Recently, Shashi had a chance to sit to down with Thomas Clifford, or Director Tom as many people know him, and discuss the power of using video to tell your story. For those of you that aren’t familiar with his work, Tom has been a director for 20 years and works with Fortune 500 to non-profits to create powerful corporate documentaries that he affectionately calls “PBS on Steroids”. He finds out what matters most to organizations - what they want their market and the world to know about them.


The full video is shown below, but here are some key highlights:



The power of your personal story

Tom says it best, “Remember, customers don’t buy products. They buy stories about who you are and what you stand for.” This is so true in today’s world of being bombarded with advertising messages and boring sales pitches. So tell your story.


Each company has a story. It is important that you share that story to tell your target market and the world about who and what your company stands for every day.



Your people are your “Brand Ambassadors”

The best place to start to tell your story is to start with “Your People”. He can’t emphasize enough how important it is to incorporate testimonials from people. These people are “brand ambassadors” that evangelize your company to the rest of the world. It can be employees and customers, but most importantly, it should be authentic and capture the heart and soul of who and what your company is about.



Can video really help my small business?

Absolutely. Companies use his films for things like marketing, recruiting and retention, and sharing corporate values — to name a few. He believes that you can and should do this no matter what size business you are. He notes in the video, “A company’s story is tightly woven even more with a small business which actually makes it easier to uncover that story.”



When the video fades to black, there is a second story to tell.

Tom says, “When the video fades to black, there is a second story - the conversation.” The conversation that occurs ignites discussion between people and gets your audience to tell new stories. “This could be one-on-ones broadcasting their thoughts on the web, potential companies, potential customers and new recruits for example.” It may take your story in a whole new direction that you never thought of before.



How do I get started?

Well, you could hire Tom and I am sure he would love that. If your budget doesn’t align with his, then you can start by picking up a video camera and start capturing your story. Tom creates videos that are “energetic, engaging, compelling, meaningful and authentic”.” You will start to see patterns in how people describe your company and stories that you will want to polish and share with the rest of the world. Tom likes to say “you want to get it as right as you can for longevity”.





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