The Best Tool to Translate Your Story to Video: Video Vision Boards

I first heard about Pocket, in one of those “5 apps you have to download now” articles. It sounded cool. I downloaded it, and it sat there on my phone for weeks. As I started to grow my business, I found myself constantly emailing links to myself for me to remember later. It was a mess. Then, as I was cleaning out my phone there was Pocket. I had totally forgotten what it did, so I opened it and it was like the heavens opened up and rays of sunshine surrounded me. I went save and tag happy (organizing is one of those things that makes me ridiculously excited). This of course led to Evernote and Pinterest obsessions.

As I started to work with clients, I realized how useful these apps could be in communicating their vision with me. I’ve found that the biggest struggle for those wanting to add video to their businesses or make their existing videos even better is communicating their ideas with their videomakers or even understanding them themselves. So I developed a system to solve this problem: A Video Vision Board.

A Video Vision Board is an online collection of links to text, video, photos, etc. that resonate with you. They either spark some kind of emotion in you, relate to your business goals, or you just think they look cool. The purpose is to provide yourself and your videomaker with visuals that explain your vision and help you discover what your videos need to engage in a more meaningful way with your audience.

There are 4 parts to a Video Vision Board:

1. Text

2. Video

3. Photos

4. Music/sounds

So, let’s make one! There are 3 Easy Steps:

1. Set It Up. If you don’t already have Evernote, Pocket, or Pinterest accounts, set them up. You don’t have to use all of them. Pick and choose the app you like best. Install the browser bookmarks or make the sites easily accessible in your own way. Pocket and Evernote have a chrome extension that allows you with a click of a button to save and tag articles.

2. Start Collecting. Open your app of choice first thing everyday, before you start working. This way you can easily save anything that interests you.

You can either dedicate time to this task or just save things as you stumble upon them. I recommend taking a week to gather everything. Your mood changes from day to day and you can see consistent trends more easily if you embrace that. Let yourself wander! It’s great if you start on a business blog and end up on an etsy shop that sells vintage t-shirts. Collect it all! You’ll learn so much about yourself and your style.

Save everything with at least two tags: “video vision board” and “text/video/photos/music” (whatever the article is). This allows you to filter everything easily. Make any comments that you don’t want to forget later, such as why or what you liked about the article and how it could relate to your videos. (This is easier to do in Evernote and Pinterest. )

3. Research Other Industry Pros. Dedicate time to researching other popular people/businesses that are using video in your industry. There are 2 methods of doing this:

             1. Make a list of all of these influential people and their video links.

             2. Type into YouTube any keywords that would describe your business and make a document with the top ranked videos for each keyword.

             For example, if you are a photographer that wants to create a video series with photography tips of the day, search “photo tips”. Try not to just list the              ones you like. Literally, just pull the top 2 or 3 videos for each keyword. This will help determine why or what about the video made it so popular and                  how to apply it to your video and style.

When you choose everything try to keep your brand in mind; the emotions that you want to evoke, the types of people you want to work with, and the words that describe it. If you find this halting your process, then dont sweat it, just choose things you like and tackle the details later.

And that’s how you create your Video Vision Board!

What do you do after you create your Video Vision Board? Well, you need to understand why you chose everything on your board and how to interpret all of it into your awesome videos. And I can help!

1. I offer a service called Unpacking Your Video Vision Board,

where  I take your Vision Board and provide you with a plan that includes a breakdown all of it’s visual elements and recommendations on how to implement these elements into your videos as well as what ideas will fit your brand and what won’t. I’ll also tell you what you need to do differentiate your videos.

Then I’ll even give you your choice of video production guides, so that you get what you feel you need most to taking action on translating your story and ideas to video.

OR

2. Download the free guide,

I created for small business owners, non-profits and entrepreneurs that details how to get started on your first online video series. It details how to determine your style and create videos that align with your business goals and ideals.

If you sign up below, you’ll also get the fillable template for Step 3: Research Other Industry Pros. If you liked this post don’t forget to comment or share. And let’s connect on social media. I’d love to learn more about you and your business.