That's the question I get asked more than any other. Someone sends me a video before it goes live and wants to know if it's ready.

Here's what I tell them: the lighting, the edit, the graphics, none of that is the real question. The real problem is almost always the same. The viewer has no reason to keep watching.

That's what actually kills a business video.

Your prospect can read your website instead. Look at a competitor instead. Answer an email instead. Close the tab. So the question isn't "is this video good?" It's "why would someone who doesn't work here care enough to keep watching?"

That's the real problem. Here's the fix.

Every video needs to do one of four jobs:

Answer something. Explain what your prospects actually want to understand.

Show something specific. A real client, a real project, a real mistake.

Say something. Reveal how you think, not what your company offers.

Demonstrate something. Show the idea instead of describing it.

Pick one. That's the whole trick.

Here's what that looks like in practice. A consulting firm makes a video called "Our Approach to Client Service." Nobody's watching that past ten seconds, because it starts with the company.

Now call it "Three Things That Go Wrong in the First 30 Days of a Consulting Engagement." Same firm. Same expertise. Completely different video, because now the viewer has a reason to stay.

Before you shoot your next video, run it through this test:

1. What's the problem? What is the viewer trying to understand, avoid, fix, or decide? If you can't answer in one sentence, the topic's too broad.

2. What's specific about it? A story, a number, a mistake, an opinion. Specificity is what gives a video weight.

3. Does it show how you think? The viewer should walk away knowing something about your judgment, not your services.

4. Does it need to be a video? If the same value fits in two lines of text, it doesn't.

Here's the assignment. Take your next video idea and write down the problem, the answer, the specific example, and the point of view. If you can't fill in at least three of those four, you're not ready to hit record yet.

Production matters. But the idea has to earn the attention first.

That’s a wrap for this week, and if you need more…see below 👇