How To Create a Winning Video Content Marketing Strategy with Lisa Buyer

Thank you for having me.

Sure, sure. I grew up in Chicago and Miami—two very different, almost polar-opposite cities. Going from the Chicago suburbs to Miami back in the day was interesting. There was some culture shock, but it was exciting too. I went to the University of Florida, so Go Gators!

So that’s awesome. And I was actually also able to teach as an adjunct for a couple years social media management. So kind of like fun going full circle. It’s funny.

Yeah, definitely. My household is divided—my husband graduated from UM, and my son graduated from FSU. So on certain football game days, we’re on separate sides for sure.

Yeah, we try to keep it cool.

Exactly, exactly. We just have to pass the torch.

Well, I grew up mainly in Miami. My mom was a single mom, and I had a sister, so we moved to Miami when I was in junior high. I mostly grew up in Miami with a single mom who taught me a lot—like how to take care of things most kids don’t typically handle. So I grew up fast, became responsible, and had a job at 14. I even learned to write checks and go grocery shopping in high school, just to help my mom out. I think that gave me the work ethic I have today—sometimes almost to a fault.

Yeah, definitely. It’s a different universe these days when it comes to life ethic and work ethic, depending on your outlook. It can vary a lot.

My younger sister, yeah. I was a little bit in charge of her when Mom was working, so we grew up very close. I helped make sure she stayed on track after I graduated high school. Even though I went to college, I’d still come home and help ensure everything was taken care of. She didn’t know if she wanted to go to college—she started working early, like I did, and entered the corporate world, took off like crazy. Now she and her husband own a restaurant in Chicago called The Gondola.

Yeah. I think it used to be more of a stigma. Now people are starting to grasp the idea of not going to college and doing certifications instead. And what’s the value of college when you’re paying huge tuition fees? So I’m not discounting college, but I think today there are more choices, and it’s not such a stigma to skip college. There are certifications, tech colleges, and entrepreneurship—which doesn’t need a degree.

Actually, it is. I mean, before you could Google anything or sign up for an online course like you can today, it was more about going to the library or buying books. That’s where you found resources—they were more physical. Now we have digital resources that let you do everything from get certified to work online. For example, one of my employees, Andy, was actually one of my students at UF—he’s getting his whole degree online through the University of Florida. So you don’t even have to go to a campus. It’s easier in some ways, but it also takes away that experience. Either way, we have options now we didn’t have before.

Yeah, I actually have two of my former students—three of my former students—working with me now.

Yeah. Well, if you think about it, it’s a great funnel—if you need interns or want to refer them to someone else who’s hiring. And obviously, I went to UF, but seriously, from the standpoint of the College of Journalism, the output of students… when someone graduates from UF, they have about two or three years of equivalent experience.

Yeah, definitely.

Well, I have a couple I could think of. One is, when I was at UF, I put myself through school—like entrepreneurship—by hand-painting T-shirts and selling them to sorority girls. I ended up making extra money that way. I called it Designs by Lisa, so that was fun. Another interesting fact after I graduated: when I first got into the professional world, I worked for a family-owned business, and Florida Trend had a contest for Florida’s toughest boss. We entered my boss, and he won. I ended up quitting that job because he was so difficult—but it was a huge learning experience. I ran into him about six months ago and thanked him. I said, “Mark, you gave me a lot of early experience that, if I wasn’t working for someone, I wouldn’t have gotten.” He was tough—really tough.

“Effing asshole that you were.” I just learned a lot from him. He never apologized—he was just unhappy, so it made everyone around him unhappy, and he didn’t realize it. He was a smart businessman but didn’t have to be that tough.

Exactly. You learn how to deal with difficult people—when someone’s toxic, you figure out how not to become toxic in return.

No, I live in Celebration, Florida. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s in central Florida, five minutes outside Disney. It’s actually a Disney-developed town. I live in Disney World.

It’s not “Disney theme,” just developed by Disney. Everything’s kind of perfect—the architecture is beautiful. It’s a great town to live in, especially if you have kids, but it can be a bubble for better or worse. Disney started it about 25 years ago, and they’re not involved now, but they gave the land and had their hand in everything. So yeah, if you’re ever in the Orlando area, definitely come visit Celebration. It’s beautiful, and there’s an army of Starbucks. Anyone listening should check it out.

Yeah, well, it’s amazing how every decision leads to a bigger picture. Right after school, the job market was rough, so I ended up taking an admin job at a company called Arvida—they were building a huge development in Florida called Weston. It was very entry-level, but the senior execs realized I was overqualified. They gave me small projects, and then somebody there knew someone, and I got hired as the first employee at a small PR agency. That was an awesome experience because I learned everything—A to Z—about how an agency works, from billing to admin to pitching.

My boss, Julie, was a former journalist, so she really taught me to think like a journalist in PR, which is something you don’t get unless you’re trained by a reporter or you do it yourself. That was the next step. Then I worked for the family-owned business, where Mark was my boss. After about a year, I quit that job with no backup. I started freelancing—not intending to start my own agency—but my first client ended up being Arvida. They heard I was freelancing, and it just snowballed into an agency. I picked up more clients, including different divisions of Arvida—their country club, their athletic club. Friends said, “You have a degree, why take an admin job?” But if you make the most of an opportunity, you never know what can happen. That’s how my agency began—landing those initial clients paved the way for new business and establishing myself.

Definitely. And that was my first agency that I started. I had a partner who was a graphic artist, so our differentiator was bringing branding to PR services. That set us apart from other PR agencies at the time.

So The Buyer Group was established in 2005. Before that, my first agency was called L and L Communications—my partner was Lisa, L and L, you know. Then we had another partner buy in, transitioning to a new identity: Moxie Group. But those partners went a different direction, so I absorbed the clients and rolled them into The Buyer Group. It was perfect timing, because we’d attracted a lot of tech clients during the big dot-com boom and bust. We started doing PR for these dot-com clients, which was a critical turning point. We had to go from a normal PR agency approach—“You have a year or six months for a campaign”—to a more condensed timeline, because they were trying to secure investors quickly. So that taught me the digital side—using Google to leverage SEO with PR, before I really even knew what SEO was.

I saw the possibility of optimizing public relations with search. That led me to get proficient in SEO so I could apply it to PR. That was huge, and it’s not that different today, but some PR agencies remain archaic. They’re not really optimizing or leveraging search and social the way they could.

Yeah, definitely. The difference between The Buyer Group and other traditional PR agencies is that we really use search and social as part of our PR strategy, as long as it matches the brand’s business goals. There’s also a huge opportunity in media outreach, which didn’t exist 10 years ago. Think about the number of blogs, the number of podcasts, the number of media outlets online—just visualize how much that has grown. It’s crazy. So there’s definitely still a place for media outreach and leveraging search and social to reach your audience—whether it’s journalists or personas—because that’s critical for connecting with people in an organic way.

Well, the first edition was published in 2013. It literally came from me repeating the same things to clients over and over—educating them. I did a lot of speaking and workshops, so I thought, “Instead of saying the same thing again, let me put it in a neatly packaged book.” It’s basically evergreen public relations with search and social tactics to get more exposure and reach, done organically. And sometimes you put a layer of paint on top. I was super excited, too, because for the fourth edition, Guy Kawasaki wrote the foreword. That was such an honor—he’s an icon, and also a believer in social media and the power of doing public relations the right way.

Well, in general, I think most businesses aren’t taking advantage of video. That’s a decision they’re making. Video isn’t a secret; it’s not like chatbots, which some companies might not know how to use. But video is no secret, so not doing it is a conscious decision. If a brand isn’t doing video, somebody needs to handle that.

If you are doing video, the good news is not everybody else is doing it, so it’s not saturated. Of course, everything needs to be mobile-friendly now. I feel like brands should incorporate video in a way that makes sense for them, maybe starting small. One easy place to begin is Facebook Live—you don’t need special equipment. It’s free, you can do it from your phone or desktop, repurpose it, download it, upload to YouTube, or turn it into a podcast. There are so many ways to jump into video. Starting with something like Facebook Live is more saturated now than a year or two ago, but overall, video is not saturated yet.

It is. It’s hitting the start button. And I see this with larger companies—it’s harder for them to start because there are so many approvals needed. That’s going to hurt them, just like how bigger companies were slow to get into social. Not every brand was on social at first. They’d say, “Let the intern do it,” or, “We’ll wait on that,” but not investing is a mistake.

Well, yeah, I think so. Using video to tell your story comes from a PR perspective. For instance, if you have news, you can hop on Facebook Live to announce it. Let the video help you share your news, as simple as that. Maybe you’re launching a book or a course. Using video, you can just announce it or go live, interact with your audience—ask them anything for 15 minutes. That’s a great way to have natural interaction with your audience.

So Digital Detox Secrets actually came about while I was writing Social PR Secrets. I was having trouble finishing that first edition, and a business coach advised me: “After you drop off your daughter at school, go straight to a yoga studio, then go directly to a coffee shop with your laptop, and write for two hours, three days a week.” I’d been working on the book for a year, and by doing that for 30 days, I finished the first edition. It showed me that sitting in front of a computer isn’t always enough—you have to create mental space so the writing can flow.

I have teenage daughters, and from a parent’s perspective, there’s a lot of stress and anxiety when it comes to social media. Even as a social media expert, I realized I couldn’t fully grasp what teenagers face with Snapchat, Instagram, and so on. That inspired me from a parenting standpoint. The book is divided into three sections—business, personal, and parenting. On the business side, it’s for entrepreneurs who need balance when everyone expects them to be online 24/7, or for a “mompreneur” challenged by work-life balance. Then there’s advice for parents looking to help their kids manage this digital life without depression, anxiety, and stress—because that’s very real.

Well, I’m finishing writing it this summer, so I’ll send it off to the publisher at the end of July. Hopefully it’ll be out around September-ish.

I do, yeah. It’s just part of the PR strategy, whether it’s for myself or for a client.

So I think what’s trending right now is either a docu series or a web series. One of my clients is launching a video called “Pay the Invoice.” She brought in seven agency owners and took them to New Zealand. Her name’s Cat—don’t ask how. She’s creating this docu series, launching “Pay the Invoice,” basically following her and these agency owners. She’s taking them under her wing to show them the ins and outs of running or optimizing an agency. I think it’s a great example of creating a docu or web series.

Another example: a bigger brand might be Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey launching that 21-day meditation program. It’s free for 21 days if you start on Day One. Each day, you get new content; once it’s Day Five, Day One isn’t available anymore. So it’s basically an intro, and at the end, they can sell you the full package for $20.95 or something. You get to do it through that first launch free for 21 days. It’s not exactly video, but it’s the same idea as a docu or web series, dropping new content daily—there’s a beginning and end, or it’s part of a series (maybe it’s anti-aging). Each day focuses on a different subject, it’s free, then expires. If someone wants to buy the whole series, they can, plus they get different types of content. So the docu series is super creative, trending right now, and there’s a lot to learn from some of the major filmmakers doing it.

Right, right. And then it goes beyond whatever that is—maybe they get more content or books that go along with it. And there’s also the retargeting opportunity for everyone who’s watched the video. It’s definitely something that’s trending. If you Google “docu series,” there’s not much info on it yet. That’s what I’m into right now.

Well, I already mentioned: Digital Distillery, Cat House, Pay the Invoice—they follow that approach. I think it’s brilliant. GoPro is sort of the set that launched this whole video craze. If you go back and see how they did their video marketing—one thing they did was start every video with, “Hey, is this working?”—like it’s so real, it seems like a mistake. But then they released their intros and outros publicly so anyone could create their own GoPro video, using GoPro’s intro and outro. Suddenly they had all this incredible user-generated content that their brand lovers made. That’s brilliant.

Yeah, exactly. They’re doing an amazing job. Another example of a docu series is The Sacred Science (sacredscience.com). They do a great job creating these videos—an hour of free video based on a theme, which becomes a free giveaway. Then it leads to, essentially, “If you can tell a great story, you don’t have to sell much.” That’s what they’re doing—storytelling.

And you don’t have to be GoPro or have a huge budget. Just one easy way is creating something free, selling a related paid product. Like, I could do a 30-minute video sharing some of my Social PR Secrets—that’s free. Then the lead-up is buying the book. If you want more, you have to pay.

It’s very similar. That’s how I ended up teaching at UF for a few years, because I wrote Social PR Secrets. They didn’t want someone just teaching out of a textbook—they wanted somebody out in the field, a practitioner with real stories.

So BeeLive is my go-to for Facebook Lives. It’s a platform that lets you do different types of interviews—like a split screen, or a CNN-type setup where you can interview multiple people at once and have different sliders, telling a story during the video. That’s one tool. Another one is Lumen5. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but it’s amazing. A lot of clients or brands say, “We’re not doing video, but we know we should.” They don’t have the resources. Well, if you have a blog, you can put the blog post URL into Lumen5, and it creates a video from your blog post. It’s awesome—you should check it out.

Yeah, it’ll take your subheads and turn them into a short video. You can bring in images from your blog or stock images—it’s a no-brainer.

Yeah, and my other little “hack,” you could call it, when I make my own videos: I’m part of several mastermind Facebook groups and will do office hours once a week. People come with questions, so instead of replying with a comment, I’ll create a video response. I try to be creative—I use Snapchat for filters and lenses. You can make a video selfie explaining something or answering a comment, adding a little creativity. You can do the same with Instagram or Instagram Stories. You don’t have to go live—download it to your camera roll, upload it elsewhere. I really love using video to walk through a proposal for someone—it adds a personal touch.

So much easier. For sure, long emails are my pet peeve—I hate when people send me huge emails.

Yeah, and working with the media, brevity is key—you just get to the point. I put myself in the position of receiving emails; like you said, our bandwidth is whatever it is. The same goes for the media. So when I’m emailing clients or anyone, I’m trying to be respectful: “What’s the point?” We don’t need every tiny detail.

Well, I think when you see marketers or brands just trying to sell too hard, you don’t need to sell if you’re telling a good story. I got that idea from Ron Lynch—if you’re putting in a hard sell, you’re probably going to ruin the video.

Right. I mean, you should always be selling, but it doesn’t have to feel like that, right? It doesn’t have to come across that way. Just make it so they feel you’re giving them relevant, helpful content. One day, like you said, they’ll come to you and hire you.

Another mistake I see clients make is wanting everything perfect—they can’t go live or hit “play” until the lighting is right, they have the right camera, etc. It reminds me of SEO. People say SEO is super important. Yes, it’s high priority, but they’re not creating the time for it. Same with video: they know it’s critical, but they overanalyze it or aim for perfection, and then six months pass.

Because it’s males who are Female Disruptors supporters!

Yeah, so I got super inspired—slash very annoyed—when the #MeToo movement emerged. It touched home for me because, as a female business owner in the ’90s, I put up with stuff I shouldn’t have. That was one inspiration. Then there was the Dr. Ford/Kavanaugh situation, and I thought, “Okay, this is ridiculous,” and also equal pay. There are so many females disrupting in a positive way—so I’m featuring them on the site, whether they’re business owners, or disrupting corporate America. I want to highlight these women, lift them up. That’s number one. Number two is we’ll hold a virtual summit of these female disruptors, letting them share their “superpowers” to inspire other women (and men too). We’ll also feature men who support female disruptors. Men should get credit for helping, and we’re seeing change, but it needs to happen faster.

Yeah, so I have a staff of five. We’re a boutique agency. I also use a whole team of freelancers, depending on the project and client. I have someone who helps with my book publishing side of things and, for the female disruptors, I have a team that believes in it and helps lift it up. That’s not my main focus—the Buyer Group agency side is. But I’ve really been scaling that up over the past year and leveraging my brand with these passion projects. I just love doing things that are both inspirational and disruptive. I’m very passionate about digital and how it can take down walls, whether you’re a business owner or a parent or in a relationship. I feel like it’s my therapy, pulling these projects together—especially the female disruption thing.

Yeah, and it also develops the agency’s culture. And you attract what you put out. So you know, I’m big on health, wellness, yoga, meditation. I like to work with clients who believe in that or have the same vibe, or brands that I love to work with—like female disruptors. You attract like, so it’s part of the culture, in addition to being a passion project.

I just did yoga today. I try to practice at least once a day, even if it’s five minutes. Not that I always do it daily, but that’s my goal. Some people say, “Oh, I don’t have time for yoga—it’s a 90-minute class,” but there’s a site called glow.com where you pick how much time you have and what level you’re at. I did 30 minutes this morning. They even have a five-minute class.

Yeah, I was teaching a yoga and virtual reality class in AltspaceVR, but we’re taking a break for the summer. I work with a lot of disruptive brands, so AR/VR is definitely coming—nobody knows exactly when. This was a way for me to dabble in VR and AR, integrate yoga, and teach occasionally. It let me immerse myself in platforms like AltspaceVR or Facebook Spaces. I see it as getting my foot in the door from a social standpoint—educating myself without going crazy.

I’d say it’s a mix. My husband and I are doing a 10- to 12-day European cruise soon, partly to force ourselves offline. The time difference alone helps us disconnect since everyone else here is online. We try to do something like that once a year. Besides yoga, I use CBD oil daily—it really helps with whatever my body needs. If I’m stressed, I’ll take a bit; if I need good sleep or focus, I’ll take it before bed. I’ve heard people calling meditation the new “superpower for CEOs.” Alongside that, CBD oil is part of this wellness-focused trend. Investors want companies with a healthy balance. For me personally, I’ve seen a definite difference since I started using it.

Also, just to your point, we both have that trait of juggling lots of projects. One thing I do, and did at the end of last year, was take inventory of what I’m actively doing or serving on. If it’s not serving me, then I shouldn’t be doing it. You can’t just keep saying yes. For example, I was on the board for the Celebration Foundation but realized I can’t do everything, so I resigned after two or three years. Sometimes you just have to say no, or you’ll burn out and spread yourself thin by doing everything for everyone else.

I think saying no is easier than undoing something you’re already involved in, you know?

Right. You kind of have to balance things. I just started reading fiction again. For the past 20 years, I mostly read business, health/wellness, or self-help books. Now I’m reading Big Little Lies, and it’s amazing—10, 15, or 20 minutes of reading puts you in another story, giving your mind a break.

Yeah, so it took us a few years, right?

Well, you said store, so if it was a store, I’d pick Neiman Marcus. But if it wasn’t a store, I’d definitely spend it on an experience—like travel. I think that’s something you need to give yourself, splurge on, and make time for. Some sort of experience—I’d invest and spend it on that. Makes total sense.

Thanks, Shane—thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Have a great day.