Stop Being Perfect on Camera: Andrea Bozzi on Authentic Video That Converts

Andrea: People don’t actually care if your video is perfect. I mean, we’ve seen the rise of TikTok and short-form content, how people just put up these imperfect, super goofy videos and they do really well. So it’s okay to say ums and ahs. I did that for a painting business, and they embedded those videos onto their website, and their organic traffic shot up by 56% and they got 70% more enquiries. When business owners show up on video, you kind of get a feeling of their personality. You get a feel for how they think. I had a lady that reached out to me on LinkedIn and she said, hey, I never met you, but I feel like I already know you because I’m following all your videos.

Jordan: Andrea Bozzi from Liquid Media. Thank you so much for coming in and joining us today.

Andrea: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Jordan: We’ve obviously known each other for a few years. I’m trying to think when you, well, let’s just firstly start. When did you actually start Liquid Media here in Taranaki? I want to go before that as well, because I actually was doing a bit of research and you’ve got a really interesting story before that. But you’ve been in Taranaki since about when?

Andrea: 2018.

Jordan: Okay. So it’s coming up eight years.

Andrea: Yep. Coming up eight years in March. So yeah, it’s been quite an interesting journey. So I decided to relocate to New Zealand from Australia. I met my now wife in Australia, and she’s originally from Taranaki. So we decided to move here in 2018. So that’s what made us make the big jump here in good old ’Naki, how people like to call it.

Andrea: And so my background is, I’ve got a degree in international management, but I always sort of enjoyed really the marketing side of things. And when I was in Australia, I was really passionate about photography, obviously, as you do when you’re travelling. And I started to do some videos on the side. I actually started to do freelance video for nightclubs, believe it or not. So that was my first gig, filming in dark rave parties in Sydney. And then obviously I realised, because that wasn’t going to make a career for myself. So I started to reach out to small businesses like restaurants and gyms, and started to pick up a bit of job on the side there in Australia.

Andrea: Then when we relocated to Taranaki, I thought, okay, I have to go full time now, because I’m starting from new. And there’s no real job opportunities. I actually remember applying for a few jobs here at some marketing agencies, didn’t get anything. So I was kind of thrown in the cold water, really. And what do you do? You just start something yourself.

Jordan: Yeah. It’s not like Taranaki or New Plymouth’s got the rave kind of clubs that you would have seen in Sydney.

Andrea: No, no, no. Yeah. But I’d already closed this chapter, because the late hours was not enjoyable. So yeah, I started to reach out to these different businesses. And in 2018, obviously, the social media marketing landscape was completely different, because it changes so quick, it evolves so quick. So Facebook by then was the big player. So I started to do some free seminars around Facebook marketing. And that was a really good way for myself to get my name out there, literally, and people to get to know me.

Andrea: And eventually had some interesting conversations from there, which turned into customers. Started to pick up a few video production clients, some social media clients. And next thing, you know, I’m doing it full time. And it’s been really rewarding. And I found Taranaki was such a good and easy place to start a business. The community here is so supportive and so relaxed. I always say it would have been so different to start a business like I have now in Sydney and go full time, because it’s such a bigger city. The community is not so supportive. Everybody’s kind of out for themselves.

Andrea: I started to use LinkedIn, especially, I think it was in 2019, right before the pandemic got busy. And I was overwhelmed how just easygoing the people were here. You would just connect with someone on LinkedIn and they’ll say, hey, I like what you’re doing, let’s just grab a coffee. And one thing that really struck me was, I sent a few messages and then somebody connected with me, and the next minute I was having a beer with the marketing manager of Powerco. And it’s like, something like that would never have happened in Sydney, where it’s impossible to get to that corporate level of clients.

Andrea: So yeah, I really, really love how everybody here, it’s just almost like a small-town vibe, where everybody just looks for others and just kind of gets introduced into the business community. And if you like how you connect with someone, then they will work with you.

Jordan: So would you say that you kind of fell into entrepreneurial life? It sounds as though you came here, you just start looking for stable jobs, and then, well, fell into essentially what you’re doing now. Or do you think that was always going to be part of your path? Have you always been interested in setting up a business or working for yourself, as opposed to working for others?

Andrea: Yeah, it’s funny you say that, because I went to business school and they always drilled into us entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, and starting your own thing. And back in the day, I was really not keen on that. I thought, starting a business is so much responsibility, so much risk. And then I think when I started to pick up the camera, and found that I could combine my passion with entrepreneurship, I think that really clicked. So I never thought I actually was going to start my own business, but it kind of naturally evolved into it. So yeah, I think that was really interesting, how life just throws things at you, and you just make the most out of opportunities.

Jordan: Yeah, that’s interesting. I talk to my kids a lot about this as well. If you can obviously combine your passion with work, it just makes sense, because instead of you trying to get up and do the nine to five on something that you actually don’t really care about, it just makes it so much harder, eh?

Andrea: Yeah, yeah. And it’s funny, the first degree I had was in tourism, because my background is kind of interesting. I speak six different languages.

Jordan: I read that as well. So obviously tourism was the backbone of that, was it?

Andrea: Well, my father sort of told me, hey, you should do tourism, get a degree in tourism, because, hey, you speak six languages, that would be amazing. I thought, oh yeah, that kind of makes sense. And my grandparents had an hospitality background. My uncle had an hotel where I helped at the reception. But then literally one semester into uni, I thought, man, I don’t want to work in a hotel. I don’t want to be… So then I drifted into the marketing side of things, which we had a course on as well. And that always kind of stuck to me.

Andrea: And then my postgraduate, my second degree, I did in international management, which kind of helped me to do everything and open up, not being so focused on international tourism. But then again, I started my own business. So really, I wouldn’t have even needed a degree. But that’s what’s cool about life, that you go along a pathway. And it was actually thanks to my uni that I got sent to Australia for a semester.

Jordan: I was just going to ask, what was that connection between being in Italy, well, living and growing up in Italy, and then moving to Sydney of all places? Because it’s a massive jump anyway, which is probably another notch on your character, and probably jumping into that entrepreneurial thing as well. I’m guessing, taking risks, and keeping an open mind, and jumping into some of those opportunities.

Andrea: Totally, totally. So I had to do a semester abroad with uni in Australia. And I think that’s also benefited massively to opening up my mindset, and just taking more risks, and learning new people, new cultures. So that’s been really cool.

Jordan: And if we skip forward now, you’ve obviously kicked off the business in 2018, and it does well. You’re doing really well. You appear to have some fantastic work that I see that you promote, that I’ve seen across your website. I know that there’s even some things that we’ve collaborated on with our two businesses, with some awesome clients here, including New Plymouth Airport and things like that. You’ve been able to build a really good name in terms of the skill set that you actually have, which is incredible.

Jordan: I noticed on your website as well that you mentioned that you’re not just, and this is something I just wanted to dive into. You mentioned that you’re not just a videographer that’s just going to go out and take some videos and that’s it, but you actually see yourself more as a video marketer, and being able to use those skills to actually help businesses with their marketing and sales process. Can you explain what you see as the difference between those two terminology?

Andrea: Yeah, so I’m glad you brought that up, because a lot of businesses think they might need to work with a videographer because they need a video. And that makes a lot of sense, which sometimes is definitely a good way to go. But because of my marketing background, I actually go in and ask the businesses, what is the outcome that you want with this video? What is your end goal? Do you want to get more enquiries? Do you want to have a bit of brand awareness? Do you want to convert customers that are on the fence? Because based on that, where they are in the sales funnel, there’s different video types that you can do. Or perhaps you might not need one video. Maybe you need five shorter ones, or a whole video series. So I actually take the time to sit down with clients and see if their goals align, and then put that into a video marketing strategy.

Andrea: Whereas a lot of people, and by no means, I don’t mean to talk about other videographers, there’s some amazing talent here in the region. But sometimes videos that look good and are really cinematic don’t necessarily translate into business outcomes. So you have to be aware of that. And funny enough, because we run also social media ads on Facebook, well, Meta, I should say, the videos that perform best are sometimes the one that look less polished. So it’s not always about making a beautiful-looking video. It’s about having a strategy in place and making sure that the content aligns with that. So yeah, that’s what I sort of specialise in. And I’ve found many businesses here to achieve those goals.

Jordan: I was just going to say, so using an example, and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind, but you’ve done the videos for Three Sisters. Is that right?

Andrea: Oh, yeah.

Jordan: So let’s just take that as an example. So Three Sisters Brewery in town, he’s doing some great stuff, and he’s gone through different funding rounds. And the only reason I’ve brought this up, because he did crowdfunding, correct? And the only reason I bring it up is it goes back to what you just said before, around he clearly, you’ve worked clearly with him around what is the outcome of this particular video. You’ve then, it looks as though, helped take the brand voice that he’s built with his pub and his beer, and captured that into something that actually translates to “go to our crowdfunding page and invest”. So can you explain even that process? Is that that example that you were saying before, around knowing that call to action?

Andrea: Yeah. So it’s amazing. It’s an amazing story. Joe from Three Sisters Brewery literally started brewing out of his garage as a bit of a fun. And then he obviously has an amazing product, so he grew the brand quite a bit. And this has been his fourth round of crowdfunding that they’ve done. The first one, they wanted to raise 30 grand. And they always raised more and more and more. And his latest campaign closed now on Saturday. They had a target of 250, and they raised $469,000. So almost double, which is unreal.

Jordan: How incredible.

Andrea: Yeah. So we produced a really hilarious video that reflects the brand voice, I should say, and coupled it with Meta ads. So we put the video in front of the right people. Because that’s another thing a lot of business owners think. Having just a video or a few videos sitting on the website or social is not enough. Unfortunately, it’s become a bit of pay-to-play landscape. So you really need to put some marketing budget behind those videos. So we ran this video and showed it to an audience. And the comments were just so cool to see, how people love the video. There’s always heaps of good laughs and good puns behind it. And this is the fourth campaign that we’ve run for them, and every time he knocked it out of the park, raising way more than he set his own goal to.

Jordan: It’s interesting as well, even with monitoring the comments and things like that. And this is something that, obviously, we deal with a lot in my day-to-day as well. And just that mindset of, when you think about Facebook or Instagram or any of those platforms, when you’re putting in ads to a cold audience that doesn’t know anything about that particular product or service, you’re essentially interrupting their entertainment time. So clearly what you’ve done here is you’ve interrupted their entertainment time, but placing a bit more entertainment in there that’s resonated with the people. And then it’s actually got them a really good outcome at the end of the day too, yeah?

Andrea: Correct, correct. And especially with Three Sisters, what was key for us is to have a really strong hook. So, as you mentioned, people go on social media to be entertained. So as long as you get a bit too serious, people might not necessarily resonate with that. So you want to have humour. I’m a big fan of using humour in advertisement. I always tell to people, tell me the most memorable TV commercial that you ever saw. And 90% of the times, it’s something funny. Anakin, for example, does great advertisements. They’re super, super funny. So we always wanted to incorporate that, and a very strong hook. So for the people that don’t know what a hook is, it’s something visual, something that happens at the start of the video that really captures one’s attention. So we always use those type of strategies, and that worked really well.

Jordan: Okay, so there’s Three Sisters with that type of brand story. The other, I guess, challenge is for businesses that are sitting here that don’t feel as though that they’ve got a sexy business like that, or a really interesting, entertaining kind of brand voice, and they’re just a, I don’t know, they’re just a run-of-the-mill construction company, or just a plumber or something like that. What would you say to even businesses like that, to try and get them to think slightly differently around finding their business story, and how to translate that onto video?

Andrea: That’s a very good point, because as you mentioned, a lot of businesses perhaps might not want to have this humorous side of things. So I totally get that. For example, a law firm wouldn’t necessarily want to be seen as someone that makes too many puns, etc. I always say to businesses, start by answering frequently asked questions that your customers have. So if you position yourself as an authority in the business, in the marketplace, and answer the frequently asked questions, then a lot of customers that will see your content will actually resonate with that. For example, if you are a landscaper, three tips on how to get greener grass, or how to prune a plant, or something like that.

Andrea: And the beauty of it is as well that it’s knowledge that is so easy for you to put out there, because you as a business owner, or your team, just knows all these things already inherently. So it’s not that you have to come up with this crazy concepts. It’s all precious knowledge that you give out to your customers anyway when you’re in a sales consultation, or even better, you might have an FAQ section, frequently asked questions, on your website already. So what I do with a lot of customers, I go and say, hey, you’ve got an FAQ section on your website. Yeah, perfect. So let’s just start with those topics, because all the customers most of the time have the same questions. How much do you charge? How long does your process take? Or what shall I start to get going? So starting with frequently asked questions usually is a very good starting point to go in order to create content.

Jordan: It’s that funny one as well. And I mentioned before boring businesses, but let’s take plumbers, for example. Sometimes I even think about it, they think that unclogging a drain would be just the most boring piece of content. But I don’t know about you, but I’ve been stuck in TikTok watching a guy trying to unclog a drain, and it’s actually really entertaining content. And you kind of get that, I guess it’s a silly one really, because it kind of does, even a simple process like that, essentially follow a story arc, where there’s a main problem, which is the hook at the start of the video.

Jordan: And then it goes through to the end outcome, which is all the gunk comes out at the end and the drain’s unclogged. It’s kind of like you follow that whole story and get that satisfaction at the end of, oh, he did it, that type of thing. So I guess, well, yeah, I’m interested, even working with businesses, I guess, for yourself, trying to unlock some of that creativity for some of the boringness, I guess.

Andrea: Yeah, totally. I mean, a plumber that puts out content about unclogging a drain is better than a plumber that doesn’t do anything, because you get exposed to their brand, you see his face. And that’s another thing: when business owners show up on video, you kind of get a feeling of their personality. You get a feel for how they think. Oh, would you actually ring them up and get them to send you a quote? And if you get to that point, when you meet them for a sales conversation, you already know the person. So it actually removes your barrier, because you’ve already watched someone on video. And it’s funny because as well, I had a lady that reached out to me on LinkedIn and she said, hey, I never met you, but I feel like I already know you because I’m following all your videos. So that for me, again, makes it so much more obvious why business owners should put themselves out there in the first place.

Jordan: But it’s not easy, yeah?

Andrea: Yeah, exactly. It’s not easy. And I actually have, how shall I say, a framework on how to do that. And basically is you have to script beforehand. Personally, I find that having bullet points do help, but then I feel like people just ramble on for ages. So there’s things that you can use, such as teleprompters or other apps that will help you to read a script and memorise it way easier.

Jordan: And these are just apps on your phone, yeah? Because I know, for example, CapCut, I think you can have a teleprompter on there where you can just read the screen.

Andrea: Yeah, yeah. And it’s really important that you are prepared. A lot of businesses want to say, oh yeah, I’ll just wing it. But then every time it’s just horrible, because you start talking, go on a tangent, maybe waffle for 10 minutes, and then it always takes longer to edit as well. So if you edit it yourself, it’s going to be a pain, because you have to remove all your ums and try to paste it all together. Or if you have an editor, it’s going to cost more, because you have to ramble on. So preparation is definitely key when it comes to doing video.

Jordan: What’s some of those other things in that framework? If someone was interested even just to trial and pick up a camera and just give it a bit of a go, what are some of the other things that they should be trialling? Obviously bullet points is one of them.

Andrea: Yeah, I always recommend business owners to also batch film. So rather than thinking of, oh, I have to post something on social media, it’s been ages, rather than trying to record one video at a time, try to record at least four or five, which might sound like a lot. But if you think about it, the first video might not sound too good. And then you start recording the second one, and then you’re already warmed up in front of the camera. And then the third one and the fourth one and fifth one, you’re probably going to nail, because you’re on a roll. And then the best thing is you’re going to have five pieces of content that now can be edited, either internally or by someone else, by an editor. And then you don’t have to worry about having to make another video, because you already recorded five all in a row. So a lot of people underestimate that. But yeah, batch filming is definitely key when it comes to…

Jordan: Yeah. And then you can even put the power of repurposing after that, because, and this is something I talk to a lot of people about as well, instead of just posting a video once and expecting or hoping that everyone in your target market is going to see it, chances are that’s not going to happen. The algorithms don’t work that way. So how can you use it more often, so you can actually get more bang for your buck?

Andrea: 100%.

Jordan: We’re just talking around the importance of building that, either that personal brand or that business brand, using video, and how authentic it can be. I get that as well. There’s a few things, like, for example, we incorporate video even as part of our sales process when we’re presenting a new proposal. If it’s in an email with a PDF attached, I’ll attach a wee video in there as well. Embed that into the email, and it just adds a little bit more authenticity to your proposal, as opposed to just sending a PDF that anyone could have just put together for you. So it just adds a little bit more.

Jordan: So I 100% agree that video has been a key part of my business, a lot of businesses that we work with as well, and obviously a lot of businesses that you do as well. And you mentioned before, Andrea, that building up batch recording is really important. And that’s actually something you can actually help businesses with as well, batch recording and understanding that strategy, and putting that together with some of the products and services you have.

Andrea: Yeah, 100%. So I always say start with what’s your outcome here, if you want to have more enquiries or just brand awareness. And then the frameworks, I think, would be starting with those topics, to brainstorm a list of, okay, what would we like to talk about, or what are questions that always come from our customers, so that we can send those videos out, or they can be shared on social media for them to actually educate themselves. And then, yeah, batch record a whole bunch of videos. I say four to five, but ideally you want to repeat this process. The more the better.

Andrea: And then, yeah, the post-production work as well. I always say to business owners, look, you’re supposed to run your business. Don’t start editing videos, because it’s a steep learning curve. And I’d rather have you recording, being the face in front of the camera, rather than sitting on your laptop trying to edit the videos. So, and we actually have a pretty cool offer coming up. It’s called 12 for 1200. So on the 3rd of March, you can come in into our location and record 12 videos within an hour. So everything is going to be scripted, and you can follow the teleprompter. So you’re not going to be saying a lot of ums and ahs on video and feel incredibly awkward. So every video is very short as well. So between 30 and 60 seconds, really snackable content that you can come in, really speak freely in front of the camera. And then, yeah, you basically walk off with 12 videos, and we take care of all the editing.

Jordan: How good.

Andrea: And you’ve got a whole variety there of videos that you can serve. And actually an interesting story: so I did that for a painting business, and they embedded those videos onto the website. And so I asked them to track the metrics of their traffic after 90 days, excuse me, that the videos were up. And the organic traffic shot up by 56%, and they got 70% more enquiries.

Jordan: How good.

Andrea: So you can see the power of video really just, you know, I mean, you’d know all about it. It really helps the SEO and the ranking. And when people are looking for services such as painters New Plymouth, make sure that you have those videos embedded correctly onto your website, because then you’re going to be one of the first that shows up.

Jordan: You’ve just reminded me of something I read over the weekend, actually. Well, this is something we’ve known for a while, around how powerful a platform YouTube is in terms of videos. Obviously, it’s the world’s, currently, I think, probably the second biggest website in terms of traffic and influence. But also, just reading some statistics over the weekend around how much AI models like ChatGPT and Claude and Copilot and Gemini, all those tools, are obviously searching the web for information to help answer your queries that you have on there. And increasingly, they’re seeing that a lot of that is coming from YouTube and from videos. So businesses that are actually able to post some of the videos, and host some of their videos on YouTube and actually have a channel on that, it’s really helping with that overall SEO strategy that you mentioned as well.

Andrea: Yeah. Totally. And how things are shifting now, obviously, with people looking for services and products on LLMs, or somebody just types in, I need a good painter in New Plymouth. If they were to type that into ChatGPT or Gemini, if you have a lot of videos on your website, then be reassured. Obviously, I cannot guarantee, because there’s a bit more to that. But if you have 12 videos on your website and the other painter doesn’t, I’m pretty confident that you’re going to show up first rather than the other competitors. So yeah, it’s a really powerful medium, really. One of the strongest, in my opinion, to be able to put your business forward.

Jordan: When I think back to people like Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. And if you follow him, well, firstly, if you don’t follow him, I wouldn’t recommend it, because then you’re going to get targeted by his content for the rest of your life. But if you do, you’ll know that he talks a lot around storytelling, and essentially building in public, and building your business and your services in public. How important do you think storytelling is to everything that you do, and all these videos that we’re talking about, actually creating a story and taking people along on this journey with the business? How important do you think that is?

Andrea: Yeah, I always say story is everything, because you can have a really cool, if you’re making it, for example, if you take one of those Hollywood blockbusters, right? That have millions and sometimes, I don’t know, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of budgets, with these crazy effects. And I always make the best example for Transformers, right? They have all these crazy effects going into it, but the storyline, I find it’s always quite boring. Some of my favourite videos are actually ones that don’t have any special effects, but the plot is really intriguing. So it really comes down to having a good story.

Andrea: So I think it’s crucially important for businesses to be able to storytell, not only on video, but also if they put out blog posts, etc. And because we as humans are really wired to enjoy stories. I said the caveman back in the day, they started to draw murals, etc., to tell the story of their hunts or how they migrated. So we’re really wired and really attracted to that type of content. So yeah, it’s so important that we put out more content and storytelling as well.

Jordan: Okay, so the big piece of advice for everyone who’s obviously listening. We’ve shown, and I think you’ve clearly articulated, the importance of video. You’ve got different strategies, different products and services that you can even help with as well. But for those that are terrified of that, essentially that red record light that turns on that camera, what is that quick 30-second tip to get over that fear of just jumping on camera and just giving it a go?

Andrea: Look, it can always be very intimidating, and I get that. But believe it or not, people don’t actually care if your video is perfect. I mean, we’ve seen the rise of TikTok and short-form content. Now, people just put up this imperfect, super goofy videos, and they do really well. So it’s okay to say ums and ahs, and you don’t have to be super perfect, because video has been just flooded with so much content. Those platforms, we are far from having to be perfect on video. So if your first video isn’t perfect, don’t worry about it. It never will be. But the key is to keep practising and keep putting out more video.

Andrea: And over time, I always say it’s like going to the gym. It’s really hard at the start. But then, after a few goes, it’s easier and it gets better and you’ll feel more confident. And yeah, unfortunately, there’s no easy secret. But yeah, as I said, perhaps having a teleprompter, if you really feel like you need that support, that could be one way to start, I would say.

Jordan: And I guess in the age of AI, video content, we’re starting to see on Facebook, on Instagram, some more AI-generated video content on there. And I guess that then perfectly leans into what you’re saying here around authentic content with ums and ahs. It’s actually great. I think people are kind of dying for a bit more authentic content, as opposed to AI content. Some things that they can literally tell, was that person recording that?

Andrea: Yeah, I think it’s really important, especially when we’re talking about local businesses. People really like to buy from people, not from brands. So if you’re, as a business owner, just show up on a video, even if it’s not perfect. It’s going to be doing so much for your brand equity, just by showing up and showing people, hey, my name is Joe and we do this now. I’m a landscaper. I can show you how to prune some trees.

Andrea: And then that’s the funny thing as well. People think, oh, I shouldn’t give away all my secrets and my trade secrets, because then the customers are going to do it themselves. The reality of it is people don’t have time for it, and they’re always going to go to the expert. But if you show them how to do something, you automatically position yourself as an expert. So I’m going to ring Joe because he’s showing me how to prune trees. But in reality, I don’t have time to do it. So I’m ready to call him because he’s showing me how to do it. He clearly knows what he’s talking about. So I’m going to give him a call, rather than somebody that didn’t do a video content or anything at all.

Jordan: That’s so true. Really interesting. Now, really interesting perspectives on the whole video landscape, because as we mentioned before, it’s changing: technology, social media, AI. It’s all changing wildly. But I think the constant, from what you’re saying here, appears to still be authentic, storytelling-led content, and just picking up the camera and just giving it a go.

Andrea: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, once you’re going to be confident on camera and you feel like video is doing miracles for you, can then go and look at scaling it by doing some AI clones and stuff. But I wouldn’t recommend doing it from the get-go, because people need to see your personality. And I feel like still a lot of these AI clones, you can sort of tell that it’s not 100% yourself if you really look hard enough. So I would just start by putting up these frequently asked questions that customers always have. If you really were to sit down and think, okay, what is a question that always comes up in sales conversations, or people email us always with the same thing, wanting to do these three things. Start doing those videos and put them on your website, put them on your socials, and that’s a great start.

Jordan: But I really appreciate your time. It’s been really interesting. Hopefully business owners listening have got a really good framework and idea around the importance of video, and a few ideas to get going. Obviously, there’s services that you can offer and support small businesses and, well, large businesses on as well. So I really appreciate you doing that. And thank you so much for your time and coming to join us today. Appreciate it.