Ken Okazaki, How to Create High-Converting Videos with Just Your Phone | Marketing | YAPClassic

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Oh man, young improfiters, if you're trying to figure out how to market yourself through online video, you're going to want to tune into this Yap Classic. Today, we're taking it back to episode 230 from June 2023, and it's an interview that I did with marketing megastar Ken Okazaki.
It's an absolute masterclass in how to post high-performing video content. Ken is kind of the guy behind all the guys.
Like he is the mastermind behind so many popular influencers that you know and love. Ken has been producing videos since he was a teenager and now he's the head of Oz Media Global where he helps his clients generate millions of dollars from video marketing.
In this episode, Ken shares how to optimize video content to gain more views, leads, and sales. He breaks down his seven-figure video funnel framework and also his famous toilet strategy.
And I shit you not, you're going to want to stay tuned for that one. So let's stop procrastinating when it comes to online videos.
Take that plunge right now and start your education with the one and only Ken Akazaki. So Ken, thank you so much for being here.
I definitely want to jump right into your story. Through my research, I discovered that when you were 17, you left your home in Japan and traveled to several different countries.
So tell us about that journey and how you first got interested into video marketing and what led you to your career today. Wow, you did do your research.
So 17 years old, this actually started when I was eight years old. And I'm going to compress this as much as I possibly can to honor everybody's time.
But there was a time I was sitting in the back of the classroom and I realized the teacher was teaching the same thing that was being taught a week ago. And I went to my dad, I said, dad, why do they keep teaching the same stuff? And he says, well, maybe someone in the class didn't get it.
And at that moment, I realized that they're teaching everything to the pace of the slowest person. And I started feeling claustrophobic.
I started feeling stressed about it. And I said, how much more of this is there? And he explained, you're in elementary school, you know, then there's junior high.
And I was like, then I'm done, right? And he goes, well, then there's high school. I said, and then I'm done, right? And he goes, well, you know, then there's college.
And at that point, I was like, there's got to be another way. So long story short, he got me enrolled in American curriculum in Japan.
I'm Japanese. I live in Japan.
I've never lived in the States, even though I sound kind of American. It's because I got enrolled in an American school.
So this allowed me, because it was a correspondence course, to go at my own pace. So by 17, I'd finished everything.
And I told my parents I want to leave home. And I literally did that thing where you take a globe and you spin it, you close your eyes and you pop your finger down.
It ended up in India. I told my parents, I'm leaving home, I'm going to India.
And I did that. And it was 11 years of, you know, after leaving home, going to India, that I traveled to multiple countries, got married, had kids, 11 years before I came back home to Japan.
Wow. So that's how we got started, the backstory.
That's amazing. And then what first got you intrigued with video marketing? How did you first start dabbling in video marketing? Yeah, really good.
After India, I was trying to figure out, hey, what's next? And I had a friend who was commissioned to create a documentary series in Uganda. And he asked me, hey, I need some help.
You know how to like operate a camera and stuff, right? And I was like, sure. And I thought Uganda sounds like a next great stop for me.
So I went and borrowed a camera and just started playing with it, figuring out the settings. And this is 1999, actually.
So that shows you how old I am. So I just figured it out because I wanted to get on this guy's team and make documentaries in Uganda.
So from there, I just always had a camera in my hand. It was just second nature to me.
We got to fly Air Force One with the president. We got to go silverback guerrillas.
I went into war zones with the Congo at the time when there was a civil war going on. So that was a lot of excitement and adrenaline kind of stuff I was looking for at that time.
That's how it all started. I love that.
And so also from our research, we found out that you used to put on really big events with your dad for people like Tony Robbins, and you actually completed Tony Robbins Platinum Partnership. Tony, hopefully, is coming on the show soon.
He asked to come on my show, but we still haven't booked it yet. Excellent.
And I'd love to understand, did you learn anything from Tony Robbins when or like, did he inspire you in any way? Let me just get this straight. So Tony Robbins is asking you to come on the show, yet here I am before him.
So that's a pretty big deal, right? Tony Robbins asked to come on my show. Amazing.
And then we've been trying to book it and it hasn't happened, but I'm like, hey, he wants to come on. We're just...
He's got a busy schedule. Yeah.
But I've seen the caliber of guests that come on your show. So I'm not at all surprised if in just a few short months, you'll have a US president on here.
Oh, thanks, Ken. That's where I think this is going.
But about the events, I used to do large-scale events in Japan. Tony Robbins is one of the speakers we hired at one point.
I did work with other partners. But people like Jordan Belfort, Les Brown, Nick Vujicic, Robert Kiyosaki, these are the kind of people that if you hire them and you get them to be the main draw of your event, you can put two to 8,000 people in a stadium.
And that's what we do every other month. And that was the business we did.
And we did it primarily with video marketing. So that's why I got really confident what I do is I had the experience of putting butts in seats by telling a compelling story with video on social media.
I love that. So let's get into the, you know, meat and potatoes of this interview.
We have the video marketing guy, guys, on this podcast. We all know how important video is, but to really give us some foundational knowledge in terms of why video helps us convert more sales.
Why is video the best marketing tactic to actually convert leads? Yeah, I'll answer that a little slightly differently. I don't know if it is the best for everybody in every situation.
I've seen situations where people are running ad campaigns and they split tested video against an image. They split it against just text.
And I've seen it not perform the best. So I'm not the guy who's going to be shouting off the roostop saying everybody needs to do video all the time.
I think video is a great tool among a whole arsenal. You know, you need paid ads, right? Sometimes it's text.
Sometimes there's a book people will be more attracted to than a video. So I think video is great to have in your arsenal, but don't make it the sole focus and shut your eyes off to all the other great things that are out there.
Blogging is still, by the way, extremely effective for getting SEO and ranking on Google. So now that I've made that disclaimer, I think the great thing about video, there's this thing about being human.
I think AI is getting pretty close to catching up. But when you can look someone in the eye, and you see the whites of their eye, and you feel the passion they have in their voice, that is something that a trained copywriter may be able to attain after a lot of experience.
But anybody who's passionate about what they do, person on the other side can feel it. And that's why there's this shortened gap of time from when someone starts making video to when they could start effectively communicating, not just the words that they're saying, but what they're feeling to the viewer.
And that's the magical thing about video. I love that.
And I'm happy that you made that distinguishing factor because it's true. Everybody can, like there's different things that work for everyone and different scenarios.
And so you've got to make sure that you use the right tool in your toolbox. So speaking of having to sort of how people are on a spectrum when it comes to their video skills, you talk about this in your book, you say that they're either a dabbler, a part-timer, a pro or a rock star.
So talk to us about from all the way to a dabbler, to a rock star, what are the elements of each person? Yeah. Well, the dabbler is the one who's going to see somebody else, maybe a friend or an associate on social media, and they're going to pick up their phone and say, I can do that.
And they shoot a few videos, they get exhausted. And what happens is they put in the effort, but they don't do it consistently enough that it becomes a habit and they start getting traction.
So they've got no money as a result of it. 99.99% of the time, it's not going to go anywhere.
Then at the next level, you've got people who actually do this consistently, but they're not at the point where they can get people to the point of a sale. Like maybe you don't have a product, you don't have a business set up, and you're going to reach some success and we'll call that bonus money.
Every now and then somebody might pop up and they'll Google you and find what you've got to offer and they'll buy it, but it's not consistent. Then anything above that, what's happening is consistency, systems, and processes so that it's no longer when you feel like it.
You're treating it like an occupation, a career, a job. If you don't show up, things don't happen.
And that's when success builds on success. And that's when people start realizing, hey, this person is a pillar in this vertical, in this niche, in this industry.
And the more they hear you, the more they want to hear about you. I'm not going to go into too much detail here for the sake of time, but the rock stars are the people who, in a nutshell, you're no longer pushing your content.
It's your audience is pulling the content from you. Like the demand for it is greater than your effort to push it out there.
You're getting more people to share it. You're getting people requesting to be on your show.
You're getting so much engagement that you'll never run out of ideas because you can just look at the comments and use that for your content ideas. And that's that feeling of getting pulled.
And once you reach that, there's a lot of people who just realize that there is this, I guess it's like the flywheel type of feeling and that's flow. And that's where I want all my clients to get.
I love that. I hope that we all get to that place with our videos.
So let's talk about how we can look pro without necessarily having pro equipment. I know that you're a big advocate of using our iPhone and that we shouldn't really make an excuse when it comes to equipment.
So can you talk to us about that? Yeah, it was like I chased Jarvis. He's the one who said that phrase, the best camera is the one you've got with you, right? And we've all got phones.
Real quick, one of the things women always ask me is, how can I look thinner? And the simplest way is to just raise your phone if it's like here, just at a slightly higher level than your eyes. What's going to happen is it's going to taper your whole figure down to more like a V where your eyes are going to pop a little bit bigger.
Your forehead's going to look, well, hopefully a lot too big. But what happens is you get that really nice pointy jawline and everything, as it goes further down, looks a little bit slimmer.
And it's just this, you know, working the angles, right? Yeah. Ideally, most people are going to want to be exactly at eye level.
And there's this experiment I did where I sat people across from a diner table with me and had conversations with them. And then I met people in person.
And the thing is that people consistently told me they felt more connected to me when they're sitting across. And I realized what's happening is the length of your legs are canceled out and you're much more likely to be seeing exactly eye to eye with someone.
Because when you're standing, the height difference really makes you feel either short or tall, inferior, superior, child, parent. There's these relationships that our psychological brains have already embedded in there.
But when you get the camera exactly at your eye level, then there's that phrase, seeing eye to eye. And people no longer feel threatened by you or they don't feel superior to you.
They feel like they could have a one-on-one conversation with you. And right now I'm looking at your camera setup.
You're exactly eye to eye. My camera is slightly higher simply because the way my room is set up, I can't get it lower.
But ideally, if you got a phone, then you don't know where to start. Get it right at eye level.
A lot of people have it low. That's what I call the nose hair zone, where people are literally seeing your nose hairs, not the most attractive angle.
So I think one really simple thing is just figure out your angles. Do you want to look a little bit more petite, slim? Do you want to look eye to eye, like you're having a conversation? Or do you want to be a little bit more dominant looking, a bit of a bigger like father figure? Then you bring it a little bit lower, not too low.
You get stuck in the nose hair zone. Yeah, this is really great.
And I don't remember who told me this, but to your point, when you're looking up in your video, you actually look like you're less authoritative. If it's slightly lower, you look more authoritative.
But like you said, you don't want to have people look in your nose. And here's one small trick.
I've had so many female clients and they're deathly afraid of showing a tiny bit of a double chin, which I do sympathize with them. And there's this, I call it the chicken move.
And this is something that I learned because I watched the behind the scenes of Tom Cruise at one of his debuts. And from the front, they're about to take the group photo, right? And he's standing there.
What he does is he cranes his chin out as far as he can toward the camera. And I realized that when he was sitting natural, he had a tiny bit of a double chin.
And I only saw this because there was a side angle. Someone shot a view from this like three, two, one, and it goes like this.
But then here's the thing from front that actually you can't really tell, right? And if you're looking right at the camera and you're deathly afraid of the double chin, you just kind of took your head for it like a chicken. The turtle move.
Yeah, or a turtle. And then I started seeing it everywhere.
In Hollywood photo shoots, if you look from the side angle, all the women are doing that right before the photo or before like a close-up shot. I thought that is so brilliant.
Nobody even knows it happens because they're not looking for it. So it's just a hack, especially because I know women are very conscious about how they look and they should be.
It's just a little trick that might help you. Yeah, I love that.
And I know that you have this phrase, love the lens. Yes.
What does that mean to you? Right now, I'm looking right at the camera. I'm looking right at you.
And hopefully the viewer can see that I'm looking right at the camera. If I were to look just a little bit off, then it feels different.
Right now, I'm looking at the monitor where you are. And I've tested conversions on this.
And when you're looking right at the camera, and even if it's the difference of looking right at the camera here or at your own face, the conversions on the video will change. I don't know if you've heard of someone named Alex Harmozi, but I audited his stuff on Instagram and on TikTok.
And we look for the things that the algorithms can't find because we manage a lot of people's social media and we want to make sure we're giving good advice. I don't make predictions.
I look at data and I look at how can we use that to help them move forward, right? And we look for patterns in the top performing videos and the bottom performing videos. And we look for the commonalities.
And one of the commonalities that we found is when he's looking off camera, those are like 80% of the videos that were in the bottom 10% here, he's looking off camera. And 80% of the videos in the top 10%, he's looking straight into the camera.
And when I saw that, I was like, where else can we see this pattern? And most people, it's the same thing. So loving the lens is disciplining yourself to look at the little black dot.
I call it black circle confidence. That black circle is your audience.
It's not looking at your own face is vanity, right? So if you can get to that level, then without effort, you're going to be getting more engagement. People will feel like they're more connected to you on video.
Yeah. And it makes sense because eye contact works in real life.
Of course, it's going to work online. The same things with human behavior transfer online or offline.
So it makes sense. How about having movement in your video? What is the importance of that? Yeah, movement is, I took this from an evolutionary perspective where as hunter gatherers, when we were looking for the prey, right? Anything that moves is where our attention will go.
It could be danger or it could be food. And our brains are tuned to snap to where the movement is.
And there are simple ways you can do this in your videos. When I start my videos, a lot of times I start with, hey guys, how's it going? I put my hand real close to the camera.
Every 15 seconds or so, if you're holding your phone, I just pivot about 90 degrees, changes the whole background. But I'm still in the frame.
A lot of videos that are really successful are the ones where there's a monologue of some inspirational quote, but then you just see someone doing things, something like laying bricks or cutting lawns, but that movement is what keeps you engaged. So whatever you do, keep resetting people's attention with movement.
And for example, in this podcast, I'm going to guess that there's going to be cuts. There's going to show your face, my face.

That's movement, right?

But if you're not going to be editing,

you could do things like moving closer to the camera,

further from the camera, using hand gestures.

There's all kinds of ways you can do that.

Yeah, and I see lots of influencers

like walking with their phone outside

and things like that.

So this really helps me

because I'm thinking about a lot of my videos.

I'm sitting down on a couch.

I should probably be moving around. Well, there is what you do well, I've been researching you too, is you can either do the movement with your hands and with the camera and get that uploaded right away.
Or you can send it to an editor and they do the movement with titles, with emojis, with little animations on screen. All of that is movement.
So if you're not at the level where you can edit like that, then use practical movement. But if you have an editor, then they can do that for you.
Okay, that makes sense. And then in terms of lighting, using your iPhone, what do we need to know? Well, there's two things you got to know.
Number one, avoid direct sunlight. It's going to make you like 10 years older.
If that's what you're going for, then go for it. But most people are not.
But the most important thing is to just hold your camera up, look at your face, and turn around 360 wherever you're at. And then you'll very quickly see where there's more light coming from in front than behind.
And that's really the most basic tip you can keep that will be effective everywhere. So you go into a hotel room.
You want to make sure that you're facing the big window and you're not having it as your background because that's going to make you either look like a silhouette or make the background look like it's totally white. So face the light.
And if you got that, then I think that everything else falls into place pretty quickly. Let's hold that thought and take a quick break with our sponsors.
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So fun fact, and I've heard you talk about this a few times, 80% of men and 69% of women use their phone while on the toilet. And you've taken this data and created something called the toilet strategy.
So what is the toilet strategy? And what does this data tell us about how we should be conducting video marketing? Yeah, I don't know about you, but I happen to use my phone in the toilet. And when I realized that there's that huge percentage, because that's kind of like literally your downtime, right? So that's when you're like, you know, you're checking messages, looking at social media.
And there's a couple of things going on here. And right now it may seem obvious, but when I first presented this at a conference, everybody was like, oh my, you know, smack my head.
Like, that's so obvious. Why didn't I think of it? But when your audience is in the toilet, you have to, well, put it this way, tune your videos as if you're speaking to someone on the toilet.
So there's a couple of things that we want. Number one, you want to make sure there's captions on every single word because when you're in a public bathroom, it's very rare that you're going to want the speakers blaring while you're in there, right? So immediately someone's going to mute.
If they can't hear you or read you, then they're going to skip off, right? So that's rule number one. Rule number two about the toilet strategy is the length.
There are so many times where I've seen a video, I thought this is great. And then what we've done is eye tracking tests.
The first thing we look at is the title to see if we want to stop. The second one is the person's eyes.
The third place we look, believe it or not, is the play bar to see how long it is. And that's through eye tracking data.
And if the video is too long, like you probably want to spend five minutes in the bathroom max. If it's a 20 minute video, what happens is this is a great video, but I don't have 20 minutes, so it's safer later, which by the way, nobody ever goes to the safer later video and actually watches them.
It is a black hole where things go in and never come back out. So you never want to get safer later.
There's the length. You want to keep it two minutes max.
Nowadays, it's under a minute. It keeps getting shorter.
The third thing is really the big title on top. Now, that's kind of changed because nowadays with the way TikTok format videos have really taken over, the algorithm chooses what shows up.
It's not what you subscribe to. So it doesn't matter quite as much.
But I think it's quite effective on some platforms where the thumbnail is going to be much more prominent than the actual video itself. For example, YouTube.
Yeah. Let's take it to LinkedIn for a second.
So you may not know this. I'm one of the biggest influencers on LinkedIn.
I do know it. You are everywhere.
Oh, thank you. And I have a LinkedIn masterclass.
And one of the things that I discovered when I was preparing this masterclass is that a lot of people are watching videos with the sound off. And I realized that on LinkedIn, especially everyone has a job.
Everyone is college graduate, serious professional, but the most engaging times on that platform is 10am in everyone's time zone. So they're watching videos at work.
And I was like, duh, everyone's watching videos at work. That's why any video that's either super long

or needs sound performs terrible on that platform.

It needs to look really different, pattern disruption,

needs to be engaging with the sound off and be short.

Otherwise, videos do not work on that platform

unless they're LinkedIn Live

and people are treating them like an event.

That's right.

So I would love to understand your perspective on the importance of engaging video with the sound off. I think that people have been fighting for, like say fighting against it for so long because radio came out before TV, right? There are silent films also where, but they had to have an orchestra right in there.
So sound has always been such a big part of it. But sound is something that is most enjoyed as a group setting.
Now everything is going into individual entertainment where every single person, I have six kids, by the way. Oh, wow.
When I grew up and it was movie night, we all sat together around the one tiny TV. Like that was the whole family.
Now it's like, let's movie night. Everybody's just like, I'm watching this series and I'm watching that series.
I'm on my phone. I'm on my iPad.
We're on the TV. So it's becoming an individual experience.
And just like at work, you're not going to get a group of coworkers to sit around and watch a program. Everybody's like at the cubicle, in the bathroom, in the hall, you know, on there getting a cup of coffee.
It's an individual experience. And as an individual experience, sound is becoming less and less prominent.
Now, I know a podcast experience is completely different and we're not, that's a completely different category. But when it comes to the decoupling of the visual experience and the audio experience, the main reason is because it's becoming an individual experience where sound radiates in all directions, whereas light can be directed just toward your eyes.
Yeah, and so I think the moral of the story is that,

especially on a platform like LinkedIn,

I don't know if Instagram is necessarily the same.

You've got to make sure that your videos are engaging

with and without the sound on.

It's got to make sense with captions, whatever it is.

Very true.

You finish the edit, then watch it back without sound.

And if it's not fun, then fix it.

That's the quick hack around that. If you're not enjoying it without sound, then fix it.
Totally. And that's such a big hack.
Okay, you already told me about the timing of videos. I think it's a good time to transition into your seven-figure video marketing funnel.
So first of all, define video marketing funnel. What does that even mean? So a lot of people have looked at courses, right? Like somebody teaches you, here's how to make money and here's how to get clients.
And I've gone through a lot of them myself. And almost all the time, there's going to be some form of like, okay, you got to sign up to ClickFunnels or HighLevel or, you know, whatever other platform there is.
And there are a lot of great ones out there. And I've surveyed a whole bunch of people who actually went through courses.
And one of their frustrations is that every course or coaching program tells them they got to sign up to this 300 to 500 or they're buying thousands of dollars of SaaS products. And I thought, what if I run an experiment on myself where all we're doing is using free tools, social media, the phone in your pocket, and just a payment system, Stripe or PayPal or something? Can I actually convert leads and sales with that? And I did an experiment and that was the premise of the book.
I scaled something to over seven figures where all I did was shoot videos on social media, engaged with my audience through the videos, directed people to a payment page, and then actually started coaching them on Zoom. And this is something that a lot of people don't realize that, like, if you don't get the messaging right, if you don't understand how to connect with the audience, forget these complicated funnels and tripwires and automations and zaps.
That comes later, because what you're doing is you're taking something that works, an interaction with your audience, something that works, that turns to money, and systematizing it. But a lot of people go and create the system first, and then try to connect with their audience.
And then they realize, wait, we built this domino tower in the wrong direction. It's a sad story I've seen over and over.
So that's the concept is use what you have. Don't get into the tech and the craziness unless this is your third or fourth or fifth time around, then go for it because you've done this.
If it's your first time around, use your phone, use free social media, get clients. And unless those three tick boxes are marked, then don't go and buy fancy software.
Yeah, I love this approach. I give the same advice.
I see a lot of people who are creating products and they don't even know if people want these products and they go down this whole rabbit hole investing all this money and then they have no demand, right? So that's a problem. I just actually interviewed the president of Shopify.
And we were talking about how things are changing now where creators are sort of flipping the script on how businesses are made. They're building an audience first, figuring out what they want, and then selling to them rather than building something and then finding the audience, right? So I feel like this really fits nicely with what you're teaching.
And just to clarify, so you're not suggesting that these videos are paid ads against them. You're just saying organically.
Organically, yes. Now, when it comes to paid ads, here's how I feel about it.
And this is what I do with my clients. And by the way, I have turned away a lot of clients or potential clients who said, hey, I've got this stack of cash.
Could you build this thing for me? And I say, well, what have you sold so far? And they said, it's nothing. It's brand new.
I said, what have you done in the past? And they say, nothing. I said, I think you're too early because I don't want to have a one-year relationship with a client and then not get them results because I don't have anything to build on with them.
So, you know, they say, well, you're the expert. I'm like, I'm the expert at blowing up what's working, not at inventing something from scratch for you.
Yeah, you need product market fit, sir. Exactly.
But let's get back to the thing about ads. Here's what we do.
You've got a lot of videos that have gotten hundreds of thousands of views. I feel that I've gotten millions.
And those videos have been tested organically, and they've been proven to convert better than anything else. So what I tell my clients and what we do is we just push them out organically on social media.
We come back a month later, see what the highest performers are, and then turn those into ads. We don't invent an ad from scratch because we want the most return on our ad spend.
So you're going to get the most reach with the videos that do well organically. So we go organic first, then convert them to ads.
And it's that simple.

That makes so much sense.

So put the money behind the things that get the high engagement

because you know they work.

That have already been proven to work.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Okay, so let's get into how we create this video funnel.

First step is coming up with a hockey puck title.

So what are hockey puck titles?

And why do we need to actually plan our content around a title rather than do it the opposite way? Really good question. Hockey puck title, it's, when I was a kid, I was really into hockey, ice hockey.
And Wayne Gretzky said that famous quote, I don't go to where the puck is, I go to where it's going to be. And when it comes to the title, it's no longer thinking about like, I'm going to create some content and then figure out how to get people there.

It says like, no, I'm going to figure out

how to get people's attention.

And then I'll put a tail end on it.

And for me, the tail end is really the content.

So HockeyBank title is about composing great titles.

It's about researching and figuring out

what words are going to rank,

what kind of triggers your audience.

When I say trigger, I don't mean that in a negative way,

but what's going to get them engaged psychologically. And once you have a list of titles, you can talk to that.
For example, Hala, if I asked you, if there's a title that says the two biggest mistakes that first-time podcasters make, that's costing them thousands, I'll bet you could riff on that for five minutes or an hour straight if you wanted to, because that's your expertise. So we go into what's people's expertise, and then we make the eye-catching titles that they can talk, speak to, or fill the space on.
Yeah. And so this is relevant to YouTube, like you said, could also be relevant for like live streams, LinkedIn live streams of titles.
Now, Instagram, TikTok, you don't really have titles. So instead of a title, you just use that as your opening statement.
And if that doesn't get people's attention, then you're doing something wrong. So the title can be the opening statement, which other people would call the hook.
The actual visual title, it can be in the thumbnail. But just think of it as the first information that hits your viewer.
Yeah. And that example that you gave in that hook, you did some things that I noticed, right? I'm a marketer too.
So use a superlative, the best, the worst. Use numbers.
For some reason, people love numbers and hooks. And you made it relevant to me.
It was about podcasters. And you even give monetary value, which also will pique people's interest more.
The more numbers you can stuff in a hook, the better. So let's move on to Hilda, which is your framework for building a video.
What else do we need to know about hooks? Let me tell you one real quick thing, though, about the title. Yeah.
It's the shortcut. The left brain, right brain theory, everybody's got their opinions on that.
But I'll tell you what has effectively worked is you want to engage both sides. You want big numbers.
And for some reason, even if it's zero with dot 20 zeros, that's a big number. Psychologically, it's unlimited, right? And you want an emotional word.
And if you put an emotional, expressive word and a big number together, then you got to wrap the context around that. So I try to think of that first.
Then you're hitting the left brain, right brain. And whether the person is leaning one way or the other, what mood they are in that time of the day, hopefully, it's going to be the biggest dragnet to get the most attention to your content.
Give us an example of doing that strategy. Emotional word might be something like, I quit, right? That's an emotional, like a statement, right? And then a big number would be something, you give me a number and I'll make up something to go with that.
10 billion.

10 billion.

Okay.

So I could say my path from zero to $10 billion, I quit.

I was just like, what the heck does that mean?

Now you're laughing.

You might actually click that, right?

Yeah.

Now, it's got to be contextual to who you are as a person.

Don't make up stuff that has nothing to do with you.

And if it was for me, it's 10 billion.

I might pick up a camera and say, 10 billion pixels, I quit. Like, I might make some content on like, where are we going to go as far as, you know, like, the resolution and doesn't really matter at this point.
That could be something you talk about. We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.
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So for hooks, lately I've been using ChatGBT for anything that I have to come up with some sort of title. I'm like, say this in 10 different ways, right? Have you been using ChatGPT for that kind of thing? We have this one-on-one coaching with our clients because a lot of agencies, they actually provide all the tools.
They say, just send us the video and we'll do everything else for you. Send us the podcast, we'll do everything or we'll give you all the gear.
The gap in the market is actually someone to show up and live direct and coach people. A lot of people, they don't create it because they don't have the time, their schedule's too full, or they get set up and then their hour turns into 15 minutes because of all the other stuff they have to take care of, but the accountability.
So our coaches actually now using some AI, using their own experience as marketers, will create all of the content plans. And that's the hook.
Whether it's a question you ask them that they can answer, whether it's finish the sentence, whether it's a framework. I have a few frameworks, like what I just showed you, the number and the emotional word.
There's a hundred others,

but we'll get them all planned out. And then we'll have a conversation for an hour and shoot

anywhere from 10 to 30 videos within that hour. And that's the short form content.

So the hooks nowadays using ChatGPT does help us get there faster. So we're no longer starting

from zero.

We're starting from maybe 60 or 70 and then our coaches will finish the rest.

Yeah, I love that.

So let's talk about the acronym HILDA.

So this is how you break down your video steps.

We already covered hooks and I'm sure in your book, you probably have, like you said, so

many different formulas for hooks.

I'll run you through this as quickly as I can.

Okay.

Yeah.

So medium format content, this works really well. Medium format is anywhere from 10 to 12 minutes.
And that's my definition. Start with a hook, introduce yourself, lead their anticipation into something you're going to deliver, and then finally ask them to do something at the end.
Hilda, hook, intro, lead, deliver, ask. Hook, we explained that a bit earlier, but you've got about, from the time I wrote the book, I think it was about seven seconds.
Now, especially in the short form videos that are less than a minute, you got about three seconds. And I can show you the numbers behind that, the data we have based that on.
Introduce yourself. Now it's not as necessary as it used to be.
But if you must, if you feel like you must say, hey, my name is Ken Okazaki and I'm blah, blah, blah, blah, always put that after the fact that they're bought into what you're about to say. But the truth is nowadays, if they want to know who you are, they'll just tap your little profile face and they could see that.
If you're going to say it, keep it short. First name, we help what you do, five seconds or less.
And that sounds cruel, but it's real. The longer you talk about yourself, I'm sure you've looked at those engagement graphs on YouTube, right? That's where people drop off is when you're talking about yourself.
But some people have got it. So I say, if you must, make sure you hook them in, right? Lead.
This is where you start telling a story. This is where you start giving context.
Like I read this newspaper article the other day and it got me thinking about this. I was talking to my friend or the way I discovered this, the importance of what I'm about to share.
You're just setting up the big reveal. And that's

what you're going to deliver next. So this is where you actually spend the most time.
Because the moment you release the tension, when you deliver something, and release the dopamine, so D can also be for dopamine, that's when people feel satisfied, satiated. And you got to build this tension, release it.
It's a classic Frank Coppola, you know, strategy and video directing. and then at the end

there was a marriage counselor

who was asked by this woman, just like, every time I asked my husband anything, he always says, no, I want to buy a dress. No, I want to go on vacation.
No, I want to buy this vacuum cleaner. No.
And he says, well, here's what you got to do. You got to one day light some candles, cook him an amazing meal, put on your sexiest negligee, give him mind-blowing sex.
And then afterwards, ask him, she goes, what? He goes, just try it. It absolutely worked.
I'm like, and then she goes back and says, why did that work? He goes, he's got so much dopamine running through his brain. It's so easy to get a yes.
So I thought, well, if we get that level of dopamine, and I'm not sure if we can match what she did for her husband, but we want to get some dopamine going where they feel like they had an aha moment. Right then is when you want to flip it and say, hey, would you please join my group or download this or click a certain link? And it's the timing that's so important.
This is so interesting. So I want to ask some probing questions on each part.
So for the intro, based on what you said, it sounds like if it's a cold audience, you probably should if it's paid cold, probably should introduce yourself to show some sort of social proof, right? And if it's warm or like on your own social media, maybe don't do that because mostly it's going to be your followers seeing it unless it goes viral. And then they'll click on your profile if they want to learn more.
Does that sound right? It's really hard for me to cover every situation because right now, like, for example, I'm a guest on your podcast. There's YouTube videos.
There's super short form. But generally, yes, I think that's a good guideline.
Okay, cool. Something that I thought was interesting is that you suggested don't use your last name from my understanding.
Why just first name in the intros? You want people to feel friendly toward you. And like when I speak to you,

I'll probably just say hala, you know,

and you might say Ken.

And while we're having this conversation,

we're not consistently using full names

because we feel comfortable with each other.

And what we're doing is assuming rapport.

We're not assuming formality.

And when you assume rapport,

the other person is more likely to get on board

and assume rapport back with you.

And then later on, they might feel more open to sending you a DM and say, hey, I checked out your video. Would love to learn more.
It's more likely to happen because they feel more rapport because that's how you started the conversation with them. Oh, that's so interesting.
I always say good branding is making people feel like you're an old friend. So that makes a lot of sense to me.
I think we're on the same page. Yeah.
Okay. So let's talk about this step in terms of leading their anticipation.
This is where a lot of people get stuck. Why do people get stuck in this part? And can you give us some like real tangible examples of how you can do this? This part is more art than science because there are a million ways we can do it.
So let's give a live example. Let's say the thing I want to teach someone is, well, with the GoBox Studio, which you have, there's this cool feature where you can draw right over the video screen.
And a lot of people first saw that when I actually invented that process. Couldn't get a patent too bad.
But there's tons of people were asking me, how do you do that? So I made a quick video about it. And then leading up to showing the exact steps one, two, and three, I talked about all the frustrations of the processes I tried.
I was like, you know, I really wanted to get this effect while I was drawing on the screen. So one was I actually bought this piece of glass and I had it lit like a light board, but it was big and clunky and I couldn't take it anywhere with me.
And it took a lot of time to build. And then I tried this, and I tell them about all the failures, and people are bought into this journey.
And then when I teach them how to do it, they're just like, oh my god, compared to all the effort that you went through, thank you so much for this cool hack. It gave more weight and gravitas, and more value to what I actually taught them, because I gave them a bit of the journey to how we got there.
So that could be like a little bit of an origin story on something. That's one way.
One of the favorite ways that I see work effectively is how, because most of my clients are business coaches, is they tell a story of the before and after of the transformation their client had, and then explain the process for how they do it. You might say something, you know, I worked with this man, he's 55 years old.
He's got three beautiful kids and a wife, but the wife was constantly stressed because he was never home and the kids were not, he wasn't going to see the kids grow up. He was making good money, but his health was deteriorating.
He barely saw his wife and he never got to keep his promises for vacations. He came to me saying, I got to get this fixed, but I don't want to sacrifice my income.
So what I did is, and they teach us that one, two, three steps. Now people are bought into the steps because they might be that 50-year-old person who has their life out of balance and they have money, but no time.
So those are some examples of how can you give context, tell a story, or paint a picture that sets up what you're about to share. This is so good, Ken.
Like you are so brilliant. I've had video marketers on the podcast before, but by far, I feel like you are giving the best advice.
Thank you. You really know your stuff.
You really, really know your stuff. So let's talk about delivering value.
One thing that I just want to stress to my listeners is from my understanding, what you say in your hook is the value that you're promising, right? So you need to make sure you deliver on your hook. Otherwise, people are going to leave your video and be like, you didn't, I watched this for no reason.
Clickbait, right? That's what clickbait is. It is.
So talk to us about how we can frame up delivering our value and what we need to know about that. Yeah.
Let me paint a quick picture for you. Say you're a drug dealer.
And social media, by the way, I see the closest analogy. It's like a farm.
And you got to plot the land on the farm. And the person who owns the farm is Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube.
They own the farm, and you are leasing a plot. Now, what's going on is when you create content, then the product is your content.
And they use that and they sell it. The only thing on social media, universally across all platforms, that is a universal currency is time.
People buy time. The advertisers buy it from the farmer.
And you're just the person who's volunteering to create, to work the farm for them, which is amazing that they convinced us to do this. So now that we've got this analogy where time is a monetizable product, it actually is money.
It's bought and sold every single day, millions of times, billions of dollars. And when you understand this, then what you got to think is like, well, if I am buying and selling time, and that's the currency of social media, when someone watches a video, let's say they spend three minutes, they pay you three units of time.
And what are you getting in return? What you got to give them is a dopamine hit. Because otherwise, they will not get addicted.
They won't come back. They won't feel like they got their money's worth.
So if you say, hey, get over here, you know, spend three minutes with me, and I'm going to give you a dopamine hit. They come, they pay their three minutes, and you don't give it.
Two things are going to happen. Number one, they're going to feel like, hey, you are a scumbag.
And number two, I'm never coming back and I might even tell people to avoid you. And that's what happens when the promise doesn't meet the delivery.
So what you want to do is give them a dopamine hit. And I think another way to say this is aha moment.
If you could get people like right now, I see you're nodding. I love that.
When I see people nodding, I'm like, we're on the same page. They're having an aha moment here.
And that transaction was successful. Very likely, they'll come back.
So you just got to deliver what you say you can deliver. If you say, I'm going to teach you the most mind-blowing strategy to use ChatGPT, that will earn me $12,000 in the next 30 days.
And then you actually show screenshots and demonstrate it. That is a good fit.
But if you say it and then give some general advice without showing anything that's actually believable, not a high chance that people will continue coming back. They'll be disappointed.
That's the kind of the match you're looking for there. Yeah.
So the dopamine is actually what gets people coming back and addicted to our videos and gets you super fans. Okay.
So the last step is asking for the right thing. How do we know what that right thing is? A lot of people spend a lot of time talking about how, you know, really ballooning up their, whatever their free thing is.
And a lot of times it's, you know, it's a PDF, maybe it's a book or something, right? All I say is there's three columns. There's who, what, how.
And it's just like, hey, if you're

a business coach and you're looking to do a what, which is use video more effectively in your

business, and you want the X thing, cheat sheet or free download or a 30-minute course on something,

and then I would usually, instead of saying click below for the link, because nowadays people don't like clicking a link, I'd say comment X below, or share this with a friend. These are things that people are more likely to do.
And besides clicking a link, clicking links is, I don't know, I think everybody has a little bit of a phobia that they're going to get shot down a rabbit hole or something. So I usually get them to comment something.
That way, they're initiating their reach out to me. I use that comment as a starting point for what we call the smooth segue, where we segue people from viewing to engaging.
And then you'll retarget them in the DMs or something like that, sounds like. I have a conversation with them.
You know, I just chat and say, hey, thanks for the comment. I think you're looking for X resource.
Is that right? And they say, yes, I'll send it to them. Then I'll probe a little bit into whether I can help them with my business.
We'll be right back after a quick break from our sponsors. Got it.
Okay, so moving along your framework, the next piece is the missing link so in your book you write you've got to offer something that's priceless to your viewer free for you to give that is the missing link between where they are so tell us more about this concept yeah between where they are and where they want to be so a lot of times like, like if I said to you, you can absolutely earn enough money to have a 500-foot yacht. Now, you might get a picture of yourself cruising this yacht, hanging out with Elon Musk and everything.
And I'm exaggerating here for demonstration purposes. But then a lot of people will start dreaming about that.
But it's really hard for people to actually identify what are the steps to get there. And then I might say, but the thing you're missing is the right connections to the people who can make that happen, the vehicle, which is going to be your business.
And I'm not sure what I'm making stuff up here. I'm going a little bit far-fetched here.
But you paint the picture of what's possible and then remind them of where they're at and then talk about the few steps that are in between.

Now, the thing they never knew they always needed can be, for example, a software tool.

It can be a free training.

It's something that you can give infinitely for free without costing you money.

And that's what's important.

Otherwise, it's very hard to manage free marketing with physical products.

And there are people who have figured that out. So an example I gave before was I give them new information.
And this is back when this is before TikTok really blew up. I wrote this book.
So just for context, I used to say with the toilet strategy, I said, you know what, when 60 to 70% of people are sitting on the toilet when they watch video, number one, here's number two. And I found that if you have captions on the video, then it's going to make the engagement go much higher.
And I give some stats around that. And number three, and you want to put out these videos every single day in order to build on that engagement.
Now, everybody's thinking, I need to create videos with titles on top, captions, and I need to make them every day. And then I say, I've made a free tutorial that will show you how to use some free tools and shoot this on your phone, and get it done in under three minutes for a one-minute video.
Would you like it right now? So I gave them information about where they want to be. And then they get excited, but they don't realize that there's a free tool that's going to help them do it.
Now, everybody wants to download this tool, and I give it to them for free. Now, you could just go to TikTok, and that'll do it for you pretty much.
But that's an example of something that worked really well. I give them new information and then reveal that there's a gap and then offer it to them for free.
So if I was embarking on a video market strategy, I think I would A, start to think about all of my customer pain points and then start to think of many free solutions that I could create. I think you call them micro solutions,

right? That I could create for free, or it might cost me a little money, but I could be able to

give it away for free. And then you would want to then upsell them to some higher ticket offer

once they're hooked in and they got some value from you. Exactly.
Or you just nurture them in

your emails until at some point when they're ready, they'll come to you. Just keep writing

them. In your example, what I would do is I would look for research data, like specific data that's a little bit obscure, but that you can apply to what you do.
You could say something like, did you know that videos that have this certain type of animation in the beginning get higher conversions than others? Or did you know that there's four words I use toward the end of all of my call to actions that makes the ads convert better? I'm not sure what that's going to be.

Did you know that when I wear this certain combination of colors, you know, or have this

kind of guest, or there's a question I ask whenever I get stuck in a podcast, I will get

the show back on track. Then everybody's just like, what is that question? And you say,

just DM me question down below or comment question down below and I'll send you the free three-step

PDF for all the questions I ask to keep my podcast interviews on track. People will go for that.
They will eat it up. I love that.
And I love that you're saying don't put a link because I'm doing this kind of stuff all the time. And I find the same thing when you just give somebody an action like comment, it's less salesy, I guess.
And people get scared of the sales language. Here's what's important is you give them a specific word to comment.

And if you say, you know, like if it's a three-step process, you say comment three below.

If it's a conversion process, say comment conversion below.

Now it's meaningful and it's intentional.

And when you DM them, then there's no question about why they commented something.

Like you could jump right into that conversation.

Hey, great. It looks like you're trying to raise conversions and you're looking for my tool.
Is that right? Yes, great. Here it is for free.
And then you could start probing a bit. Okay, so let's talk about smooth segues.
This is the last part of your funnel. What do we need to know about this part of the process? This is where you take people from passively viewing to actively engaging.
And we're segwaying from someone doomscrolling, randomly finding your video. And just like we described earlier, they're going to engage with you.
But the conversation has what I call three stoplights, right? Three hills, right? The first one is permission to share. So first, they're going to have asked for something and you're going to say, confirm that they actually want it.
Some people just randomly comment stuff and they're not really engaging, right? And you don't go further until they say, yes, I want it. Say, great, you give it to them.
Now, it's a bit of an uphill to get there. Like you're making a bit of effort.
Like, hey, Hala, thanks so much for the comment on the video. Get them to respond, right? If they don't respond, then it's a dead conversation.
I saw you commented three. I think you want my three-step resources to achieve life.
Is that right? Yes. So you take number one.
Number two is you want to share some examples of other people who are in the same boat as a person you're having a conversation with. Hey, I worked with so-and-so and I had these kind of results.
Would you like to see a case study on that? Now they're starting to buy into the vision of what's possible for them, but you're doing it indirectly with someone else. If they say yes, you send them some information.
And the third one is really getting permission to actually send them a way to have one-on-one conversation with, if that is what your sales process is. And that might be with your sales team.
It might be with somebody else who's prospecting. But you got to have a conversation flow that follows these three frameworks.
Because if you don't get permission at these three steps, a lot of people skip ahead and they, you know, you've seen these DM pitches and man, that just nothing clogs up my, I call it constipation. What you're doing is clogging up their system with big chunks of lumpy text.
And it's like, come on. And it's copy pasted.
It's not at all authentic. So you want to break it up into small bits, have conversations, make sure that they're engaging back.
And then just remember what those three checkpoints are and you're good to go. This is such great advice.
I'm actually really excited to dig deeper into your work and see what I can leverage for my business.

So I know that we discussed different iPhone hacks, and that's great for people who are

on a budget.

But in terms of people who have more budget to spend and really want to level up their

on-the-go video marketing, I know you have GoBox Studio.

I just want to share a story in terms of how I found out about it.

I was at a podcast conference, and I see this really cool suitcase looking thing with two lights and a fancy camera. And one of my friends was actually manning the booth and he helped build the studio.
And I walk up to him. His name is Junaid.
And I'm like, what is this? This is the solution that I've been looking for as an influencer. Because historically, to record my podcast, if I was going to conferences and things like this, it was like lugging around two mics, lights, stands for my mics, a computer.
It was just too much work. And I would often avoid it, which meant that I would like have breaks in my schedule.
And it would be really tough to travel as a podcaster and having a number one show.

I can't just like not put out an episode, right?

So I loved it.

And I was like, sign me up.

I want to be an ambassador, whatever I can do.

Because I knew that this was a pain point that a lot of people, especially business

influencers, were probably experiencing.

So I'd love to understand the genesis of this and more about this product.

I've been creating digital media for my clients for several years since 2016. And somebody who is in a lot of the same circles as me, he reached out to me.
His name is Alex Hormozzi. And he said, can I hear you're the guy who's good at video? And I said, yeah, I've heard that once or twice.
And he says, could you create something for me where I can take my stuff on the go? I've got a great studio set up at home, but I'm about to go on vacation. I need something to take with me.
At first I said no. He's a very persuasive guy.
And that's probably why he makes $100 million. And he got me to build him a prototype.
And I sent it over. He loved it.
And this is about 18 months ago when he first started his YouTube channel. I think it was already going, but not really like as regularly as it is now.
He loved it. He started using it.
He was shooting his YouTube videos with it. And then he snapped a photo on Instagram and he's put it in his story and he got about 5,000 comments.
Most of them are saying, where can I buy one of these? So he calls me up and he says, Ken, I think you should make a business out of this. And at that point, I had no intention of starting a hardware business, but he planted that seed.
And then I started making more iterations on this, sending it to my clients, the kind of people who are sending us videos. And a lot of times the videos, with all due respect, were shit.
And we had to go and get very creative about making them look good. But once we started sending these kits, they started sending us amazing 4k crisp video, much like the quality you're seeing with me right now.
So we just kept iterating. Our clients gave us suggestions, ideas, requests, and we just kept adding or subtracting things to make it what it is.
And in October 2022, I'd been working on this for almost a year and And I had to decide, is this a hobby or is this business? So I didn't want to guess for the rest of my life if this was going to take off.

So I went and rented a sponsor booth at an event in San Diego, targeted at agency owners. And our booth was completely packed the whole time.
Everybody around us was complaining

that they had no foot traffic.

We had a crowd constantly.

We had sold, I think, 25 of these units

and that's like a quarter million dollars.

And I was like, okay, I think it's a business.

So I went back and started restructuring things

and thinking about how can I get this to more people

and help more people with this tool.

Yeah, it's an amazing tool. And I'm very excited to have my own GoBox studio.
So thank you. Okay, so as we close out this interview, I thought it'd be really fun to do something quick fire.
So it turns out your video marketing funnel could be used as a diagnostic tool. And so I'm going to list out some common problems that people face.
And you tell me where the issue is in the funnel and what we can do about it.

Okay.

Oh, boy.

You're putting me on the spot.

Let's see.

Let's go for it.

Oh, you're going to crush it.

Come on.

Views are low.

Well, that could be a whole number of things.

But the first thing I would look at is what's the opening statement?

What's going to get people in?

I'd look at the thumbnail, the hooks.

Because a view, just three seconds counts as a view on most platforms. So if you can't keep them for three seconds, a lot of times it's a title, it's a thumbnail.
And that's the first thing I'd go into tweaking. So I would look historically at what did the best among your previous stuff, and then look at how can we use more of that and then expand on it.
Love it. Retention is poor.
So that usually means that your hook sucks.

Like you didn't promise them something later on to give them a reason to stay.

Watch Mr. Beast.

He always talks about what is going to happen as a result of watching his roughly 10 minute episodes.

So that's pretty important is you set them up for a reward at the end.

Then they'll stick through.

Low engagements.

They don't comment and like.

Yeah.

No compelling reason to engage. Maybe you didn't even tell them to.
So there's two ways. Outrageous content.
That's humor or something shocking. People love sharing that.
I don't suggest doing that too much. Otherwise, you could go down a rabbit hole there, a dark rabbit hole.
But just remind people why they should comment. Hey, comment, agree down below if you think that this is something you agree with.
And if it's something

important you shared, then they will. No converting customers.
That's your smooth segue. You know,

like you got to take people from passive viewing to active engagement. And then that's the segue

point that would get people to convert. Amazing.
Well, Ken, you dropped so many gems. I think everybody's going to have a page of notes after this interview.
Thank you so much for your time. We asked two questions to all of our guests at the end of the show.
The first one is, what is one actionable thing our young and profiters can do today to become more profiting tomorrow? Pick up your phone, shoot a video, upload it. Don't even look at it because it's the compounding effect of doing it daily that gets good.
I say it's not quality or quantity. It's quantity that creates quality.
It's you put in the reps, you get good. You get good at speaking by speaking.
You get good at running by running. You get good at video by doing video.
So that's one. There's two.
I think the second thing is stop looking at your competition. Because everybody who's very successful, including you, didn't start with where they're at now.
They started with something else and they evolved to that. And if you try to skip steps, your trip, I've seen it happen too many times, find your own path, even though it may be a bit scary because there's no blueprint, but that's the way every single person who's doing really well right now, they've done it.
They found their own blueprint. They created their own blueprint, found their own path.
So stop looking at the leaders and mimicking them. Get inspired by them, but don't mimic them.
That's great advice. The last question is, what is your secret to profiting in life? And this can go beyond financial financial video.
It could just be anything.

I think you got to design your career around your non-negotiables. I quit my seminar business

because it wasn't satisfying me. So I decided on five non-negotiables and built my current

agency around that. Number one is I need to have cameras around me.
Number two, I wanted to have

very stable income. So recurring revenue business.
Number three, I wanted to travel. Number four, I wanted to continue hanging out with the caliber of speakers I had on my stage by making them my clients.
And number five is I wanted the freedom to be with my family as much as I wanted. So when I decided those, it was no longer what can I do that's gonna make money.
It's like, what business can I invent that will satisfy these five non-negotiables? So if you figure out your non-negotiables, design your business around those. And then I think that you end up a lot happier in the long run.
That's beautiful. Thank you so much, Ken.
Where can our listeners find more about you and the things that you do? I think the best place is find me on Facebook, Ken Okazaki. But just look up at Ken Okazaki on any platform you'll find me or head on over to to our website 20xagency.com That's where we do all the services for our clients.
And if somebody wants to buy GoBox Studio where can they go? So we do have a special deal which is only that you can only get with Hala. Go to goboxstudio.com slash yap and then you'll see the special deal we've created just for the listeners of this podcast.
Amazing. And I'll stick all those links in the show notes.
Thanks again. Really

appreciated having you on. Amazing.
Thank you so much. I enjoyed it.