Using video to market your photo business, with Erin Manning, Erin Manning Media

Gary Pageau of the Dead Pixels Society talks with Erin Manning of Erin Manning Media, about her start as a photo industry educator, her award-winning video projects, and her best tips for getting started using video to boost your business and connect with customers.

Erin Manning is a professional photographer, author, educator, and media personality living in Los Angeles, California. She helps people understand photography and technology by translating technical jargon into everyday words and facilitating learning with a clear, friendly teaching style. Her production company, Erin Manning Media, specializes in "conception to completion" full-service production, creating inspiring educational content.

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Transcript

Erin Manning  
Welcome to the Dead Pixel sSciety podcast, the photo imaging industry's leading news source., here's your host, Gary Pageau. 

Gary Pageau  
The Dead Pixels Society podcast is brought to you by Mediaclip, Photo Finale and Advertek Printing. Hello again, and welcome to the Dead Pixels Society podcast. I'm your host, Gary Pageau. And today we're joined by photographer, author and educator Erin Manning of Erin Manning media. Hello, Erin, how are you today?

Erin Manning  
Hey, Gary, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.

Gary Pageau  
So for most people have ever listened this podcast, they've heard your voice before, because you actually have done the introduction and the end the extra duction or outro, or whatever we call it for the podcast for many years. Tell us a little bit about how you got into this business of being an entertainer and a photographer.

Erin Manning  
Yes, multi talented because I was constantly trying to make a buck and maintain being independent. Oh, you know, you just have to utilize what you have. And I've always been curious about exploring various areas of you know, creativity. So I just kind of put it out there. But yeah, so I am the voice of the Dead Pixels Society podcast. And thank you for allowing me to be that.

Gary Pageau  
And you do that. So well. Well, let's roll back to young Erin Manning wanting to break into show business out of that.

Erin Manning  
Well, that was you know, kind of a pipe dream back then I'm from the Midwest. So I grew up in a little town and then a little bit bigger town in Iowa. There wasn't a whole lot of showbiz there. But I really was just, you know, from the beginning, this artistic, enterprising kind of little kid I used to make potholders and sell them door to door when I was like five. And then it was love bead necklaces at school or wooden rings I made in woodshop, or even clothing I used to create on my mom's singer sewing machine. So I was always really creative. When I moved to California and I was working various jobs to make a living, whether it was waitressing or sales, just kind of floundering in my early 30s searching for meaning and purpose. And I decided to take this kind of career personality test. It totally validated. What what I knew all along was that I'm an artistic, enterprising person, I just had to figure out how I was going to make money and, and you know, in my mind, stay independent. I eventually found photography and teaching. And I guess you could say the rest is history. But there was you know, it's definitely a long path to that. And there's a background to that, too. I'm on the daughter of two artists who eventually became college professors. So I was surrounded with creativity and kind of a teaching way of being I guess it's in my DNA. And I'm also a big sister. So I'm used to leading the way and teaching and trying to inspire and cracking the whip when necessary. Yes, trying to inspire my little sister to clean the room, whatever it is, I'm just I feel like I'm a lifelong learner. So I know what it's like.

Gary Pageau  
But also, you've also got the explainer piece of it. That's where we we first crossed paths many years ago was when you were doing your your drone TV show. Can you talk a little bit about that 

Erin Manning  
The Whole Picture on the DIY network, it was way back in like 2004. And they were casting for a host. And they needed someone that was a photographer, professional photographer, the little bit techie. And that also was good in front of the camera. And apparently they're having a difficult time doing that finding that person. And I had an agent at the time that some sent in my my demo reel. And they called me and said, Hey, we really like you. But could you maybe do another demo reel for us over the weekend that looks kind of like what the show would be like? Sure.

I worked with that on with Michael Welch and we created a cool video send it into them and I got the show did Oh, so I had a background in television and commercials. I had done that previously. So I was comfortable in front of the camera. And I also was a professional photographer, I'd gone back to school, I take a lot of classes and really studied up and I also you know had been the fly in the wall in various modeling scenarios before that with big time photographers and I would always learn from them. So I got the show and then things just took off from there because people really needed this information they wanted to learn more about photography. The show started airing in 2005 marketing stats were showing more women were purchasing DSLR cameras, and they really wanted to market to that sector. So there I was with this 30 minute show on the DIY network, and I showed people how to take better photographs. And it aired for Gosh, I think about five or six years. After we shot it. It took us almost two years to shoot all 26 episodes, okay. And it won a bunch of Telly awards, and it was all groovy. And then DIY network decided to end all the shows that had nothing to do with food or shelter.

I don't know probably 20 other shows, that all ended after a certain number of episodes, just because that that was the pivot that the DIY network took.

Gary Pageau  
Yeah, that's, that's weird. When cable channels do that, like when you have Animal Planet, putting in shows on mermaids for some reason, or, you know, history channel has Bigfoot. You know, it's it's, I can see where a station kind of changing his focus would be a challenge for a show like yours. If they said, oh, we're just going to do food and food and shelter, food and shelter. Seems like a weird, he did they call themselves the food and shelter network.

Erin Manning  
I mean, maybe they Well, they were they were bought and sold since then. So who knows what's happening. But what it did is it helped me with visibility. And then I was on the map as far as being able to get out there and be a personality and teach people. And that's also when I met you back then with the PMA. And that was all the photo Marketing Association for those of you that don't know. And, Gary, you were really instrumental in helping our show find a lot of product. So of course, after we taped the show, I went down and met you at the photo Marketing Association at one of the conferences in Florida. And I also had a lot of other people then and things really took off because there were you know, a lot of people involved in the show, and I ended up later after more marketing on my part being sponsored by canon Adobe SanDisk. I ended up getting my own lighting, photo lighting line with fJ Westcott where I provided the education and they put my picture on the box. And you know, that was really cool. So there were a lot of great things that came out of that. And then you know, I'm still teaching on the cruise ship two times a year. So I've gotten to see the world that way. So I just I love teaching, I'm passionate about helping other people learn about things. So it all sort of worked out. It's interesting how just one little thing in your life can pivot you in a direction that just opens up. And that really did for me, and I continue to teach and now create lots of videos, Wiley publishers came to me and asked me to write some books. So I was just in the I was in the mode of saying yes, and trying to do everything that everyone was asking me to do, because I thought what a great opportunity. Sure. And it really was mean at one point to say to someone, yeah, I've had a television show. I've written books, and I produce a lot of videos and all that happened in a relatively short period. And people are kind of looking at me like, Where did you come from? Who are you and where did you come from? And I was just really, I just had kind of a unique background, I was in the right place at the right time. And I took advantage of it. I just had that visibility and over a period of time. So this started in 2005 routes 2021 it's been a little while my career has taken an evolution and you know, in the last few years I've I've kind of had to pivot especially this last year, of course, I think we've all had to pivot somewhat. But now I've really moved into I'm still doing you know, on camera and hosting and, and teaching

Gary Pageau  
and voiceovers for podcasts,

Erin Manning  
voiceovers for podcasts, and I also teach on a cruise ship. I teach photography and video on a cruise ship a few times a year. So I get to travel all over with that,

Gary Pageau  
if there were actually cruise ships, right,

Erin Manning  
yeah. When when cruises are cruising, they're about to start up again. So I'll be on I'll be cruising again in October. Yeah, so lots of different opportunities are out there. So now I'm really emphasizing aromatic media as being a full service video production shop. So not only am I just hosting and being in front of the camera, or just photographing, I'm actually helping produce these videos. So I've collected a team of really, really intelligent, multi talented people. And we can just put together concept right help companies, you know, come up with their videos that they want to use to market and I also help teach people and small businesses how to do that themselves. So to me, I mean, I'm really passionate about teaching and inspiring and entertaining people. To me. That's what's really fun.

Gary Pageau  
Now before we continue on that path, because that's really why we wanted to originally talk to you was about the Iron Man and media and some of the recent awards you've won, but I want to touch base with you back in the early 2000s era when you were doing this, a lot of digital photography coverage was very, very technical back there talking to consumers. You know, it's all megapixels and this and that, and you really took that piece out of and made it more accessible. Did you do you think that helped your distinguish you from some of the other voices that were out there at the time,

Erin Manning  
probably, I mean, it's all about being accessible and understandable and hopefully likable. When people are watching you on camera or listening to you on a podcast, it's, it's about being accessible. I mean, I understand that information. And I really work towards translating it into language people want to listen to, right, because if people aren't technically oriented, or they really don't care about that aspect of things, their eyeballs are just going to roll back in their head or glaze over. And they're just not interested. But I want to make it interesting to them. Because it really is fun and exciting. And it's not that difficult to do, especially with all the new tools available. So to me translating it and making it something that people want to listen to is important. You know, I've had people say, Oh, you know, you're just dumbing it down, I'm not dumbing it down. I'm making it simple and understandable. So someone actually listens,

Gary Pageau  
there's a big difference, because I do think, you know, in that era, and even today, to some extent, a lot of the tech industry coverage, the the writer, the blogger or the on camera personnel were really have really been driven by the desire to tell you how much they know, as opposed to helping the reader or the listener or the viewer understand what it is they're talking about. That's always been one of my beefs with kind of consumer press is the priesthood aspect of the tech blogger sphere, or the photography sphere, where it's, you know, we know these things, we're going to impart this knowledge on you, and I don't think, you know, for the average person, right, the person who maybe doesn't go to a lot of tech blogs and things but they're, hey, they're in the market for a camera, they want to see what's out there. There isn't a lot of that. So I think you kind of addressed that need and and made it more usable and accessible, but maybe relatable is a better word. For people were actually buying the products as opposed to gearheads.

Erin Manning  
Right. Yeah, I do try to make it very relatable. And just something that's, you know, kind of fun people learn when they can have a little bit of fun, maybe even laugh. So

Gary Pageau  
Crazy.

Erin Manning  
Yeah. If you're going to gain people's attention, it's not going to be what's sitting there talking about how fabulous you are, and how much you know, that's just so boring, darling, you really just you want, you want to find out what your audience needs. And that's what I tell people to when they're in front of the camera. Don't worry about you know, it's not all about you. It's about your audience. It's about what do they need? What do they want? How can you help them?

Gary Pageau  
Well, one of the things I've seen you do in the real world is when you talk to, let's say, a retailer, or a photo lab, or something about doing video to help their business because it is the growing area for retailers, to small retailers. I'm talking about to do how to demos, just regular everyday videos for their Facebook pages, Instagram, whatnot. What advice do you have for those folks who may not feel like they are television personalities, right? There's certain people who are just comfortable in front of a camera. They look great. They sound great. They don't need 17 retakes. And then there's everyone else who's like me What advice you have for those people? Because I know, I know you've spoken to them in the past, I'm sure you've come across people who could use video more effectively in their business, but maybe two or three tips to get them over the hump.

Erin Manning  
Yes, and it is it's tough. Most people aren't comfortable being on camera. I originally was not comfortable being on camera. In fact, I was really shy at one point in my life. And it was really tough for me to talk to a group of people, obviously, things have changed. But that's because I feel like I had a message to give and I just had to get over that just kind of get out of my own head and quit thinking about what other people are thinking about me and really think about how am I going to help this person I'm talking to which happens to be the lens of the camera. Just forget how to be nervous when you're doing that you're looking into the lens. And you're talking to that friend of yours that really wants to hear this. Now sometimes I pretend I was talking to my aunt or my dad, you know, someone that wanted to know about how this thing works, or whatever it is I was trying to whatever info is trying to share, and they really needed this info. And you just get going and it all feels much more natural. I mean, there are a lot of things you can do to kind of prep yourself before you go on camera. Things I'm always telling people to do like wear a solid colored shirt, don't wear a T shirt with a bunch of writing on it where people are reading what's on your T shirt as opposed to listening to what you have to say. And I tell people to powder their face because shiny faces are really kind of annoying and distracting. And a big thing is to just Look right into the lens, like, especially a lot of us tend to, especially for using a smartphone, and it's in the selfie mode. So we're looking at the screen, and we're looking at ourselves. But what happens is when you look at yourself in the screen, you're not looking into the lens. So when you look at the video later, you look like what Marty Feldman, I know, it's kind of an old reference. But you know, your eyes look like they're going off in some other direction. So it's really important to look at the lens, right when you're recording. And then here's the other thing if you're nervous about it. Here's the beauty of digital, just do practice recordings on your own if you get nervous in front of others. And again, you want to look into the lens and not think about who What What does everyone expect of me? What do I need to do you know, is my hair doing something funny, I'm not good enough to be here. Get all that bleep out of your head. Because no one cares. What people care about is what you have to say. And you need to help them. So that's what you need to think about when you're looking in that lens. And then a little tip I give people right before so after all this practicing, you're doing and you know, it's always it's painful to look at yourself. I know it's still painful for me to look at myself in a video but you just have to do it. You have to force yourself to do it to see what am I doing wrong? How can I improve? Am I tilting my head back too far and people are looking at my nose? Do I have a funny twitch? You know, what is it you just have to kind of monitor those things. But one thing I always do before we start videoing, I want to say taping or filming but we don't tape or film anymore, do we? We excite the pixels before you excite the pixels and start recording the video. I always laugh even if it's fake Haha, you know laugh right before you start recording. You know, it just relaxes you, it relaxes your face. And then you're smiling when you're on camera, and everyone loves to see a smile. So that's those are some tips I would give to people the biggest one is get out of your own head and just start talking to the lens as if it's a friend.

Gary Pageau  
Now the other thing is because we're talking off camera on this was because a lot of people can go and use their smartphone for this. They don't need professional quality cameras, they don't need a ton of gear. But what is the one piece of equipment they must have there?

Erin Manning  
Oh, most definitely a good mic sound is so important. You know, it's it's been proven there are a lot of stats out there that that say that people will watch a video, if it has bad content, bad delivery and bad light. But they will not watch a video if it has bad audio. So get a mic. And there are lots of mics out there, you can get one that plugs in, you know I'm talking about taping with a smartphone recording with a smartphone, you can get one that plugs in or you can get a wireless one, I use one all the time when I'm shooting with my smartphone, my iPhone, and that's a wireless mic by saramonic. And I'm not selling for saramonic or anything, it is truly one that I use. And I really like it. And it's like $170, you can get it in many different places online. And it's just as a receiver and transmitter and you just plug one end into your phone and then you clip the other end onto your belt loop. And there's a little lavalier mic that you then just clip on your shirt, and you can walk you know far away. Gosh, I was on a trip this last year and I would think I was probably like 300 feet away from the actual camera. And I was still recording and the audio was fabulous. So audio is really important. Get a mic

Gary Pageau  
when you talk to a retailer or photo lab. What are some topics? I mean you like is a month ago, mostly of the IPI crowd? What are some of the things that they could talk about in their store? Because one some of the feedback I get is, well, I just don't want to talk about product. Right? I don't want to I don't want to seem like I'm selling too much. So what could be some some ideas you think would be successful for a retailer just to kind of kickstart their thought process some unconventional ideas?

Erin Manning  
Oh, yeah, there's so many cool things you can do. And it's good to just kind of make a list and start thinking about how you might shoot it. But here's some ideas. You could do a thank you video from your team to new customers. You could do kind of an animated GIF from a video you already have on gifts calm, or just create one using the boomerang app. That's the Instagram app called boomerang. Yeah, it's free. You can create one there. It's kind of fun. You know, you got to pepper up, you got to pepper and mix up the types of videos you're putting out there. testimonials are really good. Obviously, we all look at reviews and so you know when your customers hear from someone else, it isn't being paid to say some wonderful thing. Their trust deepens the chance of buying you know, rises. Here's another one shoot a company culture video where you just interview your company, your mission, your vision, and make these short people don't have the attention span to watch a long video unless it's super duper exciting. So you could be doing 15 seconds, 30 seconds a minute, you know, it doesn't have to be very long. In fact, it shouldn't be, you could share some learning about what you do. For instance, if it's, if it's in your retail store, maybe it's something you do a special machine you have for printing something or ways that you have your customers come in and share their digital files, just something kind of cute and fun. Little things that kind of acquaint people with who you are and what you do. And you know, a lot of companies create these lifestyle videos that might show what it's like for customers to use your product. So those are just a few ideas. But

Gary Pageau  
it doesn't necessarily have to be the owner operator, they can involve more people on either on their team or customers or part of their community. Because I think that's an important point where when you talk to an owner and operator, they'll go like, it's always got to be me, because I'm the head of the company. And maybe it's not, maybe it's one of your staff, maybe it's an advocate, one of your customers who would love to talk about how great your printing is, for example.

Erin Manning  
Yes, absolutely. Remember, it's not all about you, it's about your audience, but it's also about other people that you work with other people on your team. That's what helps people get to know like, and trust you so they'll buy from you.

Gary Pageau  
Let's circle back now to Erin Manning media, because you've been very busy the last few months, despite COVID you've had some new projects that have launched and some award winning projects. So can you talk a little bit about DIY studio, what that is and how it works?

Erin Manning  
Yes, it's very exciting. So this last year, during COVID, I partnered with Photo Finale. So Photo Finale is a white label photo ecommerce service. And we're collaborating together to produce a new photo education series. And at this point, it's not even all that new. Because it's been online, I guess, when did we start last? May, it was online as of last May. So basically, I produce a video a month, and Erin Manning Media you know, and we collaborate with Photo Finale to concept it, and then we write it shoot it directed, edited, and we put together the full video and a series of social media videos. So a vertical horizontal square. Essentially what this does is the dealers that are running Photo Finale's website platform for photo product ordering, they can add these DIY studio videos to their sites. Also, the consumer gets spoto education, and then their product tie ends to drive sales for the dealers.

Gary Pageau  
So what are some of the typical topics you've seen on some of these? Especially, you know, in COVID, that must have been a challenge to get people because you're not the only person in these videos?

Erin Manning  
Oh, yes, that was a challenge. Yeah, on some of the videos, my mom is in. Um, so my mom is helpful in that regard. But yeah, I would just have to reach out to my, you know, my friends, I have a friend who's a casting director, and she found me my, the first talents that I used on the graduation video is a lovely gal that lived close by and you know, we just all wore masks, except when we were shooting and far away from each other. So it was always a challenge. And if you as you watch all the videos, you'll notice, hey, they're all kind of outside. Well, we had to share it outside because that was the safest thing to do. And I, you know, I went on to a casting site, and I have an account there. And I would just start to cast people for the other videos, and we found some wonderful people. I mean, they're all friends now. I mean, because we really went through so much to to put these videos together and we just ended up picking some great people. So yeah, it was a challenge to shoot during COVID for sure, and a little scary, but we did it and

Gary Pageau  
didn't come across in the videos. I mean, it looked like normal everyday stuff. So kudos to you. So you did a graduation video. You did a pet video what were some of the other ones?

Erin Manning  
Oh, holiday cards. Also how to how to have a better Zoom call, you know better video recordings. A lot of that was looking to the lens and light it right and you know, decent audio. Um, we have that we had one on flowers. We had a one on couples. We just did one on photographing kids. And we're working on one right now for collage wall, which is kind of cool template that helps you hang photos on the wall. Yeah, so they're, you know, they're all sorts of we try to kind of hit everything, every kind of topic and we're always open to new topics too. So if people want to send me an email and tell me about an idea you might have and we might do that next

Gary Pageau  
or what I find interesting to impart on this is not only partner with Photo Finale and clear has an output agenda, right? You know, they want people to output products through their retailers, right? And probably full disclosure, we should say that, you know, Photo Finale is a sponsor of the Dead Pixels Society, and we dearly love and appreciate them. But not all your topics are output related, right? I mean, they're just general enjoy photography stuff. It's not just here's how to make a collage wall.

Erin Manning  
Oh, yeah, totally correct. Yeah, we've got a video on composition and other about lighting, it's really about the value add, it's about going somewhere and being able to gain more information and feel inspired to just take more photographs. And it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to use those for output. That's really what the series is about, about helping people, you know, educating them on taking better photographs.

Gary Pageau  
The response from the retailers has been very, very positive on these, from what I understand.

Erin Manning  
Yes, it has been very positive. And in fact, it's been very positive from another aspect to which was a Telly Award putting it all

Gary Pageau  
Yes, I was gonna ask you about that. So what is a Telly Award? And why is this significant for this project?

Erin Manning  
And why do we care? What is it?

Gary Pageau  
There's that I mean, there awards you care about. There are awards you don't care about. So why do we care about the Telly Awards?

Erin Manning  
Well, first off, we won a silver Telly for the DIY studio series. And the Teles have been around since I think, since 1979. And basically, it's an industry group that awards and honors video, and TV content across all screens. So you might have judges in there from Warner Media, NBC, Vimeo, etc. And some of the winners this year, other than our group, of course, was Netflix, Walt Disney, Microsoft, Adobe, Nickelodeon, the Smithsonian, the list goes on. It's an industry, it's an industry award.

Gary Pageau  
So what so what category were you competing it?

Erin Manning  
Well, there were many categories, and you get to choose those as you enter. And sometimes if you choose one category, they may put you in another

Gary Pageau  
That doesn't seem right, does it?

Erin Manning  
I don't know. But we ours is really about education. And that's what I chose. It's it was more about education. It was a series, education and discovery is what it's what it's in.

Gary Pageau  
So it would be very disconcerting if you were like moved into the horror category. Hopefully not. So this is not your first Telly though. You've watched others.

Erin Manning  
I have one others. Yes. In fact, the last Telly that I won was for other photo education. And that was back in 2010. So it's been 11 years since I've, I've felt that, you know, I've done anything that I really wanted to enter into the telly awards. So it's like I've, I've had a renewed inspiration for putting more photo education out there. And there are different ways to do it. Now. It's like we're shooting with tools that I might not have used 10 years ago for shooting with on these particular videos, we use a DSLR, which is not unusual, but we're also using a GoPro and iPhones that were shooting this. So we put all these all of that together and then edit a fantastic video.

Gary Pageau  
And people can't tell the difference, I'm sure no, no, which is amazing. Like, like you said, I mean, you can get video off an iPhone, that on most people's screens, they won't be able to see that it's been shot on an iPhone, and then right next to ideal segue to a shot from a DSLR. And most people won't tell the difference.

Erin Manning  
That's right. So you can really get a lot out of your smartphones. And that's really what I recommend if you're just getting started with this and maybe you don't have a budget for anything, is just use your smartphone and get a mic preferably a wireless mic, but you know that you can get wired mics also for like $20 right and know about lights. So you may want to make sure that you're a nice lighting if you're using natural light, you know, make sure you're in open shade or narrow window or something where you get nice, soft, even diffuse light, or you know, bring a light some of a lot of people listening to this podcast may already know about light but some of you that don't know just make sure you're not positioned in a in a way where you've got light coming from behind you and that you don't have any sharp contrast ng shadows on people's faces.

Gary Pageau  
So reflectors are your friend

Erin Manning  
Reflectors and diffusers are your friend. Yes, definitely. So those are some important things and also, you know, a little tripod with a clamp that holds your phone I like to sometimes use a remote shutter to and sometimes those come with the tripods now they're pretty inexpensive, right? And you can just set things up on your own and get started or if you have someone that can help you Maybe get a gimbal and put the phone in that DJI has some cool gimbals. But there are other gimbals out there and it'll make your shots look a lot smoother, and not kind of Herky jerky. I also use a selfie stick too, I might have just a plain old selfie stick, and I put in my wireless mic and I just walk and talk looking into the iPhone camera.

Gary Pageau  
Cuz you always look into the camera lens,

Erin Manning  
cuz you always look into the camera, look into the lens. That's right,

Gary Pageau  
this isn't just you. I mean, you've got a team of people that are either freelancers or contractors you work with. So you tell me a little bit about your team.

Erin Manning  
My team is pretty fantastic. And we can add, subtract and add, you know, add in more people as needed. But the core team is Michael Welch, who I've known since 2004. In fact, he's the one that created the video that allowed me to get the job posting the whole picture. So that's sort of kick started everything. He's can do everything he can concept, right? direct edit, and a lot of times, that's where the story, you know, comes out is in the Edit. So he's been great. Rick Nyberg, I've known since I was 19, a few short years ago, and he's won many awards, and he's been a cinematographer, for a long time and new guys started shooting with but he's also friends with Mike is Todd Helene. And he's a pretty well known director of photography, though, it's basically those three guys. And on occasion, we might bring in someone else to help but we just, you know, we're kind of a skeleton crew right now. And we get it done.

Gary Pageau  
Well, that is kind of the the trend though these days is you can compete with tools that you know, nothing What back when we met in the mid 2000s weren't available. Right? If you wanted to do this level of broadcast level TV, you you, you didn't have a lot available to you at a reasonable price point that could also make phone calls.

Erin Manning  
That's right. And by the way, here's another tip, when you're shooting video with your smartphone, turn on airplane mode. So you're not getting a phone call in the middle of the recording, or a text perhaps

Gary Pageau  
Yes. So what's next for the DIY Studio Team? As you'll see, as things start to open up, hopefully, California will join the rest of the United States and going outside and, and

Erin Manning  
we already are we're out and about we're doing things here.

Gary Pageau  
Nice. So what projects or ambitions I should say do you have going forward

Erin Manning  
really just to continue to create really fun, interesting educational videos. So we're always just coming up with new topics. And that part's kind of fun. We're just going to keep creating, that's what we're gonna do.

Gary Pageau  
Awesome. So where can someone go for more information on either DIY studio or Erin Manning media,

Erin Manning  
where you can go to my website, www.erinmanning.com, and find out a lot of things. Photo Finale is the white label company that hosts all these videos, but a lot of people you know, the consumer wouldn't know who they are. There's someone that's known in the industry. So that's something you could check out his www.photofinale.com and find out more about what they do pertaining to your business.

Gary Pageau  
And I think they've got links there to the DIY studio content. So if you want to see the videos, that's a good place,

Erin Manning  
right. And then there are a lot of dealers that are hosting the videos too. You just have to go in and open up a free account so that you can see all the full length videos. We've got all the social media videos everywhere. 15 second teasers that lead up to the full length videos which are anywhere from like four to six minutes long.

Gary Pageau  
pretty long for a teaser.

Erin Manning  
Well, no the teasers 15 seconds, the actual video long for teaser, the teasers. 15 seconds, but the videos are anywhere from four to six minutes long. Okay, and that, you know, they're pretty action packed. So even you know, these days, four to six minutes might seem kind of long. Most videos are like two to three minutes. Right, so much information to share. We just pack it all in in a way that keeps you keeps you watching,

Gary Pageau  
and we'll be watching in the future as you grow Erin Manning Media.

Erin Manning  
Well, thank you. I hope so.

Gary Pageau  
Well, thank you, Erin for your time and wishing you the best in 2021. And hopefully we'll see you later in the year.

Erin Manning  
Thank you, Gary. Thank you for listening to the dead pixels society podcast. Read more great stories and sign up for the newsletter at www the dead pixels society.com