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@jasonsadler-blog
TIP: Setting Focus on DSLR Cameras
A handy little trick on Canon and Nikon DSLRs to set focus. In this video I show you how to use digital zoom on a Canon T3i with a 50mm 1.4 lens. This trick is a life saver if you film by yourself or aren't an expert at setting focus through the view finder.
Making Changes to IWearYourShirt.com
Change is hard. Change is good. Change is here.
For the past 3 1/2 years I've been getting paid to promote a different company each day via social media on IWearYourShirt.com (IWYS). The idea of IWYS came to me in late 2008 when I had clients for a web design company I co-owned asking about Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. At that time, I had never made a video, didn't have a Twitter account and maybe had 30 friends on Facebook (didn't know half of them). But, I saw an opportunity, came up with a unique pricing structure (thanks Chris Yeh) and ran with the idea. I could have easily stayed with my web design company and enjoyed an already comfortable work-from-home job, but I wanted more and I wasn't afraid of change.
Fast forward to today and another change is happening. After working over 1,300+ companies on a daily shirt wearing basis, I'm shifting my focus to having 1 sponsor per week. This change happens as of July 1 and means I will only have the availability to work with 20 sponsors for the remainder of 2012. Why am I doing this? I firmly believe the landscape of social media has changed drastically since 2009, 2010 and even 2011. So many companies/brands/marketers use Twitter and Facebook each day, that it's hard to rise above the noise, no matter how unique the thing is you're doing. Having a week to work with companies means a couple things for IWYS:
More time to share the engaging and creative content I/we create
More time to engage with the ever-expanding IWYS community and our sponsors
My creative brain has been able to handle 365 companies a year, imagine only having 52 (or 20 for the rest of this year!)
Much less availability
Having initial conversations with potential sponsors to see if IWYS will be a good fit for them (instead of letting anyone sign up and not meeting wild expectations)
More time for FUN!
This weekly sponsor change only applies to me, so what does that mean for my fellow shirt wearers? Well, they aren't going anywhere and their focus is only shifting slightly. Every day we have companies coming to us that understand the power and value of a good YouTube video. We've had to turn companies away because they want us to make videos for internal use only and it never fit in our daily shirt wearing model. Not anymore.
The 4 shirt wearers (Sean, DeAndre, Bimini and Sarah) will be doing full-time video production and we're moving away from the calendar buying process. I've done a ton of research on video production costs from companies around the web, I've talked to a bunch of our sponsors and I think we have the sweet spot for pricing and deliverables. We've basically been doing this already, but starting today, here's the plan for the rest of the IWYS team:
Get 1 Video made for $399
Get 4 Videos made for $1299
Buying a video gets you an HD version that you can use wherever and for as long as you like to promote your brand, product, etc
Buying a video also gets you our same shirt wearing promotion we've always done. A team member promotes you via their t-shirt on Facebook, Twitter, our YouTube channel and IWearYourShirt.com (or you can opt out of promotion)
From now until June, we'll all still be doing TinyChat live shows at our regularly scheduled times
30-60 day turn around and an in-depth project management system to help craft and execute the perfect video(s) for your company
We'll work with you to pick the best t-shirt wearer for your video
Video is the most engaging piece of content we have on the web today. It's easy to share, it helps explain product offerings and it's incredibly helpful in increasing Google ranking for specific keywords. The IWYS team has a ton of video experience, knows editing software, is comfortable on camera and you should search how much a "video actor" gets paid (even for small production stuff). The $399 price tag for 1 video is incredibly affordable and this is what we love doing.
As with any change, I know people will have questions and concerns. Let me tell you that I'm not afraid of change, but I'm also not making this decision based on a whim. This is something I've been thinking about since 2011 and now just felt like the right time. I'm extremely excited to work with fun companies on a weekly basis and for our team to keep cranking out super engaging videos.
Don't hesitate to email me with any questions and thank you to all of you reading this for helping evolve IWYS and supporting our great sponsors.
Why the Facebook Like Button and Twitter Retweet Button are Worthless
As someone who's been on Facebook and Twitter before a Like button or Retweet button existed, it's interesting to see the progression of these tools. I can distinctly remember the launch of the Like button on Facebook and how dumb everyone thought it would be. That view of "a dumb button" quickly turned to a way to virtually express yourself on Facebook (really cool). However, that same ease of expression hasn't changed in 3 years and like anything on the internet that sticks around for 3 years without change, is becoming almost worthless. The same can be said for the Retweet (RT) button on Twitter. Before that button existed, when someone (or a lot of someone's) reposted your tweet and gave you credit for it, it meant something. Now, the RT is something people ask/beg for and when that happens, what's the point?
With the growth of social media and the influx of businesses, the Like button and the RT button are being gamed. Now, there are some creative businesses that reward Likes and RTs in interesting ways and I'm totally cool with that, but the majority of businesses out there just aren't Like or RT worthy. I'm sorry, you're just not. And instead of embracing that and realizing it, business owners brush off social media or say it's useless because they aren't good at it (or won't give up the keys to someone who is). I'm guilty of this to some degree with IWearYourShirt. I want us, as a business, to do less pitching to our audience to Like/RT something, unless we really think it's Like-able.
I am 100% okay with people asking to Like a post or RT a tweet when it's actually of value to other people. I'm not okay with businesses asking to share/Like/RT every stupid discount, coupon, deal, quote, etc that they think is valuable. The thing about the Like/RT buttons is that they directly tell you if what you're saying is worthwhile. These little buttons are feedback indicators of if you're doing a good job of saying stuff or if you suck at it and need to let someone else control your voice in social media. Let's face it, unless you're selling Unicorn Tears, your business has competition in social media and you need to have the upper hand to set yourself apart and grow an engaged audience (read: be more interesting). And when you do trust someone to create content that could be Like-able or RT-able, that engagement will come without asking for it.
So here's a few questions to let your brain chew on: Why would someone Like my Facebook page in the first place? Would people say they "Like" my business outside of Facebook? Do they feel they'll consistently get interesting content that they'll Like? Are my tweets always just being pushed or am I pulling people in and using @ mentions? Am I just regurgitating other people's information? Do I RT people? If I were a consumer and read my tweets, would I actually want to RT them?
Last but not least, not everything you say has to be Like-able or RT worthy. Sometimes you just want to express yourself without any return and that's okay. But for the love of all things sacred, stop putting "pls RT" or "pls Like" in your social media messaging.
Changing Digital Homes - IWearYourShirt Announcement
After 3 1/2 years, 3,000+ live video shows and 2,500+ hours of live streaming on Ustream, IWearYourShirt is changing live video platforms to TinyChat on April 2.
It's amazing how things become 2nd nature and feel like "home". I've spent 1 hour a day streaming live video for the past 1,200 days straight (some people don't even brush their teeth that consistently). Ustream was a fantastic platform for IWearYourShirt and helped us grow our community from absolutely nothing to something. I can distinctly remember my first live video show on December 20, 2008 (clip only), announcing to the world, via Ustream, that I was ready to get paid to wear t-shirts for a living.
I met one of my mentors/advisors through Ustream. I met a friend and eventual co-worker (Evan) through Ustream. I met a bunch of you reading this through Ustream. And while there have been some days when Ustream didn't always work perfectly, it's still a 100% free platform that has never let me down. I could not be where I am without Ustream and I hope Brad Hunstable and his team know how much I appreciate all their hard work in building a great live video service. Many of our sponsors benefited greatly from Ustream's generosity in having us as a featured show and we amassed 1,100,000+ views during our live video time there.
Times have changed and we're ready to try something new. We have 5 people doing live video shows this year and we've listened to our audience tell us they want to watch all 5 but don't have enough time in the day. Welcome, TinyChat. TinyChat is a live video platform that will allow us not only to broadcast together (schedule below), but also allow our viewers and sponsors to join us via a video broadcast. Now, it won't be a daily occurrence, but I'm thinking "Fan Fridays" has a good ring to it.
As with any change people might not come around for awhile, but I can honestly say I believe this is a huge step in the right direction for us to create more entertaining content for our community and our sponsors. One downfall to TinyChat is there doesn't seem to be a video recording feature. We're still figuring out how we want to handle that piece of content going away, but it's even more incentive to make sure you watch us live! Speaking of which, here is the new schedule:
Sean and Jason combined show from 3-4pm EST
DeAndre, Sarah and Bimini combined show from 7-745pm EST
I'm personally very excited to try something new when it comes to live video and I hope you'll tune in daily to check out the new format and platform. I also want to give a shout out to DotComBoy and all the other great Ustream moderators who helped us keep our chat organized and clean over the past few years. You're hard work has not gone unnoticed.
Thank you once again to Ustream and their staff. We'll see you on TinyChat on Monday!
Jason Sadler Speaking Bio
I constantly get asked for a bio about myself when I speak and the only place it lives are in my sent emails (not the best place). I have this blog, it archives stuff and it's indexable content about me for Google - So let's share it here!
From drawing on walls with crayons as a kid to eventually graduating from the University of North Florida with a degree in Graphic Design, Jason Sadler has always been creative. In 2008 he recognized the growing influence of social media and decided he could utilize these platforms in a new and unique way, by getting paid to wear sponsored t-shirts for a living. Each day, Jason represents a different company online using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Ustream and Flickr. Four years later, IWearYourShirt.com has grown from one to five professional shirt wearers and has been recognized by media outlets around the world including The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN and more. He’s worked with professional sports organizations, advertising agencies, Fortune 500s and before getting paid to wear t-shirts co-owned a web design company. Jason is an avid automotive enthusiast that loves playing Scrabble, watching terrible movies and has been known to play a hoop of basketball or two. Jason lives at the beach in Jacksonville, Florida but frequently travels to speak publicly and share his nothing-to-something story.
And my headshot (courtesy of Laura Evans Photography):
How To Be a Better Salesman Thanks to Matt Hoffman for the inspiration to make this video. My Top 3 things to think about when trying to be a better salesman are: #1 Never give a hard sell #2 Stick to your guns #3 Always keep the relationship open. What are your sales tips?
Awesome video alert!
Are razor blades exciting? No. Do they scream sexy? No. Can you still make one heck of an awesome video that promotes your company and makes you seem sexy/interesting/unique? HELL YES!
I'm joining the Dollar Shave Club because of this video (thanks Eric Bailey for sharing).
Getting excited for a professional redesign of this blog!
Getting on the Homepage (Popular) of Pinterest
Update: This poster is officially for sale on Zazzle for $18.95!
We've been using Pinterest for IWearYourShirt for about a month now. We've been signed up for a few months and one member of our team (Caroline) has been talking about Pinterest since mid-2011.
Our account has 600+ followers, we follow about 30 people and we have 6 Boards with 127 total Pins. Our team of shirt wearers has done our fair share of repinning, finding interesting things from around the web to Pin, but rarely have we created our on content and uploaded it as a Pin... Until today.
At 2am (Thurs morning) I was struck with a thought that the saying "Good things come to those who wait" is kind of a load of crap. It insinuates that people can be lazy, sit back and success will eventually come. Instead, the saying would be more appropriate if it read "Good things come to those who work their asses off and never give up". It's more truthful and I can 100% attest to my business following that mantra. So I hopped into Photoshop, grabbed a simple font I love (Berthold Akzidenz), stuck with black and white colors, added some minimal design elements and was ready to rock...
BUT! Adding a Pin at 2am probably only would have gotten me a few repins, so I decided to head to sleep and upload it in the morning. At 11am I remembered to post it, 15 minutes later it had 40+ repins and then when someone tweeted a Pin in my Twitter stream (about 3 hours later) I thought about checking in on it again. I was surprised to say the least that my little inspirational poster had received 400+ repins and when I went to the homepage (popular) of Pinterest there it was:
It's very interesting to see how the Pinterest community works and what catches on. All my Pins about cars, food, fashion and everything else have been pretty much ignored. It doesn't matter to me that they've been ignored, I use Pinterest because it's awesome and I love the functionality. I just like to dig into how things work and learn from social networks (especially new ones).
I might try to make another inspirational poster from a late night thought and see if it catches on again. Either way, I'm just happy that all of the people repinning it have now pinned something with the word "ass" in it. Hah!
Happy Pinning and feel free to leave a comment below with a link to your Pinterest account so I can check you out.
"If you're absent during my struggle, don't expect to be present during my success."
Will Smith
Jason Sadler Is Coming Vancouver!
http://facebook.com/socialforprofit http://jasonsadler.com I'm traveling to speak at a half-day social media event in Vancouver, Canada on February 21. I'll be sharing the IWearYourShirt story, talking about monetizing social media, how I get paid to wear t-shirts for a living and much more. Thanks to CK Golf Solutions, Jordan Consulting and Amuse Consulting for putting on this fun event. And also a shout out to the sponsors of the event: ING Direct, Aussie Pet Mobile Canada, Mark McD Creative, The Westin Grand Vancouver, Rapid Time Networks and Josh Rimer. See you in Vancouver!
The 5 C's of Building a Community
As I sit on a flight to Canton, Ohio to speak to an Advertising Federation chapter, I'm tweeting, on Facebook chat and answering emails. I wouldn't be do any of those things if I didn't have a community of followers/friends or potential/existing sponsors to have a conversation with. I also wouldn't have the chance to do public speaking without a community that's supported my business and helped create new opportunities. Basically, I'd be nothing without my community.
So how have I built this awesome community? Well, I think I can sum it up in 5 C-words and I hope this helps you, your business or someone you may know...
Conversation: The first and most important "C" in my mind, is having a conversation with potential community members. The majority of us aren't celebrities, we won't be featured on prominent news outlets on a regular basis and won't have any opportunities to have a community of fans/followers/friends fall into our laps. So, you need to spark up conversations with people and you need to exhaust the heck out of your existing network. People tend to forget that they're already connected to people who are connected to other people. Engage in conversation with them, stay tuned in to their lives and try to go out of your way to help anyone you can. To find brand new conversations, Twitter Search is probably one of the most powerful FREE tools you could ever have at your disposal.
Content: Following conversation, what kind of content are you putting out into the world to keep your community interested and to have new people find you? It's not like you need to make critically acclaimed movies, or even short YouTube videos, but you should be sharing photos of things that might interest/entertain people, share your insight into the world and join all kinds of conversations. Facebook is built around sharing content, whether it's a Status, Photo, Link or Location. All of these things are pieces of content that you can create daily. Don't overdo it, but don't sell yourself short either.
Context: Everyone knows the saying "content is king", but there's a shift in thinking in social media and it's to remember how important context is. You can churn out content all day long, but if it doesn't resonate with the people viewing/reading it, why do they care? Being contextual is easy if you ask your friends/fans/followers/customers what it is they like. Take the time to learn things about your community and stay contextual.
Creativity: When I thought of the idea of IWearYourShirt it wasn't because I saw someone else do something similar. I thought of something unique and tried to be creative. I wanted to take something (advertising/marketing) and do it differently. Being creative doesn't come naturally to everyone, but the easiest way to make creativity happen is to get out of your comfort zone, put yourself in situations you wouldn't normally put yourself and be open to trying things. You'd be surprised at how creative you can be when you aren't doing the same things over and over again and how that can attract new friends/fans (and press!).
Commotion: Shake things up! Similar to my point in creativity, leave your comfort zone. Travel to a place you've never been (even if it's just a weekend getaway). Go to different social events and actually hang out with people in person. Join a local group, church, non-profit, etc. Have your company's logo built out of 3,000 Lincoln Logs. Take an advertisement out in a local paper and put nothing but a picture of your face. Maybe those last two aren't great ideas, but you get what I'm trying to say. By causing a commotion and stirring things up, you'll get people's attention. Attention = Very valuable.
And what would this post be without a thank you to my community? I've started to include the slide below in my speaking presentations and I'm honored to have so many awesome people support IWearYourShirt. I'll be continuing to update this image as often as I can, and if you have a photo of yourself in an IWYS t-shirt please post it on our Facebook page.
Thank you for reading this, thank you for supporting me and good luck in building your own community!
STOP SOPA
Learn more about SOPA and sign the petition here: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
Well hello there 2012!
It's about time I did something with my personal blog this year, so I thought I'd say hello. Next up, redesigning the redesign. I just don't like it.
2012 bubble wrap calendar. Love it.
How Bad Do You Want It?
A fantastic inspirational video for anyone. You don't have to be an athlete to appreciate the words being spoken from Eric Thomas. It gets really good around the 2:30 mark.
The Essential Shirt Wearing Tools!
After 3 years of wearing shirts for a living I've learned a ton about cameras, lighting, equipment and still feel like I know absolutely nothing. I'd like to give credit to Alan Seales, DeAndre Upshaw, Ben Rabicoff and probably a few other people for helping gather up the perfect set of tools for my daily shirt wearing.
13" Macbook Pro: $1000-1600
This laptop is an extension of one of my arms. I'm always on it and there isn't a more useable machine out there. For the price you pay, it's just phenomenal. By the way, don't be scared of refurbished laptops (from Apple.com or Amazon.com). All 4 shirt wearers in 2011 had refurbished laptops that worked perfectly.
Final Cut Pro X (FCPX): $300
I made the step from iMovie to FCPX and it's been pretty smooth. I never used Final Cut Pro before, so I can't talk about the differences or lack of features. I think FCPX is perfect for the videos I/we make on IWYS.
Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR: $700-750 (with 18-55mm lens)
In 2009 I used a small point-and-shoot camera and a FlipHD. In 2010 I used a Nikon D90 for both photo/video and now I use the Canon T3i. I wish I would have grabbed the T3i from the beginning because it's a great camera and the flip-out LCD screen is a huge help. I also recommend picking up a little Canon Remote, it makes photo taking a breeze!
32GB SD Card: $40
The Transcend Class 10 SD card has been the most reliable for me. I've used 4-5 different brands and classes of cards and they all crapped out. Highly recommend paying a couple extra $$$ for this card.
Rode Shotgun Mic: $150
I use this mic daily and it's fantastic. Whether I'm filming on the side of a road, inside my house, near a lake, in a forest, it works really well.
Yeti Mic: $100 (on sale right now)
I've been mic-less for my 3 year live video career and just bought this mic. It's the same mic that DeAndre and Angela have used for the better part of 2011. I've heard great things and for $100, I couldn't pass it up.
Moleskine Notebooks: $10-20
I'm a big fan of writing down to-do lists. I juggle a ridiculous amount of tasks on a day to day basis and without making lists I'd forget everything. Grab your favorite color Moleskine and start writing stuff down (plus it's great for doodling on conference calls).
Lowepro 250 Backpack: $100
This backpack is fantastic! I can cram my camera, lenses, rode mic, laptop, cables, moleskin, a few magazines and more into it. Also, it fits snuggly under the seat in front of you on most flights.
Cowboy Studio Light Kit: $170
Softbox lights (and lighting in general) make an enormous different for photo/video quality. This should have been one of my very first purchases when I started my shirt wearing career. These aren't small lights, but there are tons of other options out there.
Green Screen: $25-75
Green screens are a ton of fun, but lighting is essential. Don't bother trying to green screen anything unless you have the proper lighting setup. I actually just have the 6x9' green screen thumbtacked to my wall, that way I can take it up and down when I need to.
Logitech Webcam (720p): $30-60
Any 720p webcam will be a VAST improvement over the Mac iSight camera. White balancing is sometimes an issue, it's not the worst thing if you can get the lighting and background right (especially for $30!).
Manfrotto MK394-H Tripod: $100
This is the tripod I wore a shirt for this year and it's a great unit. Sturdy, adjustable and can be compact. It's an aluminum tripod, so it's not too heavy, but not too light either. My only complaint is that sometimes I'm too tall for it if I try to stand too close (I fix that by bending my knees, hah).
2TB External Hard Drive: $120-250
I was never a fan of backing up my computer and I think that's because I never had anything of value. With all the photo and video footage I take, I don't want to lose that stuff in case one day I decide to... well.. I don't know, do something with it! You want to look for USB 3.0 or Firewire 800 hard drives.
Gum: $2-3
You might laugh, but I almost always have gum on me. I'm paranoid about having bad breath... Well, maybe not paranoid, but I like being prepared.
I'm sure there are some other things I missed, but I thought you guys might find it interesting to know all of the stuff I use on a day-to-day basis. Full disclosure: most of these links are Amazon.com affiliate links.