GMAP PODCAST WITH Seth David

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Show Summary

This week, get fantastic tips on how to create video content to help your clients. Seth David joins us for Episode 153 of the Grow My Accounting Practice Podcast!

Our Guest

Seth David is the Dean of Beans at schoolofbookkeeping.com and President of Nerd Enterprises, Inc. which provides consulting and training services in Accounting and productivity based software. Consulting services range from basic bookkeeping to CFO level services such as financial modeling. Nerd Enterprises, Inc. and now schoolofbookkeeping.com is one of the leaders in the small business accounting world in online training resources offering courses on a wide range of software products. Seth David has been a top 10 speaker at The Sleeter Group’s Accounting Solutions Conference for the past few years. Seth makes extensive use of social networking tools, and web videos to maximize the impact of his training. His unique style and personal touch have helped him develop a large worldwide audience consisting of accountants, bookkeepers, and small business owners, as well as general consultants and technology enthusiasts. Seth graduated from Pace University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in Accounting. Prior to starting his own firm in 2003, Seth worked at Biggs & Co., CPA’s. An accounting firm based in Santa Monica, CA, specializing in bankruptcy, from 2001 to 2003. Seth’s role there was to perform audits; prepare tax returns for Corporations, S-Corps, LLC’s, Partnerships; and bankruptcy compilation work for SEC reporting and litigation. Previously, from 1999 to 2001, Seth was a Senior Revenue Accountant for the Veterinary Centers Of America. While there he managed the revenues for over 80 animal hospitals ensuring that the monthly closing entries were prepared so that the monthly and quarterly financial statements could be produced in accordance with SEC regulations. Seth also worked as an Auditor for United Government Services, a division of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wisconsin auditing Medicare cost reports under contract with HCFA (Health Care Financing Administration) from 1996 to 1998. Seth David attended Pace University and received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting with an emphasis on Public Accounting.

Show Quotes

In today’s world we focus primarily on the world wide web. Why not use this to your advantage? Everyone is an expert at something. Use your area of expertise to teach others how to succeed! Create videos. Talk about whatever you’re passionate and get excited about. If you can get fired up about something and teach people about whatever that topic is, that will be contagious and draw people in. Stay focused and on a specific topic, or a few specific points. Keep them short and sweet to capture people’s attention – this gives you an opportunity to make more videos rather than a few longer videos. Make your content industry specific; that will attract the niche you are trying to target as an audience… because those are the clients that you want. Everyone has their own style; you may create a video of how to use Quickbooks or Xero, even though there are already so many other videos out there. That’s okay! You teach it in your own style which will appeal to others out there. If you’re going to turn your webcam on, here is what you will need:

A webcam
Get some lighting, but keep it to a minimum. Look into a 500 LED studio light (they start at around $200-$500)
Good quality mic. Seth uses a Yeti Blue USB mic for about $100
Screen-sharing software if you want to show your follows your computer screen. For example, ScreenCast or Camtasia
A broadcast platform to spread the word, such as YouTube or Vimeo (Vimeo offers great control over privacy settings).

Most people are visual learners. If you are promoting certain tools in your video, provide a link to the product you are describing when you edit and produce the video (don’t worry, you can set it to open in another tab so they are not directed away from your content.) Creating a library of video content will decrease the amount of time you have to spend selling your services… You prove it before you have to sell yourself! The questions you will start to receive is “how does this work?” rather than “why should I buy it?” Once you have a working video library, it will make it easier to answer questions clients and potential clients have – and you can send them the link to the answer. Keep your content FREE! They should have quality content but lack context. This will get people to spread the word about you and you will gain a more loyal client base who want to pay you for your more detailed services. Don’t be nervous about not having enough material. Once you start writing one thing, that will spark the ideas of more content you want to share. Once you’ve created your videos, use social media to get it out in the universe. Write a blog post and include the link in your blog, then promote your blog on Twitter and Facebook to increase traffic to your website. Use an auto-scheduler to get the content out there on a regular basis. You will get negative comments on your videos – everyone does. Stay positive in your response and thank them for their feedback, regardless of what it is. You can’t please everyone.