
DRock is a self-described Predator, meaning he embodies the Producer, Editor, and Cameraman in one person.
In 2017 there were multiple Predators in GaryVee’s employ, lead by DRock, one of the first of which was Tyler Babin and I believed Gary’s team was offering the DRock model to celebrities at a starting rate of $30K a month.1
Ok, $30K a month is a pipe dream for me
Me and you both.
But I didn’t let this deter me.
I needed to know, is it possible to employ the DRock model while doing it ourselves and using what we already have?
So no expensive cameras required to begin.
Best Place To Start Learning?
I began teaching myself video by watching a crap ton of video.
My breakthroughs followed my buying then learning the lessons in Amy Schmittauer’s $30 guide to better vlogging. It’s an email course delivering daily lessons over 30 days straight.
My confidence caught my talent once I coupled Amy’s course of foundational lessons with my actively creating and publishing videos.
The more times you practice your craft, the more repetitions you put in, the better you become at your craft.
There are no shortcuts to building an audience, upon which you can build a/your profitable business upon.
What tools are absolutely required to begin?
- Gotta have a smartphone, to be able to shoot video and record audio
- Gotta have a way to produce the story you want using editing software of your choosing (Examples being ScreenFlow, Camtasia, Adobe Premiere Pro, among other options)
Ok, say I’m willing. Where should I start?
I see the key to be strategy.
Know your strengths and resources, specifically your available weekly time and budget.
Use your known constraints to define your deliverable.
Then reverse engineer from your deliverable all the way back to right now.
For Example
In 2019, I know that my boot-strapped Jason Hobbs, LLC has access to far more of my 168 hours a week and talent than cash to throw at problems.
My business runs on educated leads to pay to work with me.
The education happens through Jason Hobbs, LLC’s two-way conversation with small business operators.
I educate the decision of consumers, because just like my near decade (March 1996 – March 2005) doing direct marketing door-to-door on 100% commission taught me, every level of success includes zero need to talk anyone into buying anything they don’t need. And that’s even more true when dealing with today’s empowered consumer.
My digital marketing strategy, includes what I call my customer attention funnel,
the current version of which is constructed using a combination of managed WooCommerce hosting by LiquidWeb.com, with the Authority Pro child theme for the Genesis framework to deploy the business website, along with Drift.com for my customer interactions in email and on live chat.
Thirty-one episodes into my new show and the thirty-second episode is the first episode where I’m employing the Skyscraper Technique, a term I heard John-Henry Scherck use/explain in a YouTube video.
What I mean by that is that episode thirty-two answers the same question as the first thirty-one videos, but in a much deeper way. I’ve added a Public Trello Board, when you look at it, remember that I’m still a one man show and learning as I go.4
But make no mistake, my audience as I define it, are those folks that decide to be a contact within my Drift.com account. This allows me to get to know them over the long term, which this YouTube video on the SiegeMedia channel, where John-Henry Scherck used the term progressive profiling to refer to getting to know a consumer over time, which I’ve always referred to as remembering everything the consumers say to the business. Just like DRock’s camera , as well as the rest of the erstwhile members of Team GaryVee’s cameras, remembers Gary’s investment day in and day out.
You’re An Amateur Starting Out, So Keep Perspective
So DailyVee is published most days.
And they are gloriously produced and edited by talented people who do this for a living.
Never forget that fact and so never compare your work with DailyVEE.
That’s comparing apples and oranges.
That said, you can absolutely do the DRock Model
And it can help you grow your business audience.
And help your audience begin to know you and decide if they like and trust you.
It’ll likewise help your friends and family realize how much of a BAD HOMBRE you are.
Say you have time but no money
This is the case for most all of us, so we DIY (Do-it-Yourself) to get things going.
In which case, Start with Amy’s course. Figure out how you want to structure each episode.
Don’t try to be anyone else, just focus on telling your story.
Focus on documenting your answers to the questions your customers care about from most to least. You are going to want to invest in a place to keep your content your create.
If video, I’d use Wistia to host the video library/archive.
Say you have money but no time
Complete outsourcing.
- You could find and hire your own videographer to do it all for you. Making your sole responsibility final sign off to publish. (2017 Average wage for Videographers is $60K/year)
- Or if you want to teach yourself to be your brand’s Showrunner (aka the lead Executive Producer for your media production), you could look into working with me.
- If your small business is big enough, the Sasha Group is an option. It’s named after Sasha Vaynerchuk (I bet you’ll never guess the name of Sasha’s oldest son.)
Short answer? Yes.
With the caveat that it’ll take some evolving combination of your time and money to deliver the model consistently and retain your sanity.
To begin, you may need to do it all yourself and pull together a single episode a week.
Or perhaps an episode a month to get going.
The thing to understand is exactly what the DRock Model delivers.
It produces video episodes DRock the videographer is proud of.
With consistent delivery and quality.
Footnotes
- – $30K a month figure was from a DailyVEE episode, the number of which I can’t recall. If I get a better number, I’ll let you know.
- – I always try to invest a dollar a minute and have Rev.com handle subtitles for all my videos, if no other reason than because sound is off by default while the video plays in the Facebook feed.
- – I try to always publish my videos to my YouTube Channel, to my Facebook Brand Page, as well as to iTunes as a free Video Podcast, while any and all videos I embed on my site are hosted by Wistia.com.
- – Anyone that uses my Public Trello Board to document and then/or iterate their digital marketing strategy will have direct access to me, whenever you feel stuck/unsure what to do next, ask me. I’ll get you rolling asap and fix any bugs in my documented procedure.