AI Can’t Fake Authenticity: Building Trust with Real Recruiting Videos

Full Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Jonathan Duarte: Hey everyone. We’ve got a great guest today. A little bit unusual for us, but we are gonna talk to a video expert. And so I wanted to introduce you to Dane Frederiksen I think the best way to mention how I found Dane was looking for AI tools to help with the podcast you’re listening to.

[00:00:19] Jonathan Duarte: You can do a lot with ai, but there’s a lot of things you can’t do unless you have a really big team. And so if you want to be able to do some interesting things like short clips. Dane had this great LinkedIn article about it. He’s got 60 articles on LinkedIn about using video.

[00:00:38] Jonathan Duarte: So I wanted to bring on Dane, talk to you guys about how you can use video in employer branding with some great tips. So Dane, give us a little background about yourself and some of the tips that we were talking about in the green room.

[00:00:49] Dane Frederiksen: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:00:50] Dane Frederiksen: Thanks for having me on, Jonathan. Glad to be a part of this and for me this is exciting because, I’ve always been behind the camera. I’ve been in video production for 30 years. I never wanted to be on camera, [00:01:00] but we’re at that moment now where you can either take advantage of this or not.

[00:01:04] Dane Frederiksen: And so I’m drinking my own Kool-Aid and that’s what the AI stuff is that you’re talking about. It’s like me finally coming out from the shadows of, the dark arts of making video. In 30 years I’ve been in all corners of video production. I’ve done video editing. I’ve shot, I’ve produced, write directed done the whole shebang, and I’ve done I’ve worked at National Geographic and Discovery Channel.

[00:01:24] Dane Frederiksen: I’ve worked at Oh, very cool. In journalism@usatoday.com. I came out to California early two thousands. I’ve been to tech and video games. A lot of startup kind of stuff and I really worked with the really big companies like Google and Twitch was a big client of mine for a long time working in video game journalism.

[00:01:41] Dane Frederiksen: I’ve also worked with a lot of startups and everything in between. The thing that you were talking about that AI articles me. Trying to figure out what are we gonna do with AI in the world of video. Specifically documentary style video.

[00:01:54] Dane Frederiksen: This is talking about authenticity. Whereas AI, can do amazing, images of a bear [00:02:00] riding on a unicorn with hot dogs shooting out of its eyes there’s a place for that. But in a business context.

[00:02:06] Dane Frederiksen: We’re really talking about trust, right? We’re talking about thought leadership. We’re talking about transparency, and so how do we use AI when what we’re trying to show is not fake? It’s real. And so really the answer to that has become for me is we use it in the beginning and the end of the process.

[00:02:23] Dane Frederiksen: There’s really three classic stages to video production. Pre-production, which is your planning getting everything ready, production, which is like shooting or creating assets, and then editing the underappreciated corner of video production where everything gets chopped up.

[00:02:38] Dane Frederiksen: These AI tools that we have now, like Chat, GPT or descrip, which is a video editing tool. These are great tools, especially for people at the lower levels of expertise. It can take you from amateur to mid-tier pretty quick or even beyond that in some cases. That article and the other ones I’m talking about is like, how do we use AI at the beginning and the middle of this process, [00:03:00] but keep that very important authenticity that is so important shortening sales cycles, building trust, familiarity. And I think one of the key points for me about how this all comes together with video and AI is, there’s so much content now because it’s so easy to create with AI. The AI slop is a flooded marketplace, but what you may not realize is this authentic content we’re talking about, like this podcast this is our differentiator.

[00:03:25] Dane Frederiksen: This stands out. AI cannot fake this. Yet. We still know that we’re good people talking. When that comes through, you’re getting that. And that’s one of the big ideas I always talk about is let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water.

[00:03:38] Dane Frederiksen: Let’s use AI wisely, but keep the good stuff. That article was me trying to educate myself, use it for myself, and then share that good word with the other video acolytes out there.

[00:03:48] Jonathan Duarte: So in our market recruiting in hr you would see in a lot of companies now I almost say anyone who’s got, hiring has 500 employees, plus probably has [00:04:00] what we call an employer videos.

[00:04:01] Jonathan Duarte: On their website, and they could be professionally done if they’re much larger. They are probably more, in the mid tier, as you said maybe even shot internally. TikTok is an amazing recruiting platform. But you have to get over the. Authenticity part of the, oh, we’re an employer and we’re gonna be real.

[00:04:24] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah. And you can’t just, throw five videos up and assume you’re done with TikTok. That’s not how it works. So what are some tips on, using it to attract and , discuss their culture? I know that’s not your typical type of client, but what takeaways could companies use in that?

[00:04:44] Dane Frederiksen: Yeah.

[00:04:44] Jonathan Duarte: That side, even if they don’t have much money, it’s been very clear over my 29 years that if you tell your story as your company and your culture, it will do two things. It will attract the right people and it will. Push away [00:05:00] the people that you don’t want in your culture, provided they see the videos.

[00:05:04] Jonathan Duarte: So there’s a marketing aspect once you do it, but what kind of tips and things do you have for teams that are trying to figure out how can we do this and just get started?

[00:05:12] Dane Frederiksen: Yeah. Those are great points. I’m glad you brought up the one about differentiation. It’s if you could say that we are for this person and we’re not for that person, then you’re actually, you mean something.

[00:05:20] Dane Frederiksen: And let’s just demystify a couple things before we get into this. First, I would say that we have crossed into this weird world of video quality video production values, the different marketplaces and platforms like LinkedIn is a different world than TikTok, but there’s some overlap you can now shoot video on your iPhone and also do amazing 4K cameras and studio shoots that are all razzle dazzle.

[00:05:45] Dane Frederiksen: And so let’s agree that there’s a place for all of it. Now your company may not be able to do certain things. If you’re a pharmaceutical company, you’re probably not winging it with your video because that’s gotta go through legal and you’re gonna get sued

[00:05:59] Dane Frederiksen: but [00:06:00] for most of us, there’s an argument that, Hey, we’re at a trade show. Let’s do some behind the scenes stuff. Hey everybody. We’re here at the booth. We just met this amazing person. They had this amazing fact, wanted to share it to you. For a lot of people, that kind of content can work. But if you’re doing a recruitment video, you’re probably gonna want to have a hero piece or a set of different videos about your company culture.

[00:06:21] Dane Frederiksen: And let’s be honest for a lot of companies, those videos suck, right? You’re drinking your own Kool-Aid, you believe in your mission and your culture but maybe other people don’t care that much. They just wanna know what’s it like. What’s the real deal?

[00:06:33] Dane Frederiksen: I wanna get past that polished layer and get to the real meat of the company culture. I wanna hear authentic stuff from people that work there. I wanna see the place, what do people dress like? When I go work at this place. Like all those sort of things that people need to see.

[00:06:48] Dane Frederiksen: So I think coming back to this idea that there’s a place for all of it, let’s just start there and say, okay. On this recruiting journey, the candidate’s journey. What are the pieces that they’re gonna wanna see And yeah, of [00:07:00] course you as a company wanna say some things and let’s do that.

[00:07:03] Dane Frederiksen: But let’s also keep in mind that the kind of people that we’re talking to, like I’m Gen X Boomers. Gen X, we come from a different culture, a professional culture, and there’s been a bit of a revolution, actually a couple. There’s been a video revolution where video used to be expensive and hard to do, but now it’s ubiquitous.

[00:07:21] Dane Frederiksen: Everyone’s shooting video all the time and the platforms are moving towards that. LinkedIn is now prioritizing video and because you can shoot it on your phone, there’s a lot more of it. And then you got this other business culture revolution that’s crept in with the younger generations.

[00:07:36] Dane Frederiksen: Millennials, gen Z, very comfortable. They grew up on camera, TikTok, YouTube they expect to see that kind of stuff. If you don’t have that for them and you’re not that type of company, that’s gonna be a turnoff for them. So then how do you as a boomer, gen X kind of company give them that kind of content?

[00:07:53] Dane Frederiksen: It’s really gotta start with a strategy who are we talking to? What platforms are they on? What are the [00:08:00] competitors doing? What does their journey look like? Then populate stuff that’s gonna be in line with the new way. And as a HR person, you probably not a video expert. You’ve probably done some of it, been around it, but for most of us, it’s been expensive, hard to do so now you have different steps at every level, all the way down with Polish level, the balance between polish and authenticity, and how corporate are we gonna be versus how real.

[00:08:25] Dane Frederiksen: So like all these considerations need to be mapped out these things are gonna keep happening as your company evolves. This is the marketplace. Now I don’t know if people know this, but 80% of all internet traffic is video.

[00:08:37] Jonathan Duarte: Wow.

[00:08:38] Dane Frederiksen: So if you’re not doing video, you’re ignoring 80% of that content.

[00:08:42] Jonathan Duarte: Eyeballs.

[00:08:43] Dane Frederiksen: And that’s a great point. You are battling for eyeballs. I know you wanna do your corporate polished HR piece, but they just wanna scroll tiktoks of people falling down or dancing, right? And so that’s what you’re competing against. So how do you do that? You can start to use other.

[00:08:59] Dane Frederiksen: [00:09:00] Techniques you could use humor, which for HR people may be a little slippery slope, you could do Q and A, you could do a quiz show. There’s all kinds of format things that are now available rather than the standard corporate video. I don’t know, there’s just a few ideas I could go on all day.

[00:09:14] Dane Frederiksen: So retrack me here, what feels relevant?

[00:09:16] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah. I think it’s understanding the strategy. Going back to just like any problem we’re trying to solve, if you think it from a problem first, instead of let’s get into tools where everyone wants to go, like how to fix something.

[00:09:28] Jonathan Duarte: Especially in recruiting, what’s the candidate journey, who are they? If you’re hiring millennials for different roles. If you’re hiring Gen Z, different roles, you can have videos on each one, but the video content. Is going to be different to attract those individuals.

[00:09:46] Jonathan Duarte: So if you’re trying to hire senior management, that’s boomers in Gen Z. In many cases if you’re hiring, manufacturing, if you’re hiring retail, it’s a little bit different, right? Just knowing that strategy number one [00:10:00] is the most important part. Then you have to figure out, okay, where are you gonna put the video?

[00:10:03] Jonathan Duarte: What’s the content supposed to look like? Before we jump off, what are a couple of tools that, beginners can use, that they could probably use right out of the box to move this thing forward for ’em?

[00:10:15] Dane Frederiksen: Yeah. Just to give some context here about this strategy thing, When we’re talking about strategy, like really we’re talking about planning and we’re talking about video planning, you don’t have to do this alone. You’re not a video expert probably, right?

[00:10:28] Jonathan Duarte: Yeah.

[00:10:28] Dane Frederiksen: I’ve pioneered this video strategy process.

[00:10:31] Dane Frederiksen: I’ve always been the order taker, Hey, Dane, make me a cool video, and then I go do that. I’ve now done the homework ahead of time and developed using Chat GPT. A series of questions that are discovery based that tie into your business goals, your recruiting goals. Like any kind of goals you want to set, who the audience is, what the platform is, and using Chat GPT as a research tool to put into the strategy framework That’s in line with all the other stuff you’re doing.

[00:10:57] Dane Frederiksen: You’ve got a website plan, you’ve got an [00:11:00] email plan. Let’s line all those things up. Chat GPT or other LLMs are great resources. I’ve actually used the paid version to make my own custom GPT and loaded in the knowledge base of the criteria that I’m going for, maybe not entry level, maybe a little bit more advanced. But I’m always happy to help people. If people need a helping hand, just reach out and I’ll point you in the right direction.

[00:11:21] Jonathan Duarte: Dan, how can our audience find more information about some of your strategies?

[00:11:24] Dane Frederiksen: I’ve got a LinkedIn newsletter. You can subscribe right from my LinkedIn profile. Feel free to reach out if you need help with tools or techniques, check out Chat GPT and maybe make a custom GPT to help you organize ahead of time. On the editing end, Descript is a great tool for beginners you’re just editing it in a word document kind of format

[00:11:43] Jonathan Duarte: Yep.

[00:11:43] Dane Frederiksen: It’s a text space video editor, and will help you get to a happy video at the end, a great place to start.

[00:11:48] Jonathan Duarte: Thanks for spending your time here with GoHire Talks and listen to our guest. My intention has always been to create incredible content to help you in your career in recruiting marketing, business and [00:12:00] leadership. We appreciate all of the insights and feedback you provide. If you’ve got guests you’d like us to have on the show, please let us know.

[00:12:08] Jonathan Duarte: Again, thank you for all your support.