26 Feb

Posted at 20:29h in The Work

A polished 2–3 minute video can look effortless. Clean. Focused. Confident. But what most people don’t see is how much thinking is compressed into that short window. Preparing a short video is a lot like preparing for a recital. A serious music student might rehearse 20, 40, even 100 hours for a single 3–5 minute performance. Broadway casts rehearse for 6–8 weeks full-time before opening night. The performance is brief. The preparation is not. Video production is no different. In the film and television world, a 30-minute episode often takes months to write, shoot, and edit (and we binge-watch the whole season in a weekend!) A two-hour feature film can take years from development to final cut (and we devour it with our popcorn in one evening). We're used to seeing the end result...

12 Feb

Posted at 20:51h in Leadership & Impact

Visibility is often treated as the goal of video. More views. More reach. More exposure. But for leaders, visibility alone is rarely the problem. Trust is. Leaders don’t struggle to be seen. They struggle to be believed, understood, and trusted — especially in moments when decisions matter, stakes are high, or change is underway. This is where video, when used thoughtfully, plays a very different role. Trust Is Built Before It’s Needed Trust isn’t created at the moment of decision. It’s built long before — through consistency, tone, and credibility. Leaders use video not to persuade in the moment, but to lay groundwork. To give people a way to understand who they are, how they think, and what they stand for before trust is tested. A well-crafted video allows others to encounter leadership without pressure. It creates familiarity. It reduces uncertainty. It answers questions people may not yet know how to ask. In this way, video becomes less about messaging —...

10 Feb

Posted at 17:48h in Leadership & Impact

Video is often grouped under “marketing.” It shows up in marketing budgets, marketing plans, and marketing conversations. And in many organizations, that’s where the discussion ends. But leaders don’t use video the same way marketing teams do. For leaders, video isn’t just about promotion. It’s about clarity. It’s about ensuring that the work being done — the values behind it, the decisions driving it, and the impact it’s meant to create — is accurately understood by the people who matter most. When video is treated as simply a marketing expense, it’s judged on activity: views, clicks, impressions. When it’s treated as a leadership tool, it’s judged on alignment, trust, and outcomes. That difference matters. The Common Misunderstanding Many organizations commission video because they feel they should: A campaign needs content. An event needs coverage. A funder asks for a recap. The result is often a well-produced piece that looks good… and then quietly disappears. This isn’t a...

30 Jan

Posted at 18:31h in Leadership & Impact, Strategy & Story

Everyone can make videos now. That’s… great, right? Ten years ago, you needed codecs you couldn’t pronounce and lighting kits that cost as much as a car. Today, your phone shoots footage. Free apps stabilize, colour-grade, and add graphics while you’re in line for coffee. The technical barrier to entry has evaporated. But here’s what hasn’t changed: Making footage is not the same as making meaning. The Volume Problem We’re drowning in it. 500 hours uploaded to YouTube every minute. Billions of TikTok views before lunch. Your brand’s launch video sits between a cat playing piano and someone’s thermal camera cooking tutorial. When gear was expensive, decent image quality alone bought you credibility. Now, 4K is the floor. Clean audio is table stakes. The barrier to entry is gone, but the barrier to being remembered has skyrocketed. This isn’t just competition: it’s cutthroat. When every business, employee, and algorithm publishes constantly, audiences develop armour. They scroll...