on shoots where we've basically been returned up and we'll send the document in advance saying, what to wear, what not to wear? And one of the things we say to ladies’ is don't wear a dress. The reason we say it is because the mic pack has got to clip somewhere, it’s very difficult to clip a mic pack to the back of a dress and then it depends on how long they have is if you could cover it. So we've had to in the past, send them off with another person to the bathroom.

To under the [00:23:00] dress, clip it to the back of the bra strap and, it's awkward. So with a bit of humor, yeah. I Don the dress and pretend to wear high heels and, yeah. Put a bit of humor in exactly. I've done worse.

Beth: [00:23:18] So if we can just go back to your kind of career journey a little bit, Obviously, if you've done a number of different things, can you identify one of the life lessons or something that you've been through that has really helped you in this career onwards into video marketing?

Is there anything that stands out for you?

Gareth: [00:23:34] I think that there's a few twists and turns that have happened. W when you're in business, when you're self-employed, you've got to take the rough and the smooth.  and sometimes you make a decision in the business that will be a wrong one. I think at that point you have to suck it up and say, okay, that wasn't right.

We need to change our approach. I Our fourth year in business was the worst year we had. [00:24:00] And so much so that, I had a bit of depression from it due to the fact, pacing, the blooming' halls at two o'clock in the morning, trying to work out what was going wrong, et cetera. And I think. One of the lessons, life lessons.

To me, there was not to bottle it up and to actually turn around and talk to people. I was fortunate that I was on a course at the time and it was, I went to the course, once a week on a Wednesday. And, Basically, I phoned up I'd been up all night and I said, I, can't come in I’m knackered, I’m shattered.

And the chap David said, come in. And I went in and then we sat down, and it was I just went, I just blurt it out. And it was all businesspeople that was about eight of us and everyone. Okay. Let's talk about it. And that was a real eye opener for me, especially being self-employed, you take all these burdens on your shoulders and stuff and yeah, it was quite an eye opener for me.

And I think [00:25:00] that's why I talk about it openly because at the end of the day, there's no point keeping stuff inside. And if things aren't going right, then you need to talk to somebody. Which is where I find networking comes in quite handy. Because you do build friendships with people who were also in, in the same boat as you, and having somebody that you can say, can I have a chat with you?

I just need to get this off my chest, and having that person, those people there is very important, but don't be afraid to actually, talk, but yeah, the fourth year was our worst, and it was a decision I made as well, which basically pushed the business down. The wrong route. And I quite literally, after my dent and my conversation with these, chaps on this, course that I was on, I came back and I ripped up the business plan and I, rewrote it and rewrote it that week and I went back in and I used them as sounding boards.

And that's when we started, we were no longer just a video production company. We were a video marketing [00:26:00] company. And where we were a marketing company that essentially viewed video as our primary medium. So yeah, so that's one.

Beth: [00:26:07] Yeah. that’s a big one. Isn't it? Thank you for sharing that. because I know it's not always easy to say that, but I think people need to hear that, as entrepreneurs, we're not, you don't have to be on your own. There are people, who will support you, even if it's just a sounding board, they might not necessarily be working in the business or providing the service to help you deliver a service.

There are just people that will just listen to you. And sometimes when people have been on a similar journey and, sometimes it's just good to voice what's going on. Isn't it? And

Gareth: [00:26:32] Yeah, exactly.

Beth: [00:26:34] do you think if you hadn't have done that at that point, you would have been continued down that track a little bit further?

Gareth: [00:26:39] I think, yeah, I was being stubborn and, I think that would have been a case of if I hadn't had just popped, if you like verbally, then I would have potentially would have popped another way. And, I dread to think, but I'll never forget the day that I just basically went like a pressure different, and it was [00:27:00] cathartic to be honest with you.

And I think, we do need to, and they say, men, keep in more things than women and stuff. But at the end of the day, anybody who's keeping stuff needs to get it out there.

Beth: [00:27:11] So that kind of Segway’s a little bit into what you've started at recently, which is your one hour. networking, which is obviously being around other people you see where I went there?

Gareth: [00:27:20] yeah. I see that. That's good.

Beth: [00:27:22] Do you want to just mention a little bit around that and where that came from and

Gareth: [00:27:26] We all went online and I'm a member of being an BNI and, I was a member the networking groups, but everything went online. the bigger organizations reacted, took it all online and I just found it all very long-winded.

 It's a lot of sitting there listening.

Beth: [00:27:43] yeah.

Gareth: [00:27:45] and not actually networking. Yeah. So I was walking the dog. And I've always been one of these people. I don't see just the problem. I look for a solution. Along with my tick boxes in life and stuff, I will say, that [00:28:00] doesn't work.

So what can we do about it? So I thought to myself, what would I do differently? And I scribbled a concept in my head and came back phoned a mate, who I also network with. He's also called Gareth as well. Ironically, it's the Gareth and Gareth show really. And I said, let me shoot this past year.

And I shot the idea past him. And then we just have this brainstorming session. And essentially, we came up with what turned out to be quite a good formula because essentially, we focus on the attendees rather than on the actual meeting itself. So everybody turns up it's one hour long.

It's capped at 30 members. Everybody gets 40 seconds. Yeah. There's no membership. It's just pays as you go. So it's a five-pound you'd come along and basically, everybody gets 40 seconds to introduce themselves. We then have a five-minute speaker who gets a chance to talk to everybody about what they do for five minutes.

And [00:29:00] then we go into breakout rooms for 25 minutes. So it works really well in the fact that it's an hour long. So basically the attendees get to network with loads of other people in, micro networking. One to many's. Yeah, but then we mix it up all the time. We've got people who now have been coming up the whole two and a half months and, they've got to know people really well and business is being done, which is the important thing.

We're getting lots of good feedback about business being done. So essentially, we didn't have a name for it originally. And after our conversation, I said, let's run a pilot. So we invited a dozen people. We knew to come along and just feed back to us what they thought. And the feedback was good the next Thursday we said, well we'll run one.

 I still haven’t got a name. I thought, Oh, it's an hour and it's networking. So I called it one hour networking and it does it says on the tin, as they say, and basically the following Thursday, then we run our first [00:30:00] one. And about an hour afterwards, I got a phone call from somebody would come along saying, would you be willing to do one on a Wednesday as well?

I said, yeah, I don't see why not. I'm not doing anything else on a Wednesday morning. And so it's an online networking platform. It's only designed for online. It won't work elsewhere. Its person to person and quite simply it works. And it's worked really well. So we've had over 130 different businesses come, to fill up the meetings and we are.

Every Wednesday, Thursday morning, eight o'clock until nine o'clock. And that's it really? And you turn up and everybody gets to talk to everybody.

Beth: [00:30:37] And are the people from. Are they local or from all over the world?

Gareth: [00:30:42] this is the irony. Mostly local because of our existing networking groups. So our existing networking group is pretty much Yorkshire. We've had somebody from Rome. Lots of London have come and visited us and stuff. Then our furthest is [00:31:00] Melbourne Australia.

And we've had Tokyo as well. And I’m trying to think of Madagascar. So I was, it begins with M near Madagascar.

Mozambique. Yeah.

Beth: [00:31:16] I think one hour, lots of businesspeople go to lots of networking events, the different formats. And I think actually one hour in front of the computer, you don't have to get a new car. You don't have to get ridiculously early, which some, I know some networking events are really early in the morning and some of them, yeah, like you said, have too much structure.

So I really liked that concept of actually everybody gets to say something and then you'd get to have some more in-depth conversations within the hour as well. So that sounds very appealing,

Gareth: [00:31:42] it's simple.

Beth: [00:31:43] simple but effective.

So has there been something then throughout your career journey that you feel has been calling you like? You could maybe almost there's been breadcrumbs that will link some of the [00:32:00] experiences together that you knew where you might ultimately head or has it been a complete surprise? All these different pivots

Gareth: [00:32:06] For me, I think because of my personality, that the video stuff has been pretty much calling me as you say, because I'm a bit of a showoff, I will say that I do like attention, when I'm out and stuff, I'm there. I'm the one who remembers jokes because I like telling them.

That doesn't mean they’re good jokes, so I think the whole, video side of things has really been something that's pulled me. And I also would say the training side because, I think personally, I like helping people. It's one of my things I'm not materialistic person, and I've always been very guilty of giving too much away, breaking one of our own rules, which is don't throw the baby out with the bath water because otherwise they don't need you anymore. And I've done that several times, but I like helping people, which is one of the reasons why the whole training aspect came [00:33:00] along was because of the fact that, I wanted to help people make better content.

So yeah, I think. The thing that's being drawing me. I do like theatre. I do doing a bit of acting and stuff like that, but I really can't be bothered with the whole, being unemployed for most of my life aspect of it,

Beth: [00:33:20] and did you like the theatre when you were younger as well, then?

Gareth: [00:33:23] No, and I don't go now.

Beth: [00:33:26] and you don't go.

Gareth: [00:33:27] No, I've done.

I like being on stage.

Beth: [00:33:29] You like being on stage?

Gareth: [00:33:31] Yeah, I've been in nine plays, with Bingley theatre and I've never been to watch room. So, I'm a showoff.

Beth: [00:33:40] one of the reasons why I created the podcast was really to help people understand that we've got all these kinds of skills and experiences that we amassed throughout our career. And I think sometimes we do it always shout about them. And I think we should celebrate them a little bit more.

I like to call them superpowers are there things that you think that you would say are your superpowers [00:34:00]

Gareth: [00:34:00] I can tell you my negative superpowers. I'm not a very tolerant person. I will admit that when I was in the army, we had a magazine. And basically, we had a for sale and wanted part in the back and my mate, Ted.

Put in there, wanted a diplomacy course for corporal James.  very diplomatic, I think. But, yeah, that's one of my anti superpowers,

Beth: [00:34:23] what's your proper superpower.

Gareth: [00:34:24] what is my proper superpower? Oh, no, that, isn't, that's a really hard question to answer. I think. I will say I'm good at working with people when we film, it was obviously clients are not performers. And when we actually film with them, immediately you get this kind of apprehension.

And I think one of my superpowers is getting them to calm down and then to actually start to perform. And to perform well. So I think I'm a good communicator in that sense that I can get them to understand what it is we want them to do, [00:35:00] rather than just, thinking, Oh God, I wish shed would get it because that doesn't work. And I think that doesn't work, not just in film, but in a lot of things in life, if people don't understand something, then it's not necessarily their fault. Now, if you've explained it 50 times in 50 different ways, then my intolerance kicks in and my anti superpower takes over.

But I think, yeah, being able to work with people and to direct them if you like.

Beth: [00:35:27] Yeah. I think that's a good superpower. I think everybody needs a calming influence, especially if you're not used to filming, I remember doing the filming we did for digital knowledge, I think, which is on your LinkedIn profile to talk about the work that we're doing with you and, you put us at ease.

It feels sometimes a little bit like it's not a real situation is that you're being asked to talk about some things. So I think. You need that calming influence when you're doing the line of work that you do. And especially if you're directing people to star in videos.

Gareth: [00:35:52] It's funny because, that's where humor. I like to use humor, as you will know, as you remember, I like to use humor to take the edge off the atmosphere and you're right. It's [00:36:00] when you put people in that position, sometimes it can be like, really startled in the headlights type of situation.

That was the testimonial you did, for us. But yeah, it, I think that's why I like humor. Humor can take the edge off a situation a lot better, and sometimes being a bit cheeky as well.

 Political correctness. be damned, at the end of the day you judge your audience, and you know what you can say and what you can say. And I think the superpower is understanding where you can take the line too.

Beth: [00:36:29] Yes, you can read people. So as entrepreneurs and we all have kind of platforms of choice, I would imagine yours is a video. But what's helping you get the word out about the work that you do.

Gareth: [00:36:41] I think, one of the things, and I think this whole situation with COVID has, made me realize a lot more is the ability to have one to ones with people, a lot easier without getting in the car, driving for an hour, or jumping on the train to go to Leeds, just to [00:37:00] have a coffee. I think. This form of communication, even though at the beginning, I was, against that, I didn't want to have this situation where I'm stuck in the office.

I enjoyed the getting out of the office. But after a while, I'm on a minute, I'm having a lot more, one to ones. I'm having a lot more conversations. I'm doing more with my time. Essentially, so I think the way we are getting work more now is through the one-hour network and through our BNI, but as well as that is, is having the conversations with people, when people connect on LinkedIn, I like to give them a nice to do a nice little message.

And, if people are responsive, because some people just connect for the sake of connecting and I don't understand why when you connect with someone, you should at least acknowledge them when they send you a message. I just think it rude of other people. But, when people do acknowledge you, you say right.

Do you want to one-to-one, let's have a chat? And I've, had lot of one-to-ones from that. That kind of approach as well as doing it through the [00:38:00] networking and that's led to more and more work. But I would also say with those direct referrals from networking partners as well, is quite good.

We use video because we tell other people they should use video and through our social media, we do get inquiries. You see our videos and knowing people who've seen the videos and people have shared our videos and stuff like that. And at the end of the day, I think there's a lot of people out there promoting video as a medium, but then not actually using it themselves.

Which I find a bit weird, to be honest with you. I think, we, we do use video because, but yeah, that's just another way of. Of getting business, but I think, the one to ones and the ability to do so quite easily. It's quite an interesting factor.

Beth: [00:38:50] it makes you wonder what we would all do before. Doesn't it with, you can get so much more done.

Gareth: [00:38:55] Yeah.

Beth: [00:38:56] just doing it all online.

Gareth: [00:38:58] But weirdly, [00:39:00] do you think you've got more time? Cause I don't,

Beth: [00:39:05] an upward.

Gareth: [00:39:07] I am getting more done in the time I've got, but yet I still find that I don't have more time.

Beth: [00:39:13] Yeah. It felt like when I went into the office that my days were long, like when you come home at six o'clock, maybe it feels like, Oh, that was a long day. But actually now same amount of time at home. But it feels a lot shorter and the day it goes like that,

Gareth: [00:39:29] Yes.

Beth: [00:39:29] it's weird. Isn't it?

Gareth: [00:39:31] It's very strange and the days are blending into each other.

Beth: [00:39:33] So before we go, is there anything more you'd want to share around video that you'd want listeners to, to know about? Or they should be thinking about right now?

Gareth: [00:39:41], the only thing I would say to people is, to start embracing it and looking into it more, and not just make a video and stick it on the internet and see what happens, but actually think about it and have a strategy. This morning, the meeting I had was a strategy meeting.

Putting together things like [00:40:00] working out, what kind of content to make, what to do with it once we've made it.  and you can film yourself.  for less than 80 quid, you can totally equip yourself with all of the correct stuff, to make good quality content.

You tripod your microphone. Your little clamp for your phone can all be bought, but don't just think of video as YouTube. There are so many different types of video. I do different types of video.  we doing kind of videos for a joke. It started off. because we used to see all these in-car videos of people being really serious driving the car.

And why are they driving their car while I'm talking to the camera? I don't know. But Mick, my business partner is, is quiet. He doesn't say a lot. And if you've seen any of our in-car videos, you'll see what I

Beth: [00:40:50] and teller.

Gareth: [00:40:50] It's like Penn and teller. Yeah. And basically whenever we went on a job, its really exhausting when you film.

So we got into the [00:41:00] car and you, when you go into a shoot, you, your energy has to be up here. And, for the listeners and putting my hand above my head. And then when you leave, it has to be above. It has to be up here. And now I'm putting my hand as high as it'll go. Yeah, off the screen and it's basically essentially you cannot go, do you know, I'm not in the mood for today when you're directing a shoot, you've got to have the energy there.

So why don't we get into the car then? Cause Mick does all the technical, the filming and that. So he's not like me, not on all the time I go, and I just collapsed, and then I thought let's do an in-car video. And it was just a selfie stick, on the dash. Basically me talking Micks driving Mick, doesn't say much at all every now and then you get a yep. Yep, Nope. Yeah. I'm talking nonsense. Cause I'm so tired. It doesn't matter. And then I tell a stupid dad joke, we'll do that just for a laugh. We did that for a laugh to take the Mickey out of all these in-car [00:42:00] videos. The next day people were asking so when’s the next one?

Beth: [00:42:05] That's a

Gareth: [00:42:05] What, why did you like that? So obviously then, because I'm a showoff, I felt compelled to do more. So we did a few more. But we haven't done one of them in a long time, but they're good fun, but that's the thing. Video is a medium and it can be used in so many different ways.

. And if you're frightened of the camera, can I give all of the listeners a tip? If you think to yourself, I don't like getting in front of the camera. I would like you to do the following exercise. Put your video camera on your phone, put it on books or whatever you haven't bought the equipment yet, because you're not convinced, you're going to do video and film yourself doing your 60 second pitch to camera.

Watch it laugh at it, delete it. Do it again, get somebody else to look at it. Laugh at it, delete it again. I can pretty much guarantee you yeah. That by about the fourth or fifth time [00:43:00] you start saying, it's better than the first one, because until you've got the first one to compare it to you have nothing but a fear of doing it.

And you can do it on your own you could lock yourself away in a room in the house and just do it and see what it looks like, and then just laugh at it it's digital. It doesn't cost you anything apart from time. Yeah. And then after a while you would just go its better than the first one, do you know what?

It's not so bad, but that's my tip to people who are of the camera.

Beth: [00:43:31] Sometimes you just got to get going with these things and give it a go. So what's next for you then?

Gareth: [00:43:36] We're pushing hard on the training. Now we are taking the workshops that we do in the one-to-one training. We're putting them online. So that's going to be there for people to actually engage with. The one-hour networking, pushing that forward.

Looking to extend that a bit, maybe in two evenings as well. But for clockwork Eye itself and, the rest of it. Yeah. It's much more of the same, there is something that’s in the back of my mind. But I [00:44:00] can’t tell you not yet. It's Oh, it's really, it's yeah, it's in progress and.

I wish I could say something cause it's very exciting, but, yeah, it involves a hospice and we're doing some project with them and, we did a project with them before. And it's amazing actually because this is a good little story about how effective video is. They had a Memorial service they run every year called the sunflower Memorial.

And basically, they couldn't do it because of COVID. So they came to us and said, want to do something. I said, okay, we'll do a video. We do a video Memorial. So we got them to build. We directed them over zoom meetings, got them to film the introduction, the outro, the, voiceover, one of them sang a song one did a poem it was about 10 minutes long, this video. And we got them to take cutaway shots and stuff. And I phoned Lisa a week later and I said, how did it go? And she said, Oh, she said, I've told them, I've told the trustees that we're having another [00:45:00] video, next year for this. And I said, Oh yes. Put in your diary, I said, all right.

Okay. I said, you know what prompted that? She said, Oh, we made, we made 11,400 pounds more in donations through just having the video, just the video itself. And just the video made 11,400 and they normally make about 10 grands. She said, and they made 21,400, this year, because it hits a different platform. So then it got shared and it got spread out. Whereas normally they had a physical event where people came and then made donations. Now they will hit in a completely new market. So we're working on another project with them, which I can't go into detail, but it is very excited tune back in, in about a month's time.

Beth: [00:45:46] Thank you so much for joining us today on the show. Gareth

Gareth: [00:45:49] Me

Beth: [00:45:50] Where can people find out more about you?

Gareth: [00:45:53] If you go ClockworkEye.co.uk you'll see me in lots of videos as well. You actually get to see what I look like. I can't believe I brush my hair for [00:46:00] this as well, but it's basically I’m ClockworkEye.co.uk, and I'm LinkedIn, dot com forward slash Clockwork Eye is my profile as well.

And, yeah, just, if you want to get in touch, you want to find out more about one hour network then you can email me gareth@clockworkeye.co.uk and, I'd happy to have a chat with anybody who wants to learn more about video marketing and the rest of it. Even if they just want to pick my brains.

And as you can probably tell, I do talking about video.

 So, how did you like the show? I love Gareth’s sense of humor. It's so dry and funny. And I just had a really good time interviewing Gareth. Some of the things that really resonated with me as I'm listening back to that episode is what Gareth says about life is just a series of tick boxes to complete.

And I think that's so true. But sometimes we don't make those things to tick off. We don't make that list of things. And so I think that's a really good way of looking at life and allowing you to have some control by [00:47:00] creating that list of things that you would like to complete. I also loved what Gareth said about perception is everything.

If you make rubbish, you look rubbish. And again, that is so true how you do anything is how you do everything. So if you don't make your bed in the morning, you’re probably quite messy in other areas of your life as well.

I felt really privileged that Gareth was able to share his experience of asking for help, especially as a man, I think men do bottled up their emotions a lot more and just the importance of. When you're struggling in your business or life in general, just being able to voice your concerns and your challenges in a safe environment where people hold in a space for you and you don't need to bottle it up.

You can. Get so much help and support or wisdom just from the people around you. And it doesn't need to be a paid coaching or mentoring relationship. It could just be your friends or your family, or just other people who are going through the same things. And that's why networking and groups like that are just so, so important.

I hope you've enjoyed [00:48:00] this episode. I can't wait to bring you more episodes. Just like this, please do subscribe rate and review this episode, this podcast, wherever you listen to the episodes, you can also email me at support@visualiseyou.com with your questions or ideas for the show.

I would love to hear from you.

If you're interested in coaching head to visualiseyou.com/coaching for your. Complimentary clarity call and had to visualiseyou.etsy.com to take a look at my intuitive oracle card reading store. Okay. That's all for today. And I shall speak to you soon.