STOP Making #Me Meme Videos – Do This Instead

In this video, I discuss how I use storytelling to empower videos to make them exciting. This formula works for both small and large businesses.

The problem with a lot of videos is they focus on the benefits – how great a product is, what are the bells and whistles, how cheap it is, etc. 

Businesses toot their horn too much in their videos.

The videos become what I call “Me Me Me” videos. 

Or succinctly #Me Meme videos. 

These are videos that focus on themselves and the benefits of their products and services.

Nobody likes someone who only talk or boasts about the good stuff.

Instead, with my video clients, I help create stories around their brand or philosophy.

I focus on my clients’ clients, and the struggles they face. 

I make the business’ clients the hero of the story and position the business as the mentor.

Every protagonist of a good story faces obstacles that get in the way of their goals. This is a similar situation that many consumers face.

They look to products and services that will help them overcome their obstacles in a cost efficient and timely manner.

In the videos I create for my clients, I focus on their customers’ struggles first then I position their products and services as the means to overcome those struggles.

These type of hero and mentor videos are much more compelling. It employs a storytelling structure found in famous tales, like Cinderella, as well as more modern stories, like Star Wars.

You want to create engaging content?

Stop making #Me meme videos. 

And focus on storytelling instead.

Video Transcript

Have you ever sat in a theater or been watching Netflix and you’ve felt a sense of déjà vu?

It’s not a coincidence you feel this way when you’re watching a great story or reading a great book or novel.

The reason why you feel this way is because there is a specific formula that every storyteller has used from ancient Greece to today’s great writers. It’s a formula they’ve used to create engaging content and great stories.

And this is the storytelling formula that I use for all my clients whenever I create videos for them.

So in this video I’m going to share with you this formula that I use with all my video marketing clients.

I’m going to start off by telling a famous story. I’m not going to tell you the title of this story because it’s famous and you’ll know exactly what it is once I begin telling it.

It’s so famous and it’s so powerful because it uses this storytelling formula.

This story starts off with this very beautiful girl. She’s a very pretty girl but she has a lot of self-confidence issues.

She was born into an affluent family. Unfortunately, when she was born, her mother died. Shortly after, her father married this woman who was a mean stepmother. She also adopted two evil step sisters.

I’m going to stop there because you probably already know what story I’m telling you. But just in case, I’ll keep on going to make my point.

So now she’s left with a father, an evil mother and two evil step sisters.

Then something happens to the father… I think in the version the father fell off a train and he dies. So he’s stuck with the evil step mother and two evil step sisters.

So her life is really down here… (illustrating with white board).

And on top of all that… there was going to be a party with all these influencers and Prince Charmings but she can’t make it because she’s stuck with evil sisters and evil step mothers.

And from here you probably know what I’m talking about. This story I’m telling is Cinderella.

And she had this obstacle she had to face. She wanted to go to this party but she had all these people holding her back.

But then she got her fairy godmother to help her. And that’s how she got the magical shoes and the magical carriage in order to make it to the fancy party and meet her Prince Charming.

And this curve… This storytelling formula is what I share with all my clients. Because whenever you create a video, you want to create this curve… this storytelling structure.

When I meet clients for the first time, most of them don’t have this structure in their content.

Most of the time their videos are monotone and straight line.

For example, a lot of the videos I see from first time clients have fancy footage like 4K footage but the video content falls flat and doesn’t get enough engagements. The main reason for the lack of engagement is because their videos lack this storytelling structure.

They only focus on the benefits of their product. They only focus on what’s great about them.

For example, in their testimonial videos, their clients will only talk about their educational background, the fancy office or the venue. The videos focus on them.

They talk about the benefits but they don’t talk about the struggle.

So what happens is they make videos that focus on themselves.

And I call that a “Me Video”. Or a Me meme video.

The problem with a lot of videos today is the client is trying to be the hero of the story. They’re trying to be Cinderella.

How they should approach video marketing is this: they should not make themselves Cinderella. Their clients should be Cinderella and the business should be the fairy god mother or the mentor of the story.

And the [storytelling] structure is a much better structure when making videos because it’s a structure that many famous movies and stories use.

So Cinderella is one example where a hero is being helped by a mentor or fairy godmother.

More recently, you can look at Star Wars and the relationship between Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi.

Another example would be the Witcher books. You have Vesemir who helped mentor Geralt.

In all good stories, there is always a hero with an obstacle to overcome. And there’s always a mentor that helps them over come it.

This is how I help clients create compelling videos. I use a storytelling structure to make their videos engaging.