Nicola: What’s your client challenge of the week then, Judith? I always look forward to these, because I never know what they’re going to be in advance.

Judith: This week’s is how much should I invest in myself and in my business? I don’t mean me. I mean one. This was prompted by a client who I spoke to yesterday who lives in a particularly smart and expensive and posh part of the UK and is, therefore, herself, smart and posh and expensive, and doesn’t hesitate to invest in herself. Her website designer had introduced her to somebody who was going to make 2 videos for her website, one, a sting, if you know what a sting is, which is a sort of 30 second piece that she hoped might go viral. The second one was an illustration of her doing her thing. The quote for this had been revised upwards from quite a shocking sum of money to £3,000. We had a debate about whether top quality video on your website was worth £3,000. What I would like you to guess was whether she persuaded me, or I her, by the end of the call, that the answer to that was yes or no.

Nicola: I think the simple answer is, that I would go with is, is it more likely to make you that amount of money back in the next year …

Judith: Good question.

Nicola: … or not?

Judith: Good question. We both wait for it in the end because neither of us like anything cheap. It’s back to that recurring theme. She is also posh and smart. This filmmaker is at the top of her game. The filmmaker had also quoted the worst case scenario, i.e., it couldn’t possibly be more than that. It might be less. The filmmaker had also said, “If this price point is a struggle for you, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.” We liked it. We went for it. Actually, the bigger debate here is, how much should I invest in myself and in my business? You said that, I think, last week, or maybe the week before, that there were things that you were happy to pay for and invest in, and other things that you wouldn’t be. This woman told me she would have to take money out of savings to do it, but she had money in savings. It wasn’t a question of her persuading me, or me persuading her. We debated the pros and cons of it, and we went for it in the end. How do you help clients make decisions about what to spend money on? What’s worth spending money on?

Nicola: It’s interesting you should say that, because we’ve just been talking about LeadPages and that’s $67 a month. People are very reluctant to do it. They’re very reluctant to spend $18 a month on AWeber. They’d rather go for MailChimp. I’ve got to the point now where I think if someone is not willing to invest under $100 a month in setting up their business properly, I’m not interested in working with them, because it is about an investment, rather than an expense. I think that’s where the difference is. Buying my new kettle is an expense. It’s not going to earn me any money. That’s definitely how I gauge things now, because-

Judith: Yeah, and that’s Rich Dad’s definition if you remember. “Does it put money in your pocket or take money out of it?”

Nicola: When you think that most big business don’t even think about getting a return on investment in the first year on most things. They look on it in the first 3 years and here we are, talking about a video that is… I mean, what’s her price point? Is she selling an e-book or is she selling a top end product?

Judith: Somewhere in between.

Nicola: Okay, so what would a new customer be worth to her, over the first year?

Judith: I don’t know the answer to that question.

Nicola: The question’s got to be, “Is that video going to get her a new client,” and if so, over the first year, is it going to pay for…

Judith: I think it could help achieve sales in year one that would be worth more combined than the cost, yes.

Nicola: It’s a no brainer then, isn’t it? If you don’t-

Judith: We don’t know, that’s the point. No guarantees. When she said, first of all, “These will go on my website,” I thought, “Well, that limited value. You’ve got to get people to your website, first of all.” Then, the sting, they think they’ll be able to get to go viral. Then, that in itself would bring people to the website.

Nicola: Just to let you know, she’s not being ripped off. If the video…

Judith: No, we know that.

Nicola: To be fair.

Judith: Yeah, I agree. We knew that. She lives in a part of the world where there’ll be travel involved fro … It’s not, of course, just the 1 filmmaker. It’s the Assistant and all the editing and… Quality, in that field, tells, I think. Not to say that we can’t go quite a long way with making our own funny little videos. I own a webcam. This is in another league, and when I see my clients… I’ve got another client who’s got a brother who’s a professional video person. Top-notch quality makes a lot of difference on video.

Nicola: Yes, it does. Yes, there is still a place. Chris’s ironing board saga rumbles on with the videos, now, of him creeping up on cupboards and it just – hahaha! There’s definitely a place for that, but I remember what we used to do workshops and I used to record them. Do you remember I used to sit there with the webcam on a tripod and I used to follow you around the room and all that sort of stuff?

Judith: I do, yes.

Nicola: Then, we graduated to getting Sarah Starr to come to our events and film them so much more professionally, and it was so worth it. Yeah, you’ve got… There’s a place for fun. iPads and iPhones now, you can make top quality recordings. They’ll never be as good as a proper team; and proper lighting’s the thing that makes the difference.

Judith: You know why? It is lighting, but it’s also different angles. We’ve only got 1 angle if we’re holding the iPad, whereas if she’s got a team, they’ll have cameras from 3 different angles.

Nicola: I need a team to capture my best side at all times.

Judith: Well, me too. That’s probably why I don’t like video. I don’t want to watch myself on it.

Nicola: No, hard to find my best side nowadays.