So the topic today is non-profit video marketing, how we can reduce the tech and actually increase the marketing. So I think this is going to be a really practical session today on what you can do as a non-profit to actually meet your goals, not just make a really fancy video that a board member might get excited about. And so our presenter today is David Fu. And so David is the co-owner of non-profit video communications. And he teaches small non-profits to do their own video marketing. He helps their viewers donate, sign up and get much needed services. And he does that through these very simple videos that help people now and quickly. So these are not fluffy brand campaigns or cute videos that tickle your own things, but these are videos that actually get things done for your non-profit. So with that, I'm going to get under the way and pass it over to David. Thanks, Eli. Thanks, Ben. I'd like to start by saying I live on the traditional territory of the Conyoque Haga. The island Montreal is known as Cho Chagay, historically a meeting place for other indigenous nations, including Algonquin people. So before we start, I want to leave you with a thought that took in mind throughout the entire hour here. And it is this, that videos actually don't do anything. That is a bad for business. And I shouldn't say that, but it's true. Video is just a format.  It's a DV it on its own.  And even the best videos do nothing.  And don't be fooled by the other videos you see online. I know there's a lot of sort of interest and curiosity and maybe even some FOMO or envy regarding people doing really well on Instagram videos, on TikTok videos, on YouTube videos, on advertisements and other social videos. Don't be fooled by it. You just never know what's actually how they measure success on their side. And what does make video do something, which applies to anything from books to to articles or what have you is their positioning and their messaging. So even if you have no money and no time, and it's the worst video on earth, I promise you it's not the video that matters. It's the messaging and the positioning. And I want to show you today how to think about that. So alleviate and liberate your expectations of video and how to make them more effective. So let's continue. So I want you to take one minute to yourself and just think, what service did you need recently? And examples might be you meet maybe you're looking for a family doctor or you're looking for a loan. You want to hire someone to fix plumbing or you want to do it yourself. Perhaps it's an essential or even a non-essential purchase. You want to know some information about it, whatever it is important to you. And when you were needing it and searching for it or asking around, calling around, was there missing information that would have helped you useful, vital, urgent information that would have helped you make a decision or would have helped you move forward in some way. So if you found those results, whether it was on Google map reviews or whether it was on YouTube, like a tutorial, or whether it was in a just a quick Google search or maybe Facebook marketplace, whatever it was, you found information because somebody out there predicted and knew and forecasted that someone like you needed that information. So they placed it there. And so for those of you who did not find the information you need, it's because someone didn't post it. They did not post vital information. So you did not find it. So this is where you fit in. This is the method we're going to talk about today. So vital informational gaps of all the categories of videos that can work. So we're talking about entertaining videos, funny videos, mentories, interviews, webinars, advertisements, animations of all the types of videos you could make. I think when you're a small nonprofit tight for resources, tight for money, tight for time, the easiest and very effective approach to making your videos should be to fill those information gaps. If you want to start making your own videos at your organization, your number one job is not to make beautiful videos. It's not to make beautiful videos. It's for to hire a crew or use that storyboard free resource from a conference or start filling in that the story plot. I think your number one job in this method is to fill the vital informational gaps. And I'll explain as we go why this is easy. So what is vital information? The first one is the most embarrassingly basic market question. So when I say embarrassing, there is probably a handful or more questions you're not answering about your own organization out there. This would be a great place to start. Vital information would be, how much does it cost? Why does this youth program cost nothing? And why does the other youth program cost $20 per session? Why, why does what does the shuttle service? How often does it run to pick up my grandmother for her seniors day activity? What does the camp look like that I'm about to send my child to overnight for a week? I think probably some of you are nodding.  It's very common yet you have not written it somewhere online. You can make videos about that. One more category for vital information is this. Educate people and educate them about their needs and their issues. So for example, if you are an immigration and settlement agency, all the topics about that and instead of coming up with catchy quotes or cat gifs to capture attention because I think that tends to be a method. Try to catch attention and then leave them through your website. I think just give it all to them in one go. A post about here's a workaround for documents that need translation on the Canadian government website. Here are three tips for a job search in this particular region. Here are three industries that are hiring right now for this particular age range or skills.  It's your expertise and it's actually like the number. I'm just making that up, but I think it's up there. It's a high priority reason for being on the internet at all is just look for answers. So this is your opportunity to show up with your bottomless well of knowledge and use that as content. So why is a crappy home made shaky and bad lighting video okay in this case? It's because of it's because if your information can solve a problem or save a life or fill a vital information gap, that video is going to look pretty good to the viewer. It's going to be a welcome relief to something that they're looking for. And regardless if it's a video, it could just be a text post. I think you understand where I'm going with it. And the internet is increasingly rewarding and preferring authentic videos. Product manager at YouTube said that the videos that win the most eyeballs and the most impressions are the ones that give cues for authenticity. That means you get the feeling that it's off the cuff. You get the feeling that it's from a place of passion. You get a feeling that it is, as Summer says, it is not memorized and scripted or reading a teleprompter. You get a feeling that just like me, I'm stuttering. And it seems people are needing that right now. That's why TikTok and YouTube are doing great. So the internet increasingly prefers authentic. And there's one more thing you've got to know about authentic videos is that I have no explanation for this, but device manufacturers are increasingly making your devices a video first device. So there's the catch up thing happening here where how can I present content that manufacturers have made a priority, but in a way is interesting because if I'm a single parent who's in a rush and I'm taking a bus with three children, and I'm looking up for vital information on a website, I'm probably not in the best place right now to be scrolling a wall of text. But I might click on a video. And the video will do the rest of the work for me. So to summarize this, two categories of vital informational gaps. One is the most basic market questions, the ones that you just will surprise you and to educate them about their own needs, not yours. So some results I've seen with this method of this approach to homemade videos that just address the most vital, most basic questions is that you might notice small wins. If you post, let's say on Instagram three, a myth buster, let's say, is it true that no, I'm going to make up something else. One indicator that you are in an abusive relationship, and you don't know it. One indicator, 30 second video, you might, if you had a proper and clear call to action or invitation to something, you might see a spike in website visits just at that time. Now, when you, when you, the hope tends to be with video that you're going to go viral, or suddenly your server is going to break down from too many visits. But if you've got 10 or 20 website visits that you did not get yesterday, that's a really good return on just making a 30 second video. And you can analyze what page did they land on? Did they go, did they, you can, in your Google analytics, you can follow, did they go to which page after, or did they stick around a long time or not? But just one vital piece of information that drew somebody in gives you just a few more hints at how to reach people better. Another example of a win I've seen with a completely unsynomatic boring homemade video is a Zoom conversation between two staff, where they questioned each other for about half an hour. What's it like to work at this office? And they attached that to a job application. And a couple of things happened. People in their cover letters and in their interviews would regularly quote the video, and they would say they saw themselves working there. They saw themselves working with the people in the video. And I can't verify or prove this, but the employer seems to believe that it helped applicants self select as well. They weren't seeing as many unqualified applicants, probably because they watched the video. Right now is a chance to increase those email open rates. And I don't know how long that'll last. I know with email campaigns that the people get bored pretty quick, but I know that in the first initial push for adding video to your newsletters, if you give them a great sort of introduction, here's a summary of today's newsletter. If you want to hear this directly from the executive director, please click on this three minute video or Hey, a particular level of donor, we made a video for you, we would love for you to watch it. And it's a dramatic increase in simply opening the email at all. And then the final big one here is visibility on Google and YouTube. Some of that Google owns YouTube. There's nothing we can do about that. There's a bit of a game to play here. And that is the search visibility. We all know it's very competitive to get your website seen on Google. And we know it's competitive to get your articles placing in the first few pages. But YouTube results, Google is prioritizing putting video results at the very top. So if you Google how to repair a roof, I think even the most popular 10 year old article about repairing your roof will show up, but a fairly new how to fix your own roof video will appear even higher. And it's a new push from Google to place a videos. So the opportunity is right now. The whole thing is in its infancy. I'll give you an example of a video I made. So I made a fake video where I filmed my feet that my feet were just doing this. And I called it some string of words newcomer, immigrant, job search, help Toronto, Ontario, Canada. And it did very well for two days. And I think YouTube or viewers or some robot or algorithm are all seeing big brother thing determined pretty quickly. It's fake. But what I really wanted to note is just how big of an opportunity do we have with search terms and YouTube? And I think it's pretty good. The more niche you are. So I recommend if you're going to make, let's say, recording this webinar for Eli and then posting it on YouTube that you just be very clear about what this is about, who it's for and the region. Don't be clever. Don't be funny. Don't use expressions. Just say exactly what it is. And the opportunity on Google and YouTube is that the clearer the search terms, the more it serves searchers. I'm going to go to YouTube and type video marketing for nonprofits Canada. And I'm not going to type some cute, clever title nonprofits, Dory's, or I don't know, I can't make one up right now. But generally, if you're looking for solutions, you're being pretty clear in your search. So it's up to you to show up and accommodate. So what all these have in common they're homemade, they're done fast, they're positioned, and they're precise and their audience first, this, the positioning and the precision and being audience minded is what will make even the most plain videos succeed. You may be later if you have a ton of money, you can get into higher production. So I would like to try this out. Usually, I do this on Zoom, and I can talk to people, but maybe we can just do this in the chat. I would like to maybe I could use Ben or Eli as an example, since they already have their mic and camera. And then I can ask them, we can just try this method out in front of everyone. Unscripted. Unscripted, I promise. Ben. Yes. Matt, I want so, so I actually only know a little bit about TechSoup and TechSoup Connect and the BC chapter. Let's pretend, let's go with that. I'm searching and trying to understand what you all even do there. And let's say that I'm on LinkedIn, and I see you around. I see you around. I see that the word TechSoup is connected to you, but I still don't even really know why Tech and why Soup. So let's pretend that's all I know about you and what I guess what I want to know is what could you tell me in three sentences? What does TechSoup even do? I can tell you from my experience that it connects technology groups and companies and nonprofits in a way that shares ideas and information and, excuse me, and benefit to both. I don't know if that's a good summation or not, but that's the way I do it. Doesn't matter. Let's elaborate for one more minute here. So what did that look like for, let's say, a nonprofit who gets in contact with you? What is one thing that happens? So they're going to question. I hate to defer to Eli. He's more the expert than I am. Sure. Eli, you can answer that. I make, did you close to it? Which is often the danger. I'm going to flip into jargon. But so basically, nonprofits don't want to throw their money away on software. And so luckily TechSoup has partnered with about 120 software companies to open up exclusive discounts for both free and cheaper software for nonprofits around the world.  Drop it in the shopping cart and check out. So that's what we do with TechSoup. So I want the room to know that everything that we just did with Ben and Eli is a video. I could stop right there and not even edit it and let's post it today. Starting with my interview where I'm like, Ben, what does TechSoup even do? And I edit that part out and Ben starts talking. And then we stop after Eli's contribution. And you post it with the title, what does TechSoup even do? And what happens when I sign up? And so that too, Ben and Eli might seem way too basic. And to many organizations might seem like way too low quality and might be feeling very shy about not saying it perfectly. But none of that stuff matters because I'm willing to bet there are enough nonprofits and small nonprofits and startup nonprofits, googling tech and nonprofits, subscriptions and nonprofits, computers and nonprofits. And if Ben and Eli have done their homework about having the right descriptions and headlines and all that stuff and posted it to YouTube, posted it to all their channels and had the courage to repost it at least once a month, that video would be a very welcome relief to somebody looking for that information. And for those who don't need that information or who find this low quality and boring, who cares because they're not looking for your help or your service or what you provide.  You mean I can sign up and get help with tech? So let me do one more with you two. Oh, I just want to add one more note. How cool is it that one, this video has both of them in it. There's like a palling around thing happening, which gives us an impression of who these people even are. And often, when we're looking for services and what's called uncertainty reduction, it really helps to have facial and body language eat the message holistically for the viewer. So let's do one more. Let's talk about the second category, which is educating them about their own problems. Ben, would you tell me what kind of, what's a common problem that a smaller, let's say a two person nonprofit generally has before they call you? Cost is one. And I think the other thing is the division of labor or the wearing of many hats and small one for all. I think it's part of the purpose of this presentation, even today, David, relating to nonprofit video marketing and you're showing how you can do it fairly easily without a lot of budget resources. I wouldn't say time because I think time becomes a cost, right? And as someone like myself, who's, for lack of a better term, a marketing professional, they got to marketing professionals and people think I gotta do this really huge fancy, elaborate video design with content and whatever else to really make a splash and get people's attention. But if it's not targeted to the right people that you're serving, then it's not really going to do anything. And so we're at Texas trying to help people solve some of those kinds of problems. But it's often about the time to or the know-how. All right. And the time, like, do it. Everyone comes to me and says, help. And I don't know where to start. And who can help me? Where will I find the time? How do I prioritize? How do I even fit this into our budgets? People are just trying to get a sense of this. Get technology has potentially some roles to play within my organization. But damn, the body's here where to start. So I want the audience to know that was another video. So if I was with a client, either we're doing production or training, right now we would have, but what you were witnessing is a recording session where right now we've determined, all right, Ben, Eli, we just nailed our second video. And that video is going to be called Who Uses TechSoup and What Do They Usually Struggle With? And then you would list off those struggles that you just said in the description. And then you're going to repost it next month, the same video with a different angle. You're going to be like nonprofits that struggle with not knowing where to start and having no time tend to call us. Here's why. There's just infinite angles and perspectives to tack on to an existing video. Now, I want to do things. I want to offer a document to everyone here. Ben and Eli, how do we do that after the video, after the webinar? I am going to be sending an email to everyone with the video and I'm really happy to include any links to other resources. Okay. So in that, I want to give everyone here tips of just how to get started. And that includes figuring out what exactly is the vital information and then just getting started with even talking about it and then eventually recording it. That's what this looks like. Your tip today is you're going to interview each other and answer together. Just me, Ben, Eli and I have been doing is answering basic market questions, pretending I don't know anything about TechSoup and then asking them about vital information and just start there. You can record later when you're comfortable and post them. And the genius of this is that after two or three, that's the worst part. Suddenly you're in the flow. Sorry to interrupt, David. Kevin Kwok has a question. Okay. Looks like, I don't know if you want to answer an hour later or Kevin. Oh yeah, sure. On camera or what he wants us to do. But Kevin, so messaging and positioning is really important. How does one get started in editing that video? That's a big one. So my suggestion for you is to use whatever is, first of all, to have the least edits possible. It's really easy to get in sort of the weeds of editing and take too much time. So the first thing before editing is to just conduct a clear interview the way Ben, Eli and I have been doing. I ask a question, Ben responds, Eli responds and so the only edit you really need to worry about is just editing me out of there, editing the question. You can do that with anything for free. If you're using Apple and Mac devices, it always comes with iMovie. I use it a lot actually. That's very fast and I won't give you a tutorial here. YouTube has about a zillion how to get started on iMovie and then if you could watch the iMovie tutorial and apply all of those skills to almost any other thing. So a lot of you nonprofits already have a free Canva account, a Canva pro account. It's free for nonprofits and they have a great video editor in the browser. Right. So we've been having a lot of success teaching nonprofits to edit through Canva and again lots of tutorials on how to use Canva and do not go start thinking about drone cameras and multiple camera angles and all that stuff. Just start with Zoom interviews just like this one and make it as easy on yourself as possible. I saw another question up there. I think it was from Eli. How do you find the right words? I get caught up in my organization's jargon. Yeah, sometimes I think imagine someone from 30 years ago went in a time machine and heard us talking today. First you want to go on to Zoom and log into your Canva and then go on to your WhatsApp and ping me. I think people would think we were nuts. How to find the right word? I guess you would have to after your recording or hey even after forget recording. Imagine you spent an hour with Ben just going back and forth answering each other's questions. Ask somebody that has nothing to do with the nonprofit space or the tech space to read or listen to maybe even audio recording and ask them do you understand what we're talking about? They'll tell you yes or no. They'll say why? What didn't you understand? That's stuff you should be doing in your basic communication and marketing anyway. Forget about videos. Record or write all of your answers and ask someone unrelated to your organization. Do they get it and if not go fix that. Someone else here, what is a good length of a video before viewers start losing attention? Okay, so there's a different approach here. I think video length is never really the problem. It's where it is positioned for what purpose. So people will binge a Netflix series over an entire weekend and so length doesn't seem to be an issue for that. But the positioning had everything to do with it. It was probably some mixture of advertisements, word of mouth and then a great title and a great description and a great promise. I don't know, an episode description might be like Joe must go back in time to save Jane because or else everything will disappear. That's just back to the future and maybe that interests people like sci-fi. But that was all about the positioning. Now if I took that whole series and posted it on Facebook and said check out my video, you're not even going to get one second because there was no positioning. There was no invitation. There was no promise. There was no lead up. But in general, I think you should think about this. People have a very good attention span if you can make them care. So there's a very low consideration span because on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever it is, even Google search results, you're looking at about a thousand competing items. So you have, I'd say one or two seconds to get their consideration. If your focus audience is youth who have title tendencies who are between 18 and 25. And you said that in your video post. Are you between 18 and 25 and have thought about suicide? Okay, consideration level you're in. They might, you've increased the chance of watching even a 10 minute video. Hope that helps Angela. For our last bit of time, I think it's up to Eli and Ben, we could take more, I could summarize this presentation, I could take more questions or we could get someone on the microphone to do another session. Yeah, I'd actually love to do another one of these sessions. I think that's been really helpful. If someone wants to be the next person, I might just drop something into the chat and I will give you camera powers. So just throw something in there. And as you can see, this is not a terrifying thing. We're not going to put you on the spot. Otherwise, I'm going to volunteer and you don't have to. There must be someone who's video curious who wants to tell the world about their organization and whoever takes that chance today will get a feel for how useful and how pretty easy it is. Can I put you on the spot? Here's kind of that too.  Anyone else feel like they want to be next? Otherwise, I'm going to pick another random name. Hi Summer. Hi Summer. Hello. Before we do our pretend recording, I just need to do two things so that I can do the role play. Tell me what your organization's name is and who your main audience is. So our organization is called Literacy Link South Central and our clients are adult literacy programs across Southwestern Ontario. So they are existing programs? Yes, they are. What do you do for them? Wait, well, okay, now we're going to start pretend recording. I really want to know what, okay, whoa, wait, you do it for existing programs. What does that mean? What do you do? Our organization supports adult literacy programs across six counties in Southwestern Ontario and how that support looks is different depending on the needs of the individual program. So adult literacy programs serve adults in Ontario who may need to upgrade their literacy skills, math skills, computer skills, interpersonal skills, communication skills, and they need anything from curriculum to research to connection to other programs to coordination of their services and information about the services that others are offering. So we provide all of those services in addition to providing information about adult literacy programs to organizations and the public outside of the literacy field. And we do a lot of referrals as well. Okay. So that's one video. Next video. How much does this cost? I'm happy to say it's free. Everything we do for our programs is free. And as an adult in Ontario, you can attend adult literacy programs to upgrade your skills for free too. Now for somebody who has no idea about even they're just on their first step about literacy programs at all. Why is it free? And how does that work? What do you want from me? What's the cash? What we want from you is to be able to be as effective as possible in your life in whatever you want to achieve. Why it's free is because the Ontario government recognizes the importance of skill development for success. So whether that success means you've developed the independence you need to live on your own budget, meal plan, grocery shop, and payer bills, or whether that means you need to upgrade your skills to be effective at a job or get a promotion. Maybe it means you need to earn a grade 12 diploma or an equivalency. Or maybe you're ready to move on to post-secondary education and haven't gone to school in many years. If we don't use it, we lose it in a lot of ways. Being able to go back and upgrade your skills means whatever that next step you take is much more likely to be successful. And that's what adult literacy programs are here for. Okay, that's video number two. My next question is based on true ignorance here. So I'm an existing maybe a literacy program and I've been around for one or two years. We're still budding, figuring this out. How do I connect with you? And what does that look like? How do I get from this? How do I be eligible? If you're an adult education slash literacy program in Ontario, there is going to be an adult literacy network just like Literacy Link So Central, whose job it is to help you succeed. So I would recommend people go to the Learning Networks of Ontario website and click on Find My Network. And there will be a map of Ontario and you can click where you exist. And it will give you the name, address, phone number, email, et cetera for your local Regional Literacy Network. You can reach out and say hi. We'd love to invite you to a planning table, to a conversation. If you want somebody to come out and help train your staff on what it means to work in the literacy field, we're happy to help. Is there such thing as a too small or too large organization to reach out like I'm nervous to reach out? You're never going to find a more welcoming group of people than those who work in adult literacy. We're so excited to help people succeed. There is no such thing as a program too small or a program too large. And in fact, I would say smaller programs can benefit even more from support from their Regional Literacy Network, because larger programs often have an internal structure of support. If I'm running a literacy program at one of Ontario's colleges, then I already have an internal structure that can help me achieve some of my goals as a program. Whereas a small independent two-person community based literacy program, they don't have the staff and the resources to necessarily accomplish everything that can help them be as successful as possible. So that's where our programs can be a really great resource. Are you an actor or are you actually working there? Are you the one that I get to talk to when I call? My name is Summer Burton. You're welcome to reach out at me or out to me at literacy link by hitting our website. You'll see all of our staff profiles there. It's www.llsc.on.ca and pick up the phone and give us a call. We'd be happy to talk. I promise I'm real. Okay, everyone. A round of applause for Summer. You can just type a bunch of, I don't know, Cs for clap. Thanks. So Summer, that was and everyone who's watching, that was it helps that you're so well spoken, but it's possible for people who aren't that we made probably five or six videos that you can circulate monthly for the next few years if you wanted. And the thing is, if I am really interested in looking for resources as an existing program, everything Summer just told me is that I'm paying really close attention. It's not just some videos. Someone said, hey, check out our new video. I'm like, boring. It's how can I help you improve your program that you're so passionate about? Yes, I'm going to click on this. And just her just seeing Summer's sort of demeanor and willingness to speak takes me two or three steps closer to feeling comfortable to reaching out. There's just so much more we can achieve if we just talk, give the basic answers, give the vital information that gets us very far without worrying about video quality and hiring a crew and all that stuff. Everyone, I hope you can see just how doable this is. And you can do it amongst yourselves, especially with the document that I'll give to Eli to give to you. Thanks so much, Summer. My pleasure. And also thank you so much, David. That's amazing. You take video, which freaks all of us out. We're like, I need to be perfect. And you take all this money and all this time. And it's good. We need to capture everything we need to do. It one fell soft because we only have so much time and money. And we talked this off that ledge and said, oh no, there's some really practical things you can do, create something, record it, cut it into a couple pieces, ask for the questions that you get every day from people and then use that to start answering questions, finding the right people who are using that one. I doubt anybody in this room watched Summer's answers and went like, this is terrible and I'm never going to sign up for those programs. Yep. Super inspiring. I think sometimes we need to get paid money to get some David time as well. So we should also let us know about how the ways maybe we need some more David time. How could you help us? I do training one or two clients per month and that looks to, depending on your needs, it starts with four weeks or eight week training and we go through, we go through everything we talked about today much deeper. So I would spend the time with you coming up with those market questions and those vital questions. There's a structure to it. Now would spend time with you on how to be on camera and how to make that recording process as easy as possible. And then I would spend time with you again on how to organize that among your team so that the workflow is seamless and fast and does not, it eliminates as much technology as possible. So this is a really training, mentorship role. It sounds like where you're really teaching people how to fish so then they can go off and can use those skills as they build up the work. That's exactly it. Historically, I used to be more interested in doing brand videos for organizations and the impact was just such a gamble. It's such a gamble to do an $8,000 video and pass it off and cross fingers if their marketing team did not have a strategy. So if we can just, it's just so much cheaper and easier to train and follow up and maintain with and it's the inverse of impact. It's just so odd how that worked out. Other ways to learn is if you go to my website, there's a section called free stuff. So newsletter podcast, the podcast is like this where it's just mini lessons about 10 minutes and they're always, they're mostly actionable. And then another way is to just message me anytime I have an open door policy, ask me anything I will always answer and it's no charge. So David, do you have some final things you want to say or do you want me to take the wrap up? I think I can do this pretty quick here. When you fill those vital informational gaps, people will watch it, I promise. Homemade is fine. It is a welcome relief. Authentic wins. Search engines and devices are prioritizing video. We have no choice. And you are likely the first one to show up and serve that particular need. You will not go viral. You will not suddenly become famous. But if you do this frequently over time, you will establish yourself as a voice and show up in the searches.


Good morning to you and welcome back. My name is Garandra Alex and you're right on time for entrepreneurship Tuesday where we get to know to have a look at some of the things that are making stories, of course, and we want to begin, of course, with the question that Barry and I asked you as we began. Ni business idea ganyu umiwa nai kakunais jia venye kwa creative na simple, just as that simple. Go to our social media platforms, we have Twitter, you know, at Y-254 channel, we have Facebook at Y-254. You can hit on us and you tell us some of the creative but simple ideas umiwa yonam siya konazo, ala fukafi like man, this is awesome. And of course now this morning I've got a team of men and of course I want to say young and one. Right Karibu Nisana, let me introduce them. Right next to me here, from my right is the producer himself, Mike Muikia. Karibu Sana. Thanks man. I hope you feeling it's cool you know to be here. Yeah man, we are really happy to be here. It's a big deal for us. We are happy. Karibu Nisana then we have James Chege. Yes. Yes, after himself. Thank you for welcoming us. Karibu Sana and of course we have Ambrose Kate. Yes. Karibu Sana. Thank you for the opportunity. So let's begin this thing. So you're doing a film called The Letter. The last letter that is. And how does it begin all the way from the zero one all the way to you guys want to release it? I mean the normal process of shooting a film you know you create a script. Of course there are licenses to apply before you even think of when to shoot and all that. And then auditioning people trying to get the right characters for every part. And then now the normal film acting and now going on set. And then the post production process that's the editing. And of course now how do you release your work? So AIMAX. AIMAX is the main thing that you did that in September. So you and your radia to military. Sunday for September. Alright so that's where you guys want to release it. Yes. That's your biggest aim right now. How long does the film take? 24 minutes only. Short and sweet. Let me go straight to James.  Yes I started when I was young. But I think the level of engagement. The level of nurturing is important and the exposure that you get. And I think the beauty about being an artist and arts is that translating what was just an idea and breathing life into it. This was just an idea then put on paper. Another reality. In simplicity entrepreneurship when you come up with an idea then you execute it. You execute an idea. What was simply an idea can be actually visualized and they are telling people what I was telling you as an idea this is it. What was just a simple idea in the mind an idea on paper now this is the reality. So what I was telling you now you can see it this is it. I think that creativity just bubbles me. I mean it excites me. They ability to translate an idea into reality. All right probably there is someone who is watching and they are like ok he last later and who are you acting as? I am acting as the main character called Jomo. What role does Ziri play in terms of kuna fanya kazi again you know being the main actor? In the character. Jomo is a man who has gone through a lot of issues in life. Basically the objective of that film is showing that you need to live your life well because you are going to live once. There is no rehearsal in life. There is no rehearsal in life. So you have to figure out how you are going to live your life. And you must also know how to handle your regrets and the challenges. And you must know the opportunities that come your way. You either miss them or hit them. You must also appreciate they are you are going to meet giants. You are going to meet ok what you may call hados or bumps in life. And I will put it this way. What do you see yourself? When you are faced with so many obstacles in your way of achieving your goals. When you are faced with so many challenges. What do you see? Do you see a godia that is too big to hit or too big to miss? Right. That's a good point you know to keep us you know interacted. And I want to come to you Ambrose. What role are you playing? In this film I am playing as Madeka. I am the caretaker to Jomo. In this movie it's very funny. First we have some life challenges. It basically tells us that in what we do in our life challenges. We should be able to focus and face them at dawn. When we want something we go for it. Don't wait until it's too late. Like him Jomo he loves somebody. But now he waits until the person dies. When he realizes that he loved the girl. You know that is an opportunity he missed. Now in this short film we are basically trying to tell people that go for it. If it's something you want go for it. A suth don't wait until time is too late. So that you start saying that I wanted to do this and this. If it's a business go for it. If it's a lover go for it. Ambrose you are trying to ask me this particular question. Kwa kuna demo lafu kako ele kuna gopa kusayama? Eh. No. Is that part of the video? Yes. No. That's why we are acting this movie. So to show that you should have confidence. Go for it.  Yes. I have been in business. And still you are? Yes. I have been an actor. I am a student. A scholar. Acting is something which is passion. Something which comes and goes. But to me after I did well I was young. Sometimes I feel like acting is not paying. I just go to school. Work hard. Start businesses. But then of the day the acting in me takes me back to acting. Yes. Let me come to you Mike. He has talked about something I want us to come on board. Passion. Yes. It's the center thing for everyone who wants to act. How do you get to notice the passion behind each and every person? I mean. When you do the auditions. Okay. Of course they are given a script. And you act that one. So the character you portray in that script that is not necessarily what we are going to shoot in the main field. That means whether we can see a potential in you. Featuring in a project that we intend to produce. So. I mean audition in Lazzima. Yeah. Because I tell you if you call for auditions tomorrow in Nairobi. A lot of people will come. They have never acted but they believe they would act. So you have to differentiate now between those who acted. Those who are passionate about it. Right. And now they have never acted before. Do you think there is a form of relaxation? Let me notice that word. Are we having some sort of relaxation to one and two proteins in the house? Yes. All the time. All the time. All the time. So young people are so there. I mean young people I mean they don't have jobs. Some of them are retalented. And then you see they don't have to be really excellent actors. Even those who are big actors. They still need some coaching once in a while. Because you are doing a different role. You have to adapt a character that is not your day to day character. And so it's my job really as a producer also to ensure that they bring out the best of that character. As it's written in the movie. Probably there's a producer who is watching before I come to the rest. There's a producer who is watching you, Mike. And the producer is like how do I venture into this industry? No. You know this is my second film. This is a second film. Yeah. The first film we released 2015 is a music film. It was a bigger film. A bigger budget. But you know very challenging also because of course we were clueless with my team on how to release, how to do many things. But now you know you learn in the process. Like they are saying if you feel you want to do something now. You do it. You know go and do it. Challenges will be there. You are trying to meet standards. You don't want to do shady shady work. But you are trying to meet standards. You don't want to do shady shady work. But there is a process of growth. If you want to be a film producer. I mean it's something amazing. I tell you what for us now having IMAX as apartment because you are going to premiere there. We couldn't actually we didn't expect that IMAX will accept this one. Being 24 minutes film. But I think there is an experience that I have had as a producer that has helped me to perfect the art of storytelling. Right. As we will be looking at that of course let me come back to James. When we are talking about the issue of acting. We have quite a number of young people are like by the way Meena Gopa. How did you handle that? Before I mentioned about handling that issue of acting.  Right. From this year of 2019 something is happening in the entire continent of Africa. We are experiencing a 400 year breakaway from enslavement. Because the first live was taken away from Akragana 400 years ago. We are now having our moment. It's time for Africa. This is our time. Just the same with the children of Israel who are released exactly 400 years. To go into their destiny. In their land of milk and honey. Exactly from this year things are happening. And I just want to validate this point. Probably you could have trade last year some things never worked out. Right. You have trade so many things. So many years ago they never worked out. I want you to watch from this year moving forward. I have told you this is our time. So I just want to start from that point of encouragement. That it is good to know there are two types of seasons. There are two types of calendars in this world. Right. Kairos and Kronos. Okay. That means... That's the time by itself when it's a branch. Yeah there are two types of timing in the world. You live in two calendars. Yes. You have the life God has ordained for you. And you have the life, the cycle of the world. All of them coincidentally in 2019 are open. I mean it's our time. So we are living under open heaven. So I just want to encourage somebody. Whatever idea you have from this year don't give up. Try it against going to work. Now in terms of that encouragement or building the concept of acting. One, it starts with the point of believing yourself. And then association. They say there are only two things that are very important in your life. The people you meet and the books you read. The only two things. Because both of them give information. Not just information, even transformation. The people you meet and the books you read. Anywhere in the world. All you need are two things. Show me the books you read and show me the people you meet. Right. And to actually tell me five years, ten years from now, the kind of influence. Because the people you usually keep interacting with influence you. For example, if you interact with other producers. With other actors. It will rub on you. If you are interested in something to build your confidence. To build yourself up. You start looking for that information. You start looking for that opportunity. So that you learn from others. What you may call a presentation. So that is the beginning point of view. And a presentation is two ways. It can be both formal and informal. Ambrose, James has mentioned something about information. Do you think as young people we are lacking information in terms of how to venture into the industry? No, I don't think we are lacking information. It's only that we don't know how to use the information we have. These days we have mobile phones. We are not even shooting a movie using a mobile phone. In me I want to say that in order to walk you have to crawl. So as young people we should allow the process. Let us not think that because somebody is famous, we want to be famous the next day. It is a process. Some of us here started acting when we were in Sunday school. It was a process. We build our self confidence there up to now. You may not ask us for how long we have been acting but it is a lifetime. So this thing is a process. Just don't think that you will reach at the end of the journey just when you start it. A thousand journey starts with one step. So we have to go slowly slowly so that we reach where we are. So we have information but now we are like we want to reach there very fast on the top. So what we should do, we should take it slow. Trust the process, be courageous and push on. Run for it. Alright Mike, probably I want to begin my own film and of course a film production house. How much does it cost? If somebody comes home and feel like one and then send up one. Like a production house, you mean you have your own equipment, lights, cameras, all those things. Well I don't believe there is a producer who has everything. Because in this one you have to count assets as well as personnel. You pay people differently according to their skills. So I will only say filming is not cheap. It's not cheap for many people and especially because there are so government regulations that you have to comply with. I mean it's workable. I don't know if I can give you a figure really but if you want to do a big, I mean not necessarily a big film but a good project. There is a huge investment you have to do there. You have to work on it. You have to work on it. Forts and money and resources and people. And people. You have to invest in people also. Because you need the right people also. Sometimes people will let you down but you will always get the right people if you are persistent. I'm from there to ask this question. How much does it cost or rather did it cost for you? For this movie. I'm not supposed to tell you the budget because I don't want to be predictable. It will make people start guessing about the movie and the outcome. Be anything but not predictable. That's my thing. It's done on it from that point. There's this emergence of very many people who are coming into the industry and probably in the acting sector. Do you think we have people who are really talented and others feel like they don't know how to do it? No, that is the worst mentality. Coming to the industry to make money. When you come to it to make money, you'll not get that money. I'm 100%. When you come to the industry saying that you want to make money, first thing, you'll not be committed. You'll be doing things in Aari. You'll not be even settling in your roles to do them. So, at the end of the day, you'll be looking the money factor and as you want the quality. So, definitely, you'll be in a clash. How do you weigh between the people who want money and the people who are here out of passion? How do you look at it? People who want money, it's very easy to get them. They'll be fast, not patient. There are things to be done in Aari so that they get the money. Next, they will not be able to listen because they already know what they have in their mind. They are focusing on money. So, what you are telling them is budget. Even we say. So, they don't really care what they are doing. At the end of the day, they are looking how much. These are the people, these are the actors who are looking at the end of the day how much are we sending in the contract instead of their work selling for them. Okay. Let me come to you James. When we are talking about analyzing the entire story and of course, Mike had mentioned about you don't script or rather you do brief scripting than the rest, you know, it just comes up about creativity part of it. We have very many who are creative but they don't have the ground to bring out the creativity. How would you address this kind of an issue? I would not say that young people lack ground. Allow me to talk about how do you get information from it. It starts from what you call the point of information. The word information are two words. They are two generic words. In and form. In and form. And then information is a continuous present tense. Now, what is it that is getting inside you to create a form that manifests? What is it that is getting inside you? What is it when you are alone and you have time, do you listen? Do you hear? Do you think about it? Very good. If you are interested in acting, if you are interested in theater, do you take time to listen? Do you take time to watch that which is of value or the quality you want, the standards you want? That which you aspire to achieve. Do you take time to read through? Do you take time to watch? Do you take time to interact? Because the moment what is getting in is what is taking shape. Now, as a result of doing that, what psychologists will tell you what becomes a predominant thought will actually manifest. You start seeing the people who you are like minded. You will start noticing and everybody else. And in the process, in the process, you now start interacting. So, the most critical aspect is if you want something bad enough, are you ready to go for it? There is a saying that says in African settings that the speed at which you run depends on the animal that is chasing you. The speed at which you run. The problems that you have will determine what time you get out of the house. That's how it happens. For example, we had to invest more than 12 hours. I remember I had to borrow water from a neighbor. We never ate anything, we never did anything. I was asking how many people would put in 12 good hours non-stop to play the part. 12 good hours. From 8 to 8. From 7 to 7. From 6 to 6. No food, nothing. If you feel your thirsty and whenever it, the only thing is just borrow some water. Nobody has even carried water for you. Now, the point is this. Before you build in the house, before you do anything, calculate the cost. Are you willing to pay the price that comes with it? For example, we were required to be here by 730. You didn't call us. 730 has found us here. Never mind what has happened. Whatever happens in between is not your problem. As long as I find my way here. So, all I'm telling you is sometimes people are saying they want to do this, they want to do that. But actually keep asking. Don't like to ask whoever is watching us today are you willing to pay the price that comes with the price tag? Right. And I want to come back to you, Mike. He has mentioned about time. I don't stroke about time in terms of the business as it is. Most often times we find people don't make it to keep time. Do you think it's one of the things that is making us fail? Yeah, quite. Quite. We say it's one and again. We say it's one and again. Whether it's a shame, because my mum was asking me you know, I mean, that's when you feel you start seeing yourself as a failure. Other than there's a process of learning also. Time waits for no man. Yes. I think it's the most precious thing that we really have to think about using well. The theme of the film is life is a one-time offer. Use it well. Because there's no rehearsal in life. Time is a one-time offer. Time is money. Time is money. And then you said earlier on about time, about money. Money should not be the spearheading of everything in your life. I was trying to mean that in whatever we are doing, let us tujitume in whatever we are doing. And then we have the money, the last option. Because when we go finding the money, it will not be there. But if we invest in our time producing good movies, money will come. We see something good in us and then they will come and invest. And at the end of the day, we will get money. Youth of these days, one thing that drives me is I am allergic to puvati. Very allergic. So in whatever I do umusota is umusota. Can I add something about that? I don't lose the track of the issue of money. The biggest mistake you can do because I think today is an entrepreneurship Tuesday. Anybody will tell you in the world over people who are very successful who are dollar millionaires they never changed the money. Because there are only two things that are very important. The most important thing is there are two types of resources that are very important in this world. Only two, people and time. People are the ladder to success. People and time. What is your time in adding value to people? Because you should be asking yourself what value are you adding? As long as you are continuously improving yourself and the service of the product you are offering so it is a continuous improvement to be able to add value to people in terms of a product or a service. As a result of that then money comes. As a result of so it is a continuous engagement improving yourself under daily, every day, every minute, every hour. And then you are doing that because your main aim is to add value to the people you serve, to the people you target. If that happens as a result of that then we pay for that value. Now if you put money on the other side if the money becomes the end of the stick what happens is you will have it in the short term. You will lose it in the long term. So money makes you lose track? Yes. Money makes you lose track of everything. So if you want to have money in the long term you must sacrifice. So this is one thing they do not want to sacrifice. They want money but they don't know what to do. They want it in the short term. They want it very fast and they don't want to work for it. Like if it is a movie they don't want to put all their effort in a movie they want quality to get the money. They want it done today, produced today sold today, they are giving the money. We are talking about the micro generation but I want us to differentiate that because you are loaded with a lot of information. I want us to talk about we are looking at the scenes that have been happening in the past even as we are talking about unemployment manis in the country today is entrepreneurship Tuesday I want to ask each and every one of us before we look at the trailer I want to say that we have a lot of ideas we want to work together because you are a producer and then we are told young people will be creative what do you think? I want to get your question I am trying to get your question I want to work together and come up with the creativity Okay Personally I think because it is my thing I would probably come up with another bigger script bigger movie You will be thinking about a movie What I am good at What I am good at What I am not good at Alright, let's talk about the movie itself right now before we even answer the questions you are on wheelchair Is the life changing thing from the movie? It's life changing because for those who don't know me they think that is the way things are and I had people asking me I mean when I was in wheelchair so I was like the last time you saw me you just told them this is acting I had to be very categorical I had to be very categorical that this is acting I am not on wheelchair but I think that also validates the emotion of because the concept of me is about also having an emotional aspect can you move people emotionally psychologically so that they are able to resonate with that movie so the moment I am getting those questions they are able to resonate but that is a character in the movie which is different from I am trying to understand your part of the story I don't understand I don't understand I don't understand I don't understand I don't understand I don't understand We wait for the movie I told you don't be predictable We anything but don't be predictable Let's wait I don't understand It's 24 minutes short and sweet we would have made a bigger film like 70-80 minutes but for some reason I want to taste the orders I want to attend How much is it and where probably 500 Angadiamond IMAX It's at Parklands Diamond Plaza 2 First Sunday of September Satisa So you are getting to watch two movies so you watch this the last letter and then you watch another Hollywood movie IMAX and then you get a free popcorn It's a lot of good So there's so much probably to be gained Man it's going to be one amazing afternoon When we're looking at these there's so much that has been released in the local content and we're talking about supporting the local content Do you think we have fully gotten to that level that we feel like now we are growing Yeah quite You see the quality we are putting on TV now Many producers are really working hard to meet standards of good camera work, lighting and all these things There's a lot of growth you can see from the digital migration era from 2015 I mean it's been amazing So we think we are making some good trades Quite yeah but for filming it's baby steps still we don't shoot as many movies as many countries in Africa But those producers producers who are taking the risks to do movies I mean they are helping the industry to some extent We are running out of time I want probably just to finish up with this one question Ni business idea gani Umeona ikakuna isi ya kwa yote Ni kakuna creativity Man I'm still thinking about it I'm still thinking about it We are working in progress You see things every day But If you are an experienced person Spending money Investing money You just don't see something and then you jump into I see Umeona ikakuna rukiya but it's all about the state I still want to know which is that business Do you want that to happen? When I say that it will happen Ni business idea gani Umeona ikakuna isi ya kwa yote and very simple It's full of creativity but still very simple I think one that's a very tricky question Very, very tricky But let me say this I'm moved by innovations The innovations I find in young people But also what is exciting me nowadays is if you read the book by Robert Kiyosaki The business of the 21st century I think that has really excited me I'm reading that book and it's talking about that the business of the 21st century is professional network building Of course this is changing Ambrose Yes, first of all I'm a business I'm a professional I'm a procurement officer Apart from acting I'm professional So when it comes to business I catch my eye Then when you come about your question you have asked about a business Creative and very simple I've been thinking I've been seeing people doing something which is very creative Being a broker Okay, yes Simple and to the point You get a person who is buying less say beans from the farmers A person has no vieko He hires takes them to Mombasa sells then comes back pays the people giving the beans That's not easy It's good doing You have something creative and easy I don't think there is anything creative and easy Maybe kushinda to online Again kushinda online maze una like ma picha it doesn't earn money but then you want to I'm saying I don't think there is anything easy that can earn you money but I think things like academic writing online You need good English That's how we call it today Just a minute because you are running out of time because you are running out of time So Sunday, past September we gave them the movie at IMAX So 9, 5, 6 8, 20 So many thanks for keeping it Y254 TV It has been such an exciting moment with the last letter from the producer Bari is coming up next and entrepreneurship continues in just a few