I know this is supposed to be about us, and about Global Video Academy, and I’ll get to that. I promise. But first…
Here’s what I know about you
I know that you care, deeply. You’re willing to sacrifice, to go without, to endure hardship and sleepless nights. You’ll risk being misunderstood and even mistreated… because you’re on a mission. You’re passionate. You have a dream. You have a calling.
Not only do you have a vision, but you’re on your way to seeing it become reality. You’re walking down a road on which most of your friends would never dream to venture. Oh, they think it’s cool and they admire you for it, but they secretly know they just aren’t cut out for this out-of-the-box stuff.
You’re on a grand adventure, but it can get lonely out here.
Sometimes very lonely.
When you took the first steps on this journey you were surrounded by friends. Maybe they threw you parties, gave you money, or saw you off at the airport. They promised so much —
“we’ll be sure to write”
“we’ll Skype you into our small group”
“we’ll deposit money into your account”
“we’ll…”
And after a few months those promises faded to mere good intentions and then were sadly forgotten all together.
You notice the silence, so you write a impassioned email, attach a couple of cute photos… no replies. Perhaps you mail off a newsletter… crickets. Maybe you update your Facebook status only to get a handful of likes and maybe a share.
“What the…” you scream into the void. “Where is everyone? Have they forgotten me? Don’t they care anymore?”
You need a new way to engage the imagination of your friends.
I hope you’re sitting down. Hard truth: the ways that have reliably worked before just don’t cut it anymore. Newsletters are a waste of trees. Long, detailed emails rarely get opened, and are read even less. You need something to help you tell your story that will actually get someone’s attention.
You need to use video. Really.
I know, I know… you aren’t a video producer, and you can’t afford to hire one. And, even if you could somehow get a professional crew to shoot your story this month, what are you doing to do next month, or next year. It’s just not a viable, realistic option.
But here’s the good news.
You’ve probably got the answer, right now, there in your hand.
Your smartphone. It can be an iPhone, Samsung, LG, or one of those cheap unknown brands from China… it doesn’t matter. It even doesn’t have to be the latest version. Most smartphones for sale today can record usable, high definition video.
Now you simply need to know how to use it like a professional cinematographer would, so your video doesn’t look like it’s been shot by a drunken clown at a child’s birthday party.
And you need to know how to tell a story visually, and how to create a call to action so the people who watch it will feel like doing something to join your cause.
Global Video Academy is being created for just those reasons.
Now is the part where we actually talk about us.
We are the founders and creators of Global Video Academy. We have decades of professional experience in more than 75 nations of the world. We have multiple awards (like the Emmy). We are repeatedly hired to create video content that creates response and gets results… and we can teach you how to do it too.
Global Video Academy was birthed in Santiago de Cali, Colombia a few years ago when we were teaching a workshop on creating effective videos. Only a few people in the room of 100 participants said they were regularly making videos. The rest had one of three excuses:
- we don’t have professional equipment
- we don’t have enough resources (read: money)
- we don’t know what we’re doing or we haven’t been trained.
I looked at a guy in the front row who was particularly boisterous and asked him what he had in his hand. It was a smartphone. That day we began taking away their excuses as we taught them how to create short, effective videos using their mobile phones. Since then we’ve expanded and enhanced that training and used it in six countries of the world to train ordinary people to tell their extraordinary stories using video.
And it works.
After every workshop, people who put the training into practice reported a dramatic and immediate increase in connection and response after sending out a link to their video report. Those who relied on donors to fund their work said they witnessed an unprecedented surge in financial gifts.
We realized there were so many people around the world — people like you — who had an immediate need for this training. Unfortunately, if we relied on in-person workshops to teach these concepts, we would never reach more than a small percentage of the people who needed it.
We shared this need and our solution with the WDS Foundation who awarded us a grant to develop this material into an online training curriculum. And that is where we are now.
Helping you tell the stories of your life and work is why we are building Global Video Academy.
You can build a strong community around your mission, starting now.
We’re recording the training modules right now. We’ve already shot in Kenya and Ethiopia. Still to come this year are Mexico, Tanzania and Jordan. And we are inviting you to join us on this journey.
Sign up for our regular updates as we create this online course. We’ll share with you the successes and struggles we encounter along the way, and you’ll learn right along with us.