“Passion, Purpose, and Prevention: Tomas Barraza’s Journey in Youth Development and Media Impact”

Hey, hey, what’s up? Welcome to the Party Talk Podcast. Wait, Woop, Yeah, we’re hanging out with Tomas Barraza. Some of y’all know him because you have him at your school speaking. For those of you who don’t, this is the Co-Founder of Vive 18.

Come on. We are in this amazing Airbnb out in Arkansas. Harrison Arkansas right now. Yo, yo,

Yeah done with some presentations today going to do some more tomorrow. Oh, yeah. Had a ton of fun earlier today. But to do it all over again. Yeah. But we wanted to take some time. It’s awesome when we get to travel together, because we can work on some content for you. And Tomas is an expert videographer. He’s also expert in prevention. So it was like, “Hey, let’s combine the two. Let’s give some value and see if we can teach people a few things. Yeah, on how to use media better, more better. Yo, let’s use media more better.”

And most best that we can can.

Meet Tomas Barraza: Vive18’s Co-Founder

Awesome. So just starting off Tomas, the start a little bit of just like how you got involved in the prevention field? Yeah, and why you’re passionate about it?

Yeah, for sure. So I got started a prevention gosh, way back in 2013. It really started youth development, because when I started working at a group home agency, and so you know, working with those boys at the group home that I worked at, that that’s what really got me started in like, you know how to really encourage these boys, some of them were in there for things that their parents had done. Others were in there for things for a reason and choices that they themselves made. So, you know, with all of that it really encouraged me to look back at my life. Because if I’m being honest with you, a lot of the things I was asking them to do, I was really hypocritical myself, you know, and it was things that I was dealing with in my life as a teenager, especially, you know, so yeah, it was it was really interesting, just like, knowing God was calling me to, to bring these skeletons out of my closet that I was hoping and praying that no one would find out and start sharing it with these boys. And so that was like the start of me taking that story of all of the bad decisions that I made, and starting to share it with them as a way to help them understand like, “I get you, I know why you’re feeling that way.“

Well, I think what’s helpful is because right there’s there’s a lot of clini, clinicians, who will come in and talk to the students, and the students shut down because they’re like, you don’t get me you’re not where I’m from, you know what, I’ve been through it and then because you are vulnerable, and you gonna sit situation like they actually listened to you.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that was that was huge. I know, and see that they have they they they had, like so many resources, surrounding them with the therapist, and so on and so forth. But they always shut it up as like, that’ll that’ll get me they never been through this they just read a book. And, you know, and so when I started sharing that they really felt like, Okay, this guy really does understand. And I was able to help them to bridge the gap as someone that understands, and someone that wished that they would lean into those therapists or those counselors at school, those advisors that coach, whatever have you so that, so I could have gotten beforehand, before you know it led to me doing my own like, type of dirt.

Yeah, yeah. Do well, that’s, that’s such a great example of the spectrum. And when we think about prevention, and even leaning into diversion, and then recovery, is like, we need everybody and their story and their passion. Because there’s no, there’s no one fix, right? It’s like, we need you and your story. We need me in mind, we need you, the listener and your story. Because we all fit this. We all fit this opportunity, I’ll say, and there’s no possible way that one of us can get it done ourselves. Like we have to work together. So you could be an advocate for them to go like, alright, well give counseling a chance, give the therapist a shot, because they are smart. And I wish that I had one like you can vouch for them. Well, it’s really important. What would you say if you had to choose just one thing? Like your why? Because you’re still doing this? It’s 10 years later? Yeah, you have a thriving video business and you still take time to give back and to be helping students. Why are you still doing this work?

Yeah, I know. You know, it really is just just part of my purpose while God has gracefully to do like, you know, he he. It was really, really obvious to me on the back end, like when I started, like I said like taking those skeletons out the closet, I started sharing it with these boys, that everything that I had gone through the mess that was my life wasn’t just for no reason it was to serve as a message for others that are going through the same things that I went through, or something similar to what I was going through as a kid. And so, yeah, like that, that I know that that’s, you know, part of the purpose and, and the grace that God has given me. And so I’m just, you know, just wanting to really be a resource, you know, a bridge to, for these for these kids for these teenagers.

Yeah, that’s awesome, man. And you’re a servant, like you over deliver every time that we go on the road, and we do stuff with students like, I can count on it, then we’re going to be staying after to talk with students to chat it up with them, make them feel heard, share stories, listen to their stories. And that’s where like, there’s no diva. Yeah, with you, you know, like, You’re not asking for anything, you’re just there to give, give give, which I think is cool.

Well, and that’s oftentimes like one of the one of the best parts, right is being able to really, really connect with students. Yeah. During our presentations, like we’re really mindful to not just make not just having a monologue, but actually a dialogue, you know what I’m saying? But there’s only so much that you could do it’s a presentation, after all, you know, so being able to have those one on one conversations. I mean, it’s it’s great.

“Transforming Prevention: The Power of Video in Elevating Messages and Impact”

Yeah, that’s one of my favorites, too, is like, When are playing doesn’t leave for a few hours, you know? And it’s like, no, I’ll help in gym class, let’s play or let’s go to the lunch, hangout. Because then you get those moments, right. Yeah. With students. If that two way thing. I want to jump into a little bit of video. Yeah. Before that, though. How did you? I mean, you’re in this prevention world for 10 years. How did video enter the picture? Because I know now you’re incredible at it. But I’ve seen it from when like you like you had your first camera, right? Yeah. When we had a few years before we’ve met and you’re kind of thinking around with it. You were learning it. Yeah, lessons watching YouTube videos. How, how’d you get into it? And to become for what it is today?

 Yeah, I like I said, you know, I knew how important the message was to get out. So I knew that I needed to learn that medium of releasing that message out into the world, you know, via YouTube, and social media and all the things right, so I knew, like, I had guy, my first camera, thanks to a buddy of mine, who I was just like, how he would question about photo and video. And so finally, he was just like, bro, you’ve asked enough questions. Here’s, here’s my old camera, like, start putting it into practice. And so yeah, gifted me that camera. And I mean, that, that’s where I started on was, you know, this, this Canon Rebel T2i, you know what I’m saying and so that’s where I started, got started on and just learned the skill set on um few that that was in 2015 that I got to camera. Fast forward four years 2019 You know, I was creating content here and there continuing to, you know, establish a personal brand as a speaker and whatnot. And also, you know, making content for for organizations that I was serving with, and all that good stuff, right? Well, I started serving at the church. And I remember to me, I’m like, “I’m gonna I’m gonna serve in the youth ministry, because that’s what I’ve been doing.” You know, I’ve been doing this since 2013. Like, course, that’s what makes most sense. But honestly, like God just came in was like, hold on. Now, let Giovanni have his own experience. Giovanni is my son, for those of you don’t know, you know, that he’s like, let Giovanni have his own experience, go serve somewhere else. And I’m thinking to myself, like, “Where else would I serve? And that’s when he put the video team on my heart.” So I was like, man, God, but I’m a hobbyist at best. There’s no way and if that has something to add to the video team at church, but out of obedience, I was just like, I if that’s what you said, let’s go ahead. And let’s go ahead and do it. You know, and so, I did that. Within a couple of weeks of hopping on board. It was November 2019. A couple of weeks later, you know, I ended up getting this whole strategy that you know, was just literally dropped on me by God. Like, that was not me by any means. I took, I had this realization, and I took it to an organization that I was I was serving with, right and I was just like, Hey, okay, we are killing it on the physical stage. But to be on, yeah, we’re killing physically stage but we suck on the digital stage. Like we need to build content and I said I.

That’s how much of us listening to this podcast?

Yeah, like if that’s you, if that’s you and your organization. If you have a coalition and that’s you. Listen. Listen up. This is going to be we get it, I get it.

You know, we’ve all had these great missions that we’re doing on a regular basis day in and day out. You know, we’re killing it there. But it’s like “we can we can amplify our reach amplify our message when we can build up the digital platform as well.” Yeah, so that’s exactly I was I said, Hey, I know I’ve been creating here and there, but I’m gonna start doing it more mindfully now that I’m really growing in this area. And so it no time later, I had a making the first video after that conversation. I showed it to her, the CEO of this organization. She was in tears in tears. She’s like, Tomas, I’m about to walk into a meeting right now. But will you send me that video? So I send it to her. She shows that person. And that she ends up walking out of that meeting, that person was so moved that they wrote a $20,000 check, right there on the spot. What? Yes, yes. And that’s when I was like, Alright, cool. Alright, guy, you got my attention now, like, what do you want me to do with it? Whoa, for them to be so moved in that moment. You know what I mean? And so

And this was a nonprofit, you’ve been around right like, you’ve seen their work. Nothing like that happened before. But you put together

Things like  that would happen. But it’s like, you know, brand funds bomb, you know, or like big gala. And so bomb people are like, really, but on. This was someone who this was on a Monday, you know what I’m saying like, this?

You’re like, you give them something that can move them that much to say like, Oh, yes. You don’t need to bring me to the gala. You don’t need to do this grant, like I am so moved by what you’re doing  shown from a video. Yeah, I feel good enough that I will commit to writing this check. Like literally on the spot. See exactly. Oh, my goodness. Exactly. Wow.

So I was like December 2019. You fast forward a few months are continuing to build up the skill set. But a few months later, pandemic hits. And so everywhere is shutting their doors. Because of this skill set, though, of you know, creating content, getting better a video, we ended up taking all programs online in a matter of days, not even a week later. Wow. And because of that, we were able to like you fast forward six months, that organization is a tripling in its revenue at it’s because we were able to so quickly with these skill sets. I was just like, Alright, I’m continuing to pray about it. Like, oh, we want me to do with this. You know, I love prevention. I love speaking I love doing what I’m doing. But obviously, you’re doing something over here as well. And so you know, as, as my wife, and I continue to pray about it, you know, it was like, no doubt, he was wanting me to step off the stage for a season, and step behind the camera to help other people to elevate their brand and their message as well. And so, November 1 of 2020 Yeah, November 1 of 2020 an exact year after I began serving on the video team, that’s when we launched full time with Mas Creative. Yeah. And that’s the video and content strategy company that that we run. And it’s just been Yeah, dang, rockin and rollin.

Okay, I want to highlight something, because this is so applicable to everyone listening here. Like, if you’re listening, you’re probably work for a school, you work for a Drug Prevention Coalition, or an organization that serves youth. And you’re probably a nonprofit. And I’m listening to this, this case of you using video, not only one to help raise funds, but to, to bring them into the digital world like for their systems for how they deliver messages. Yeah. And so it’s more scalable, like it’s easier to share what you do, and it’s helping you with funding. And I do want to highlight this because if you’re not leveraging video and media well, you’re probably leaving funding on the table, not only from these donors that have money, and they want to invest in these things, they just don’t know what you do, or they see it or picture it. So you haven’t shown them. But also because how powerful is a video to be able to submit for your grant, and to show what you’ve done? Because you know, if you show that you’re doing great things with people’s money, they give you more money, maybe you get accepted for that next one. And I mean, is it a 12 pair, like 12 page essay gonna say as much as this video does I don’t think so.

Yeah, because an essay you leave it to the reader to read it in the tone that they read it in and you’re hoping that they read it in your tone that you wrote it in you have whereas video there’s no doubt like you can see like this video can be muted right now. And you can just be seeing our facial expressions and already get an idea of what exactly is going on. Yeah, you know, the theme of it, the temperature of our conversation, you know, I mean, like, is this? Uh, yeah, like the all the thing so.

“Mastering Video, Avoiding Common Mistakes, and Empowering Prevention: A Deep Dive into Strategies, Tips, and Solutions for Youth-Led Social Media Campaigns”

Dang. Okay, that’s cool. And the fact that you can, I mean, you can use video for anything too because I’ve seen your stuff too, like you bring in numbers, right? Like, data is important and metrics are important so you bring in that stuff into the video, you can talk about those things but it’s just so dynamic the future is video because we have so much access to it. Yeah. So let’s dive in. I know you can’t teach us your what 2015 and out your 8 years of experience in video in you know, 20 minutes but Yeah, is there a couple let’s start with some common mistakes that you see people making that is usually the easy fix. Like yeah, let’s help us not make these mistakes anymore. What are some of those things that we can avoid?

Yeah. Yeah, let’s get into that. I want to give you four really, really common big mistakes that easily, easily you can fix. Okay, first one you got your phone right everyone for the most part has a smartphone with really really great quality cameras. But thinks the quality you right off the bat is that they typically the lenses have a bunch of fingerprints on them and all that all those smudges like in literally in, yours, when is the last time. Oh my gosh, shut up you’re so so miscible you like even on your shirt, whatever it is that you’re wearing. Like just clean that lens before you taking a photo before you taking video. Okay, just clean the lens.

So you don’t have to carry around  like a special, right? You just literally just take the time before you shoot it to wipe it off on a clean shirt or whatever.

Yeah, as long as it’s not like sandpaper, you’re fine. Okay, yeah. All right, that’s like that one of the biggest ones like you do that boom, you’re already ahead of the game. Big time. Let’s see. Another one is, a lot of times people do this, they may want to when they’re setting up the settings on their phone, they want to save space. So they put it on one of the lower quality settings, right, I get it, I get it. But one of the best things that we can do is take advantage of the good quality of the camera that we have by maxing out the settings to 4k. And you know, and either 24 or 30 frames per second. If it’s just you talking now, if you’re liking a little bonus, if you’re wanting to slow it down, while you’re editing it. If you try to do that with like a 24 frames per second video that it’s just gonna be all choppy. You know what I mean? Like it’s gonna look choppy, what you want to do is use a higher frame work rate, and that’s where you see like 4k 60 that is able to be you know, slow down up to 50% at least. Yeah.

Okay, um, hit me on like a third grade level. If you had to explain like, okay, so far, you said 4k, which I understand as like this 4000 little dots like pixels within the picture.

Yeah, that right? I know. It’s like this, the best way to explain that is digit digitally. If you were to think of a canvas, right, a digital canvas that is. Okay, HD is 1080 pixels by 1920. Right? Okay. 1080 by 1920 across, okay. 4k is essentially double that. Oh, right. So what is that 3860 across by 24 out or something like that? I forget. Okay. But yeah. And so that’s essentially by by 21, 2160 by 3840.

Okay, and it helps you to have a better picture. So that number one, it’s clear, but you need to, like blow it up into a bigger frame. It’s not going to look all pixely and weird. Exactly. It’s gonna look clear even at a bigger screen. Yeah, exactly. And then the frames per second, then the FPS you said um

Yeah, it was third grade level that, essentially like you think about in a second, there’s 24 photos, that’s what makes up a video 24 photos that are being taken. And that’s what share, we’re we’re used to seeing 24 frames per second, right, that’s what we automatically see with our eyes. Now, if you were to do a higher frame rate like 60 frames per second, that that gives you 60 pictures to slow down and create and take 24 of those for the 24 frames per second.

So because of that slow motion looks really good.

The slow motion looks so crisp, so clean, instead of it being choppy because it hasn’t all of those frames to work with. Is that will all make sense.

Yeah and I’ve seen you do this stuff. So when you were filming our our capital day there at UMC, we were doing some activities and make it fun. That was fun. It was so good man.

By the way if  you’re watching and you killed it as an emcee.

Yeah. That was so fun from the heel Coalition in Arizona in Phoenix. So what was sweet is we had these, we were showing activities that how fun they were, and you slowed it down, like, and we got to see the emotion on the laughter on their faces, like how fun it is. And the gate like goofy games and them meeting each other. Yeah. And so you were able to do that, because you had the settings on your camera or on your phone, which anyone can do if your phone allows you to. It’s just a simple setting. Yeah. So they can do that. So you can bring out some of that emotion. And you like listening, you probably know the most powerful moments in these, these movies that we watch. Oftentimes, they slow it down, and it makes it more emotional. And they like the music obviously helps too, totally. But it’s like a tool in your toolbox that if you shoot it in that and give it to your video editor. There you have a lot of freedom to make an incredible video then.

Yeah, big time. Big time, big time. Awesome. Yeah. What else? Oh, another one. Another one. So another thing that people another really big mistake that people make is not being aware of the lighting, right. So oftentimes, what I end up seeing is, I feel like they have a big lighting source like a window and back of them, which creates shadow, it’s almost like they’re just the silhouette is what it looks like. So what we want to do is we want to be mindful of the lights that we have to work with or the lighting sources and use those to our advantage. So if we have if our only lighting  sources, a window, then cool, let’s stand that lets us sit stand and facing the window in front of it that way it is you know, being shown on our face. Okay. Yeah, that’s good. That’s like a huge, huge one to a little bonus. One is like, you know, if you’re filming outside, you can film in the skin, like a shadow, if you will, like you standing in a shadow or your subject, whoever you’re filming is standing in a shadow. And it’s like bonus if you can also make the background be in the shadow, which is kind of tough, but if you could do that, it looks really really nice. Okay, but on the opposite side, though, if you don’t, then one’s going to be super blown out and bright. Yeah, where you can hardly even see it. And the other one is going to be nicely the you know, if the if the subject is nice, the background might be super blown out or vice versa. You know what I mean? By the subject might be super blown out but the background looks like and clean you know. So if you do have to choose one or the other, choose the subject.

Yeah. Okay, that’s good. And I like that tip of like, if I’m shooting a video I can go to my window because I know it’s a bit light source.

Yeah, a lamp if you have like a lamp, a lamp shade like a lamp with a shade around it to like that way it diffuses the light a little bit too. If it’s a cloudy day out that’s natural diffusion all day, which means that there’s just not harsh shadows and well.

Oh yeah cause I get the deep eyebrows. I get those shadows.

Yeah, Jake always asked “how do my eyes look? Whenever on stage, is there are any uh shadows on my eyes?” it’s like yeah, always every every time bro. Still there, right. 

I know, I need like a light right in front of my face that’s just going to light up my eye sockets. Yeah, yeah, it’s caves. Alright, so we’ve got the clean your lens. Yeah, the I can do that with my shirt. Put on some high quality settings on my phone. Awesome. I can do that going into my settings. And then make sure the light in front of you is brighter than the light behind you. Yeah. So that the subject of the video is being lit up. Oh, yeah, we got one last one for us.

One last one. One last mistake that I see people do. They give a lot of really, really great information. But they do not have a call to action. Ooh, ouch. So then it’s like, I know I’ve got this cool information, but I don’t know what to do with it. We want to make it super simple for them. And just make that decision. Give them a clear call to action for them. That way, they don’t have to try to figure it out on their own. They understand. Ah, this is what I need to do next dude.

And just what a missed opportunity made you go through all this effort to put together this content. And then it’s kind of like buying the most expensive yacht you could find and then you never take it out on the water right? You’re gonna do all this stuff. Save up all this money by this incredible yacht. I’m not going to use it though. Right. So is it to make it easy, maybe what are some things like is there simple phrases we can use? Or is it just giving people such direct action? Yeah, like go here. Do this. Um, And it’s pretty well simple.

What is Your “Why” When Creating Content

Honestly, you really just just comes back to the why you’re creating it as long as you understand the why. So if it’s to inform people, like, oftentimes when we’re sharing a message is to inform them about something. What do we want to only inform one person? Or do we want them also, because we know that part of prevention is, you know, being able to educate, educate ourselves as a as a community, right? So if I do this, well, that’s great for me, but what about other families that my kid is going to be around? You know, what about other people that we interact with and whatnot, so we want them to know as well. So if we’re sharing information, well, my call to action is share this with someone that you love and care about, right? That it’s as simple as that.

Well, yeah, okay, that’s good. And if it’s something further, if you’re doing advocacy, and there’s a bill on the line, it’s like, “hey, go to this website, use this letter to write to your Senator or something like that.”  Yeah, that’s really good.

Or you can like, you know, some of the deliverables are, like, you know, wanting to measure what people got out of certain messages or certain, you know, whether it’s presentations or, you know, curriculum, and so on and so forth. So you can ask some of those questions. Hey, if you’re posting it on social media, comment below, if you were surprised by one of these, or, you know, what is something that she, what are your thoughts behind this? You know, that’s a call to action that you can utilize, right?

And it drives engagement too, though, because the algorithm loves pushing social media posts and content, the idea of engagement, like exactly likes, comments, shares, like, that saves all that. Yeah. Okay, that’s good. Then, we talked about some common mistakes, you actually give them some good, easy solutions. Do you have any other tips that you would give people? Just in general.

Change Your Mindset When it Comes to the Camera

I think, Okay, here’s, here’s one really big tip. Whenever we are creating content, and matter of fact, if you’ve ever, like filmed a video before, or filmed someone once that record button is hit. It’s like a deer in headlights. Right? Like, you’re like don’t know what to do don’t know what’s, what are words? Uh, you know, I like what you’re like word of word? It just gets so awkward and oftentimes, it’s because it’s a mindset shift that needs to happen. And part of that mindset shift is we might be sitting there standing in front of this camera, right? And we think, Oh, it’s a camera. It’s this inanimate object, when in reality is a tool that’s getting a to person. So if we can think of this as a person that we are talking to, now that shifts the way that we are delivering the message. So I always like to tell people imagine, imagine that this that you’re talking to is your best friend. And just like your best friend, they hype you up. Right? They’re like, you don’t yet see Jake and he’s like head nod and start smiling and all that, right. Like when I’m saying something like that’s what what friends do is they like, what, oh, no way, tell me what, I’m literally like imagining as though someone even though I might be in the room by myself, while I’m recording. Even though you might be in the room by yourself recording, you can imagine people responding, you’re pausing, you’re letting it sink in, their eyebrows are going up, their eyes are getting big, their eyebrows are kind of you know, making that that little like, oh my god, are you serious, all of those different things are happening. So you can imagine it and that gives you the it helps you to embody what it is that you’re saying. So I think that’s like a huge huge tip. It’s a mindset shift.

Yeah, I’ve seen you do that. So I’ve seen him do this on whenever we’re doing work to interview students that are at schools that will do it assembly and then we’ll interview students to create social media content for you. And “I always like kind of wondering like how are you making them so comfortable” Because my experience has been the deer in the headlights? Yeah of light. Do they get so terrified once you put that microphone on them and the light goes on at the cameras on? Yeah, just like he said, but you had something that he would get them comfortable so that’s a super tip like pretend it’s a person and I’ve seen you do that and it works.

Yeah, not just the person like your best friend. Okay, literally  pretend is your ad now let’s see what are some of them that if the if they get back into like, robotic and all of that, then then I’m like, Alright, what’s your best friend’s and usually, the way they like let’s think about that person literally because it helps. It helps big time that’s great and especially like if it especially if it’s a teenager, creating content for their peers. You want it to be said in their language.

Oh yeah, let’s say that you don’t want it to be robotic or fake or scripted.

Exactly, exactly. You want them to use their vernacular that they would be chopping it up with their friends using it, you know, so

Otherwise they’re gonna be like, That’s fake. That’s not, that’s not Kelly isn’t up the way she talks. Why? Why are they pushing this video where she’s acting all fake? Yeah, yeah, that’s a good time, big time. That’s good.

I think another tip is, yeah, even just the positioning of the camera lens, you know, sometimes it’s, like, I see some people doing it way up here, or they have it down here, because they feel a little awkward, you know, and so they’re doing, they don’t want anyone to see that they’re recording, you know, and so, but the best thing that we can do is keep the camera lens, eye level, eye level, because there’s, there’s so many different points. So from a psychological perspective, that, you know, depending on like what we’re doing with the camera, it hits on if you, if you study film, if you study by movies and whatnot, they do certain things to evoke an emotion, right? And so whenever whenever you want someone to feel powerless, the camera is up high. They’re being overpowered by the camera, right? By the positioning of the camera, okay, then the same thing on the opposite side, you know, if if they, if the camera is low, then it’s like, they’re, you’re overpowering them, the person that you’re speaking to, so you just want it to be, hey, we’re on the same level. That’s essentially like, you know, what we’re trying to do with prevention as well. It works really, really well. When we can get on the same level. That’s what we hear all the time with students is like, Hey, man, you guys don’t talk down to us. And that it just, it just feels so good. It makes me so much more open just to what you have to say. So we’re doing that even virtually as well. You know.

Yeah, that’s good. Okay, we can do that. Keeping the camera on the eye level in which might mean, grab a tripod. Yeah, like that’s keep the camera steady. You don’t have to worry about holding it steady or anything. And you can set it to the eye level.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Last tip. Yeah. Last tip. Last tip is some form, like have some formulas available for you. So by formula, there’s a couple that I’ll share with you. One of them is the H.I.C formula, which stands for hook, insight, call to action. When you’re creating content, you want to hook them in, it can be a statement, it can be a quick story, hook them in really, really quick, though, you got literally three seconds for it to be something engaging, you know, so hook them in, impart that piece of wisdom, that insight that you want them to really walk away with with. And then because you already know, you have your call to action. Yeah, telling them the they don’t have to guess what to do next, you’re telling them what to do next. Oh, that makes it much more easy and simple for them to follow. So hook insight call to action. The other one is the AIDA formula. That’s A-I-D-A, and it stands for attention, interest, do you remember what the D is?

Deliver. No, no, come on bro. Directional.

Deer in headlights. so I’m done. Desire, desire. Ah, okay. Yeah. So you’re wanting to know you got to know their desire that they want, right? Man action, which call to action, you know, so you grab their attention. Right? You you uh.

Which is kind of like the hook. Yeah,

Totally, totally like the attention because anytime that you grab their attention literally especially if you’re if you’re posting on social media that you have so much that you’re like battling with for attention. Yeah, so you want to make sure all right I’m gonna say I’m gonna you know as I post this I want to make it scroll stopping I don’t want them to continue with the scroll and they’re like, oh yeah.

Thats why like people are moving their hands like going close to the screen. That’s exactly where like the first part of a preview is like the most dramatic scene of the entire movie or the most dramatic uh fight. Yeah, the reality TV show is like boo. The first five seconds, you said Oh my god.

Yeah, exactly. You think about it, right? You’re in the movie theater. It’s like Sony Pictures and then all of a sudden, like someone comes through and you’re like, What the heck just happened? Like, did you wait it grabbed your attention and in the same way, like you could totally do that as well. So grab attention right interest, interest, desire and action.

Cool. Oh, dang. Alright, one, that consistent. Part two is like the hook and the action called, it always starts with, like, it always ends with the action and in the middle, you got to keep on and give them something good, like fulfill your promise from your hook. Yes, right. Oh, yeah. And then give them something. Okay, that’s good. I definitely want to end because I don’t think we wouldn’t be serving the audience if we didn’t share the incredible package that we are, we have launched and it’s like, crazy awesome. Like our clients are raving about this. And we’re getting so many inquiries about it. Oh, totally, totally. So tell them how we’re helping coalition’s with their media and their social media, because I can guarantee you people listening to this are like, “Listen, I’m a coalition leader, which means I’m a professional fundraiser right, volunteer coordinator. I’m an executive director maybe like and now you got me doing social media.”

All the things, all the things. Yeah, hats off to you seriously, my Lord. How can we help? But yeah, so we saw that problem, big time, you know, just like needing to, like really utilize content to share, like the messaging and all of that the good works that you’re doing and continuing to all the things. And so what we realize is, we have this skill set. And not only that, like our clients are bringing us in to go in and our partners, you know, bringing us in to speak to their students, why not just bring all of the gear and interview, they’re still we are ready to build a connection with them. Why not just continue to capture the content with them for them. And so that’s what we started to do, is we started capturing content, and delivering literally a year’s worth of content to post in one day that even the same day that we go and speak.

Vive18 can Create a Full Year of Content, For You! 

Yes. And this is okay. This is incredible. Because I watched this come into fruition from idea all the way to implementation. And now it’s taking off because your jaw probably dropped when you hear like, this is the reaction we get a year’s worth of social media content featuring your students, yours to influence your students like yours, that is ideal. So you do that for me. And then what I loved is we first launched this, we were in Kentucky, and we probably interviewed maybe five to 10 students, shout out to Lyon county Yeah, yeah. Does right there. They they were awesome. Right. So they had a, they had identified some students that could speak. Yeah, and could talk on camera. They were all comfortable. But like, do you use your strategies and yeah, and make people comfortable. And you would get them not only telling their personal stories, their personal opinions and beliefs, they were using their language. Yep. But then also, what was really cool is you gave them different prompts, then, like current events and statistics about fentanyl, about opioids, about marijuana, so they can actually get the message and bring it out to their friends. Yeah, casual, like youthful way that only they can do not. And that led to right, this this database of posts and videos that are engaging. And then my favorite part is you sent you, sent a video to Nancy. And we’re like, here’s exactly how you can post it to get the most views. Here’s exactly what buttons to press on Instagram, like to use all the tools. So there was the guesswork was taken out of it. And there was literally an entire system to take care of your social media for a year. Come on, it was awesome. And I think that’s why people are like, Yes, please. I want that to yes, please. I want that too. And when you’re out here speaking, let’s double the impact. Yeah, that’s probably moderate, or like mild to say just double the impact, but like, really scale the impact, because we can build that online stage that you talked about, as well. And then again, it.

Yeah, yeah, it’s huge, honestly, like, and I really thought that, you know, it was the majority the time so far has been when we are out speaking. But it didn’t blow my mind that there’s some that are like, we’d love to have you speak up. Yes. But that’s the biggest problem that we have to face right now. And so even people just ala carte like, we really want the media package because we have all these things coming up that we need to promote. You know, we have our youth summit that’s coming up. We have all of these messages and PSAs that we’ve gotta get out because we have the funding to do exactly that. We got the funding for our website, but we need all of this content for our website. And so yeah, that’s been amazing.

Yeah it’s been so cool. So you’ll be going to New Mexico soon to do that even and then I know we’re going to Louisiana yeah for some work with that. That’s the speaking and the media package. So it really is just kind of like tailored to what they need. Um, I just Yeah, do it. Great work, I love seeing the video. It’s like mentoring these young people. Yeah, doing the work that we all are like trying to encourage them to do. Now we just have to make it easier for them right. And like, if you’re not trained on it, then it’s going to introduce barriers. But lucky for us, Tomas is trained on it. So it removes all those barriers and gives it to us in an easy to use package. So all that to say, if you are listening to this, you’re involved in prevention, and you’re like, “hey, how do I do social media? How do we get youth involved in social media?” We can do a training for your students. Yeah. And we can also just deliver the entire thing for you, Hmm, because we’ve got the infrastructure, the systems and this guy the knowledge. Yeah, pull it off.

Yeah, exactly. So train your students or done for you, whichever one you choose, like, it’s just incredible. Incredible.

All right, so we’re gonna leave you with this. You got some easy to use mistakes and solutions, right? Clean your lens? Of course, your video, do it. Use your settings to set up your camera, so you can shoot high quality stuff. It was the frames per second. Yeah, high number.

And hey, I’ll give you this. Like, if you’re like, oh, I don’t settings on my phone, like, hit us up, send us an email, I will walk you through it seriously, like, we’ll get some on the calendar. And I’ll just walk you through it. Yeah, but every once per second and 4k, you know, for 4 4k and 24 or 4k at 30.

Yes, that’s perfect. Man. I love that you said that to hit us up, we’ll get you that. Put the lighting source in front of your face or your subject instead of behind us. And then having clear call to actions. You mentioned three tips as well. Maybe pretend you’re talking to your best friend. I love what you said. Imagine, yeah, you’re talking to your best friend. They’re hyping you up? That’s the camera, then you can ask them the question. Yes, that’s good. Yeah, I’m keeping the camera eye level. So having that tripod or whatever you use. And then you gave us those formulas. That all started with that hook by that first like capture, and then ended with the call to action in the middle it was keeping their interest. Yeah. With this formula, the HIC, and the AIDA formulas. And then I’m glad we got a chance to share about the media package.

Yeah, yeah, cool. So good episode, come on. Y’all if you are interested in any of that, seriously, we would love to just come and hang out with you hang out with your students, and just pour into all of what we you know, been able to do with Vive 18. You know, show them how they can fit in make friends and have fun without sacrificing their health, health. And not only that, like be a huge part of changing policy, be a huge part of of, you know, giving PSAs and all of that good stuff. So, yeah.

Yeah, someone hasn’t told you in a little bit, thank you so much for the work that you’re doing. And we’re so excited to be on the same team with you, change the world together. We cannot do it alone. So to do this together, it makes, Not only just our jobs really fun, but our lives really fulfilling. Yeah, so we will see you on the next episode of Party Talk where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention.

Yeah, have a good one. Peace!