Why You Shouldn’t Be on Video (Founders: Stop Believing the Social Media Lies)

Your face on screen can derail your entire business — here’s proof (and what to do instead).

If you ask almost anyone these days — from young aspiring TikTokers to seasoned CEOs to startup investors — they’ll all likely echo the same unwavering sentiment: If you want your business to have any chance at success, being on video is a non-negotiable.

Oh, just because we’ve all heard that we “have” to be on video doesn’t mean we like it. I’ve heard the behind-closed-door grumblings of seasoned entrepreneurs and industry professionals who trash-talk videos at the water cooler, disparaging their less-principled peers who’ve caved to the social media pressure and jumped on the pro-video bandwagon. Typically, those video grinches end up caving in as well, oftentimes hiring full-service film production teams, hoping studio lighting, audio engineering, and airbrushing will translate to on-camera charisma.

Spoiler alert: It probably won’t. That leads me to the very crux of this article: Can video do more harm than good? Do some people have a true “face for radio” and thus, ought to be banished to live out their professional lives behind a cubicle, far from any clients’ views?

Based on a multitude of real-life examples, I don’t believe it’s your face that’s the problem if you flop on video. Instead, it’s your personality, and it’s far more detrimental than you may realize. Read on to hear the tale of how video killed a multi-million-dollar empire that seemingly did everything right — and how you can determine whether you have a personality that attracts or repels.

Leaving millions of dollars on the table

Before I dive into the story of the entrepreneurial couple who sabotaged their business with their repulsive personalities, let’s talk about the opposite: A solopreneur at the top of her game who’s been leaving millions of dollars on the table by neglecting video in her marketing.

If you’re anything like this solopreneur — let’s call her “Amy” — then perhaps you, too, could add a few million to your bottom line with virtually no added cost…

Amy has been running her business for over a decade, with twice that amount of time mastering her field. In other words, she’s undoubtedly an industry expert. However, when I first met Amy, I was her internet lead, and to be honest, I had no clue just how skilled or seasoned she was.

Why? From our first phone call to our texts and in-person meeting, she didn’t tout her credentials. In fact, she didn’t talk about herself at all. She did, however, put me and my purchasing partner at ease.

The number one most commonly uttered phrase to describe Amy after every interaction (all of which were transaction-related) was “positive energy”. We worked with her for a total of four months on a couple large-scale transactions, and throughout that entire process, her magnetic personality never waned.

For context — which we didn’t find out until a couple months after our last transaction with Amy — she does about 8 times the volume of business as the average success story in her field, making well over a million bucks a year from her online leads alone.

In order to make 8 times as much as her competition, she must be spending 8x more on marketing, right? This is where it gets interesting: Her 8x advantage is due to her conversion rate alone. She consistently, without fail, converts cold leads to 5- and 6-figure sales at a conversion rate that’s pretty much unheard of in her industry.

Why am I talking about conversion rates when you came here to learn if you’re too ugly to be on video? Don’t worry; I’m getting there:

The number one benefit of video marketing isn’t that it’s the trendy, cool thing keeping aging companies relevant. It also isn’t the fact that the younger generation of future customers only have 3-second attention spans and rely on TikTok for all their product recommendation needs.

The major, undeniable, arguably irreplaceable benefit of video is the fact that it enables prospecting and conversions at scale (without spending loads on less efficient, less personal, lower-converting paid ads).

However, that scaled marketing can only benefit if your conversion machine is well-oiled and effective from the get-go.

In other words, someone like Amy — whose cold lead-to-high-ticket-sale conversions blow every industry metric out of the water — is leaving big bucks on the table by ignoring video. She’s got the conversion piece down pat, and all she needs to do is to get her face, voice, and positive energy in front of thousands more targeted prospects to instantly multiply her sales.

Some people, however, are rocking abysmal conversion rates, assuming it’s their ad copy, poor targeting, or low-quality marketing platform keeping them down. These are the people for whom I fear video may only amplify their shortcomings; in fact, I know of one case study exemplifying just that…

Your faces need to go

Do you think it’s possible to do everything right, work as hard as humanly possible, and outpace your competitors in quantity, yet still come up behind in your results? Some people — and founders — believe success is all about repetitions: The more, the merrier. These are the people who will write 1,000 pieces of marketing copy without taking the time to assess which ones worked, which didn’t, why, and how to improve.

Simply put, people who believe volume and speed alone can overpower quality are likely destined to fail, especially if a quality competitor emerges. That’s exactly what happened to an entrepreneurial couple I know.

This couple had over two decades of experience in their chosen field, and on paper, they probably should have been the vendor of choice for most clients assessing comparative services. Unfortunately, what wins on paper doesn’t necessarily translate to video, and clients don’t necessarily make decisions based on pure facts and logic. That’s where this couple went wrong.

To put it bluntly, they were bad energy. They may be better in person, but on camera — despite hundreds more pieces of targeted, detailed, SEO-optimized marketing content, they were both stiff, awkward, and off-putting. To the same degree that Amy put cold leads at ease through every medium of interaction — even without a mention of her credentials — this couple made audiences uncomfortable, despite touting their objectively impressive accolades.

So, here’s the question: Should the awkward couple still spend the time to get on camera, since maybe one day they’ll finally be good at it? Or perhaps some viewers won’t notice their off-putting energy and actually convert to a sale?

Let’s break it down mathematically speaking:

• Amy: Zero video marketing, minimal (nearly nonexistent) social media presence, making a minimum of 7 figures as a solopreneur.
• Awkward couple: Hundreds of targeted, SEO-optimized videos, hundreds of thousands of views, thousands of subscribers on social platforms, yet together, between both of them, they make less than a quarter of Amy’s earnings on a good year.

The awkward couple should probably keep going right? If they’re currently making a quarter of Amy’s income by producing let’s say 250 videos per year, then all they need to do is 4x that, put out a thousand videos a year, and they might break into 7-figure territory, too. Right?

Wrong!

Good entrepreneurs aren’t just hard-headed doers; they’re thoughtful, strategic problem-solvers who assess speed, cost, effectiveness, and efficiency in making decisions. Could this couple pay to get their awkwardness and bad video etiquette coached out of them? Yeah, I’m sure with enough time, practice, and guidance, they could likely learn and improve dramatically. However, as of today, that probably isn’t the most effective or efficient manner to solve their sales or conversion issues.

The issue is simple: It isn’t the volume of videos. It isn’t the quality. It certainly isn’t the SEO-optimized, highly-searched topics. They’re getting views; thus, leads aren’t the problem, here; conversions are.

If the awkward couple could take an objective step back and compare their lead-to-sale conversion rate to someone like Amy’s, they’d see they’re working harder, not smarter…oh, and Amy is too.

Imagine if the awkward couple could partner with or hire an Amy to get on camera, spout her positivity, and put leads at ease enough to drive their conversion rate from 0.2% to 20%? You don’t need a calculator to know that’s a life-changing difference when applied at scale, especially with high-ticket sales in the 5-figure range.

If this seems like a no-brainer solution, then you may wonder why in the world didn’t the awkward couple think of it sooner? Two reasons:

1. Ego: Even founders who detest the camera may feel as if they are the only people qualified or representative enough to be the lead-facing marketing presence for their company. Though, I believe this couple more likely fell prey to reason number two…
2. Assumption: These days, face-to-camera shame is a real thing — and it’s making a lot of people uncomfortable (both the not-quite-talent and their viewers). Countless articles and viral social media posts are telling people “if you, the founder and CEO, aren’t the face of your company, then you’re hindering it’s growth”.

No; let’s be clear: Sometimes by avoiding the camera, these awkward CEOs are protecting their companies — and it takes humility, objectivity, and wisdom to know the difference.

That said, Amy isn’t doing her business all the favors either: While Amy’s business is no doubt an impressive success, it’s only a fraction of what it could be if she scaled it with video. If Amy currently makes a million bucks from a couple thousands leads, imagine if she could get in front of tens or hundreds of thousands of leads and maintain a similar conversion rate. Sure, she might need to hire more people to service all the client growth, but she’d potentially be running an 8-figure company without increasing her lead generation costs.

Three truths and a lie

Let’s start with the lie: Bad video is better than no video, and more bad video is better than less. It simply isn’t true. Now onto what is:

1. If you haven’t mastered conversion, video marketing is probably not the magic bullet that’s going to make your company strike it rich.
2. Video isn’t about what you know or what you’ve accomplished; it’s all about how you make the prospect feel. If you make them feel good enough, they just may buy from you; if you make them feel awful or awkward, there’s a pretty good chance they won’t.
3. You don’t have to be the Brad Pitt of your company to harness video to scale your growth. Sure, you can take some acting, charisma, and sales lessons, but in the meantime, why not get a positive energy closer in there to capitalize on the audience that’s hungry now? Better to go out on someone else’s good foot (i.e. hiring someone else to be on video) than to blow your one shot on your bad foot.

Remember: As much as we’re told to “fail fast and fail often”, you only get one chance to make a first impression, and leads are not necessarily that forgiving or quick to change their minds if you flub the first one.