Tyler Koryak of OpenReel on How to Save Time and Cut Costs When Capturing Client Testimonials on Video

In this week’s episode of the Garlic Marketing Show, we’re sitting down with OpenReel’s Tyler Koryak to talk about how you can record high-quality client testimonial videos and thought leadership videos from anywhere using a smartphone.

OpenReel is a platform that allows its users to record videos remotely. If you have clients that aren’t located nearby OpenReel is the perfect solution, and it’s cost-effective too. Why hire a videographer when you can control the camera and be the crew from the comfort of your home or office? Plus, with OpenReel your footage will be uploaded to a cloud account in real-time, meaning you’ll get crystal clear footage regardless of your connection.

Listen to the full Garlic Marketing Show episode with Tyler to learn how you can use OpenReel to improve your video output:

What You’ll Learn:

  • The mistake everyone makes when recording videos and pushing them out
  • How to increase engagement with your videos on social media 
  • How you can save money on videographers with OpenReel
  • What two most popular types of videos you should be making for your business
  • How to get started on making your own videos (Just do it!)

 

 

Links & Resources:


 

Full Episode Transcript:

Ian Garlic:

Welcome to the Garlic Marketing Show. Ian Garlic here and today’s guest is awesome because he’s got a super, super cool software, an amazing tool that will change the way video is being done around the world. We’re gonna talk about that today, and we’re talking about his strategies, and also the fact that he was once the voice of God. Yes, God. 

But first, this episode of the Garlic Marketing Show is brought to you by StoryCrews, the #1 resource for online video and video marketing. Any [person] looking for strategies, looking for production, looking for local videographers, video editors, filmmakers, video marketers, storycrews.com is the place to go.

All right, Tyler Koryak from OpenReel is with us. Thank you, sir, for being with us today. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on the show. 

 

Ian Garlic:

We’re going to get into like their interview strategies, all these cool ninja techniques that they’re using. We’re going to demonstrate how to use the software because you can do remote video, and do really high-quality video with the software. We are going to be using it ourselves at authenticWEB and we’re going to be showing everyone on StoryCrews how to use it. But first, Tyler, tell us a little bit about yourself and the software. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

Yeah, definitely. Again, thanks Ian for having me on the show.

Again, everybody, my name is Tyler Koryak. I am the Director of Sales at OpenReel. I started here about three years ago now. I came from a sales background at a company called Single Platform. I think what’s really interesting about our journey at OpenReel is what we’re selling today is a product, it was actually an internal tool that we built for the company.

I actually joined, which was called ClearDoc. We were a medical publisher and it was kind of like WebMD. You go on cleardoc.com, you ask a medical question and nobody likes reading anything anymore, everybody watches video. So you would watch a prerecorded video of a doctor in your area answering one of your medical questions. Then you can book an appointment or consultation with that physician. 

What we realized really quickly was how hard it was to capture high-quality video content of these doctors all over the US. We went to the market and tried every single thing you could think of, whether it was hiring a high-end crew, using some of these meeting tools that you can also do recording from, and then we also tried some user-generated style videos, where we would send a kit with a script and you record it yourself. We would edit it and go from there.

Ultimately, what we built was the OpenReel solution that we’re selling now, and the main difference that really separates us from anybody else in the market is one, we’re a video-first platform. Everything that’s built into our technology is made to help improve the quality of videos that you’re looking to create.

The second thing that we realized was, in order to get high quality, we had to remove connection out of the equation, right? So even when we’re on this call right now, our connection is going to impact our video quality and not for the best, but downgrade the quality of video that we get.

And so, we patented a method on how we store and transfer the files. To keep it simple, we store it locally and upload it to a cloud in real-time. And that’s how you get super high-quality footage back. We’ve been on a pretty crazy run here the last year and a half when we moved strictly into licensing.

We used to create videos to kind of prove this all out. We know that people are looking to create videos this way because we created about 7,500 videos in less than two years for thousands of different clients all over the US. So we’re really excited to find different ways to get our name out there and to show people that, “Hey, the video doesn’t need to be expensive. It doesn’t need to take a lot of time, and you can still get something that looks good at the end.”

 

Ian Garlic:

Awesome. That’s really cool. What is the advantage of doing it this way? Why would you want to do it, use OpenReel versus say, sending a videographer?

 

Tyler Koryak:

Right? So really, I think it’s all going down to time and cost. When we were hiring typical crews to go out and shoot videos of doctors or even shoot videos for some of our other clients, you were really looking at about a half day, at the low end, maybe two hours up to four hours on the low end to have a crew go in there film, get all the footage, and then edit it back. 

But what we realized is people wanted this done quickly, right? So our goal was how can we go in there and save 80% on costs and time? How can we go in there in 30 minutes and capture one to two videos that have really great content, and how can we sell this to the customer or provide a service to the customer, which is –

 

Ian Garlic: 

So we were talking about saving time, money, and you’ll notice that this podcast was edited because after we’re talking about video and connection quality, the connection dropped. 

So that’s a perfect example of why you need to OpenReel. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

It doesn’t like me. It doesn’t like me. It kicked me for not using my tool.

 

Ian Garlic:

Yeah. That’s my fault for not using OpenReel on my podcast. All right, so you’re saying we can save time and money.

 

Tyler Koryak:

Yeah, it’s really 80 to 90%. You can go in there and capture a video in 30 minutes instead of having the typical crew come out for two, four, eight hours, however long that takes.

Just the cost of it alone, it depends if you are buying a solution from us and doing it yourself, it’s less than a hundred dollars a video. 

If you have an agency come out and do it for you, and we have tons of agencies who resell this, it’s about 500 bucks for a video.

So it’s just this super affordable solution, no matter which way you look at it, if you want to do it yourself with our tool or if you want to have an expert really take you through the whole process of directing, editing, and producing a video for you from beginning to end. 

 

Ian Garlic:

Awesome. Awesome.

Tell me a little bit about exactly how it works. Can you show us? Let me get… so you can share the screen. If you’re listening to this, you’re gonna have to go over to YouTube to watch it. So I’m gonna make you the host. All right. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

Okay. There we go. So, you know, let’s just keep this really simple.

This is just a simple one-pager that I show. The technology is really that easy to use, where if you’ve used any meeting tool before then it’s very similar to using this with OpenReel. Just like you and I connected today, right? You’re the director in this scenario, you’re running this podcast, this video shoot.

So you would go to our website, login, and start a video shoot. Once you did that, you would send the subject, me, a link. I click on it and the two of us are connected just like we are now. We can both see and hear each other. Where the difference comes in is, like I was mentioning, the two biggest differences is we’re a video-first platform.

So all of the controls, everything that we build into this dashboard is made to improve the quality of footage and improve the ease of the shoe. You know? So whether that’s obviously starting and stopping the recording, but I can adjust focus, right? I can choose where I want to focus. I can adjust exposure, all the different color balances.

I can go in and choose a different resolution that I want to shoot in, 720, 1080, 4K. Obviously it’s device-specific, but iPhone 7 or above can shoot 4K out of the back camera, 1080 out of the front camera. So you can get crystal clear video content.

If we’re capturing a video just like this, but maybe you want me to go walk around and show our office, our logo, capture some b-roll for a video, there’s a built-in stabilizer. You don’t need a gimbal. Turn that on, and it’ll get rid of almost all the shape. 

One of my other favorite features is a teleprompter. You know, I hate having everything scripted. I kind of like shooting off the cuff, but there’s something about just writing a script out, having it scroll on the screen and yeah, maybe only read 30% or 40% of what’s scrolling on the screen, but you know how it is.

Sometimes you get on a tangent and you’re talking about something that you’re super passionate about and you just completely forget to talk about a point that was really important. So the teleprompter kind of keeps you there as a guideline. So in this shoot, I’m just going to frame the shot, click to focus, let our algorithm adjust all the coloring, turn the teleprompter on, and we’re recording. Now, that’s great, but the patent that we have is what really helps improve the quality. 

And like I said before, what we realize is, I don’t want to say it again, it’s cursed, but the connection. Our connection is negatively impacting the quality of footage we get back, no matter how good or how bad it is.

Now with OpenReel, we basically just store the file locally for a second, and then it’s uploaded to a cloud account in real-time. You get that crystal clear footage no matter where you’re shooting. Whether it’s in a bad area like I’m in now or where they’re paying $1,000 a month for internet service.

The saying that we have is really this, the worst quality footage you can get with OpenReel is going to be the best at the camera you’re using can produce on its own, without the OpenReel app. That’s the worst you’re going to get, is the best you can do by itself. Where if you use any other system out there to capture a video remotely, you’re never going to get the full capabilities of what that camera can do by itself.

 

Ian Garlic:

That’s awesome. That’s really cool software.

Let’s talk a little bit about applications. Now, obviously we’re talking about making videos, but what are the best videos you’ve seen? I know you have a strategy that you all are using to sell and it’s working really well. But yeah, tell me a little about some of the applications that really create some awesome videos.

I mean, obviously you made a lot of those doctor videos, but what are some of the best applications for it? 

 

Tyler Koryak:

You know, I think it really depends on where you’re at with video, right? When we talk to a company, it’s like, “Hey, are you just getting started? Have you created any videos before? Or do you have some sort of strategy in place and you’re just looking for a more efficient, easier, you know, more cost-effective way to capture this video content?”

What we see a lot is the first video that most clients will make at the beginning is an “about me” explainer video. This is who I am. This is my company. This is a little bit about us and why we’re important. And what we’re really seeing with that trend is that it’s so important to tell a story.

You have to find a way to connect with the people that are going to view your content. So if you tell a story, it’ll be interesting. Use OpenReel to capture it and it will come out as high quality. So I think that “about me/explainers” are one that we recommend at first for every client.

After that, 90% of all video shot with OpenReel are going to be testimonials and subject matter expert or thought leader videos. This is actually what we lead in to when we call companies. Do you have an initiative to create any testimonials or thought leader style interviews this year?

And I think testimonials are simple. We don’t need to talk about that for too long, but every single company, I don’t care who you are, who you sell to, what you do, you should have at least two or three testimonials. Every single call that I’m on selling this product, I either send the testimonial before somebody asks or they ask me before I can even send them. Hey, do you have any videos of people talking, why they like your product, how they use it, things like that. 

So I, that’s one of our biggest applications. The second one that we were talking to earlier about, Ian is subject matter expert interviews, just like you’re doing right now. We’ve just started launching a ton of video content, about two to three videos per week as a company.

And all of a sudden we had one of my counterparts, his name’s Justin Swain, he started interviewing other subject matter experts in the industry. Those videos by far get three to four times the return as any of the other videos that we release. It’s just incredible to see the response that we’re getting.

So he’s going to interview somebody in the marketing world, in the video world, post his video, mainly on LinkedIn (that’s where all of our business comes from.) and what happens is he has people reaching out to him saying, “Hey, I want to do this and learn more about it.” But the other thing that’s happening is every single person he interviews is interested in the product. 

Now they’re asking for a demo. They’re saying, “This is the easiest thing I’ve ever done. This video looks absolutely amazing. It looks like a crew did it. We knocked it out in about 20 minutes. I talked to my company about it, we’re interested, and I have five or six other people that I told about OpenReel and now they’re interested.”

I think that if you are looking to start creating videos for the first time, just go out and create a video about you and the company. “This is who I am. This is what I do.” But if you have a couple of videos out there, that next step, what you need to be doing is you need to find two or three friends in the industry or two or three people that you know in the industry that you’re in and you need to just interview these people on trends in the industry, what’s going on, what’s hot, what’s not.

You will be so surprised about the response that you get. 

 

Ian Garlic:

That’s really cool. So let’s- I’m gonna pull up a couple of- I’m gonna pull up your Facebook page here and… Your LinkedIn. I said Facebook. I meant LinkedIn. I’m on your LinkedIn. Let me see here… I’m going to share. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

You’ll see a video on there as well. I was trying to spice things up, so I brought my dog into one of the videos and that actually had the highest engagement. 

 

Ian Garlic:

Dogs and babies! That’s what we’re battling. Dogs and babies with your videos. I always tell people that no matter how good your video is, you’re always gonna be battling dogs and babies. So here’s Justin and here, this is one of them… Which one’s a good one? Should we check out? 

 

Tyler Koryak:

Yeah, this is the one here… 

 

Ian Garlic:

All right, cool.

 

Tyler Koryak:

Yeah, this was shot in 20 minutes. I think just a shot on the front camera of an iPhone7 and 1080.

 

Ian Garlic:

Nice. And you guys are getting some good engagements on the videos right. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

Yeah. We will get about 2,500 to 3,000 views after 10 days.

 

Ian Garlic:

Wow. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

With 80% of those coming within the first 48 hours. 

 

Ian Garlic:

Here’s 3,000 views on LinkedIn and 43 comments. That’s fantastic. 

 

Tyler Koryak:

43 comments is insane. I mean, we don’t have any followers on these. You know, our OpenReel page has- I mean I have 5,500 followers. Justin has, you know, probably around the same, but on OpenReel we only have 350 followers. We’re not paying to boosties or anything.

These are just simple videos that we started shooting. You had 3,000 views, 50-60 likes, 30-40 comments. And every time we post a video, we get at least one reading from it. 

 

Ian Garlic:

That’s awesome. That’s very cool. So yeah, I mean, this is a great, great strategy. What are some other tips and techniques?… Oh, there’s Full Sail.

 

Tyler Korayk:

Uh, Oh, yeah. So Full Sail. That’s my fiance. She works at LinkedIn.

 

Ian Garlic:

That’s very cool. Yeah, Full Sail. My wife works at Full Sail and I’ve been an advisor for them. That’s really cool. 

 

Ian Garlic:

So what are some of the tips and tricks to really making the most out of OpenReel and supercharging the use of it? Where are you seeing people that really are super users?

How are they using it? 

 

Tyler Koryak:

Don’t overthink it. Right? I think one of the things that people do, and you know, we did this as well. When you’re starting to create videos or you have a new tool, you have a new initiative. It doesn’t really matter what it is. If it’s new at the beginning, you’re trying to make it perfect. You want the workflow perfect. You want the video to look perfect. The content, the process to look perfect. 

What we’ve learned is you just need to jump in with it. If you get an OpenReel account, call one of your friends, shoot a video of yourself. Just figure something out to shoot a video within that first 24 to 48 hours.

It’s not going to be perfect. It’s going to be 80% as good as the next one will be. But if you just hop in and get that first one done, every single one after that is just going to be a piece of cake. And the way I would use OpenReel again is I would reach out to 10 clients and try to get three out of those 10 clients to shoot a testimonial.

And I would reach out to 10 friends that are in a similar industry and try and get two or three of those people on video. If you do what we do and post it on your LinkedIn. We ask about five or six of our friends to share posts as well. I think that’s why we’re able to get 3,000 – 4,000 views.

You will get leads from it. You will get exposure from it. You will have people calling you, reaching out to you, without spending a dollar actually on the advertisement side of it, just by producing the video itself. 

 

Ian Garlic:

That’s awesome. That’s great, a great technique that, you know, and I need to write that down. 

 

Tyler Korayk:

Just do it. That’s all. That’s our motto.

 

Ian Garlic:

My motto is, “Version done is better than version none.” You know, the video you make today that’s “average” is inevitably millions of dollars worth better than what you make three years from now, cause you’re missing three years of people watching that video and you get better by making videos.

How do you get good at making videos? By making videos. Now the one thing we do have is a blueprint. If you go to storycrews.com/blueprint we have a way of a methodology for how to decide what videos to create, where to put them, etc. Because, you know, maybe LinkedIn isn’t your thing. Maybe you should be on Facebook.

So make sure to go check that out. 

But OpenReel, so tell us, how do we get the software? How do we get it set up? How does it all work? 

 

Tyler Koryak:

Yeah, I mean, it’s super simple. You know, if you are interested in learning more about OpenReel, you simply go to our website. When you get there, you can chat with us immediately to book a demo or click the pricing page to fill out a demo request form.

From there, me or one of my colleagues will take you through a quick 20-minute pitch/walkthrough around how it works, how we can even do a live test shoot or do- a lot of times what we do, is we connect with your phone or computer and shoot a quick video of you right on the spot. I’ll just show you how easy it is, and from there it takes about 30 minutes of training to get up and shoot it.

It’s that simple. 

 

Ian Garlic:

Awesome. Yeah. We’ll have links in the show notes. If you’re just listening, or if you’re watching this on YouTube, just look down below the video. We’ll make sure to have links to all of this. 

You know what we didn’t get into is how did you become the voice of God?

 

Tyler Koryak:

Oh yes, the voice of God. So this is one of my favorite stories. You know, I never knew what the voice of God. It’s like the emcee of the show and I actually was with my fiance. She asked me to volunteer at an event. It was called musicians on call. It was here in New York City. Awesome charity. It benefits usually kids who are really sick in the hospital and you know, famous musicians or just local musicians will go in and play music for these kids in the hospital. So I volunteered. 

I’m late for everything. Okay? I’m always five minutes late and for some reason I got there early and so I’m downstairs getting ready. I’m thinking I’m going to hang people’s coats, do things like that at the show, and this lady taps me and she goes, “What’s your name?”

I said, “Tyler,” and she goes, “I need you to say, ‘ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show.’” And so I just repeat it, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show.” And she’s like, “No, no, no. I need you to do it. Like you’re emceeing an event.” And so I give her my best voice, and all of a sudden, two minutes later, I’m in a booth above this whole production.

I didn’t realize it, but every celebrity you can think of was there. So I announced the whole show. I announced Hoda Kotb, Nick Jonas, Shawn Mendes. A million other people. So I emcee this whole event from this little booth, this little lighting booth, and it was literally the coolest experience of my life.

I tell everybody I meet if you hang out with me for more than an hour. It was just absolutely amazing. 

 

Ian Garlic:

Awesome. That’s so cool. That is a great opportunity. Well, fantastic. Tyler and I are actually going to go and do a demo of this, but, is there anything else, any other information that you want people to know?

Anything else that you think really people should think about when they’re using OpenReel? 

 

Tyler Koryak:

I think with video in general. I think you hit the nail on the head before where you know, one, don’t overstate your first video, right? Whether you’re using OpenReel, no matter what solution you’re using, don’t overthink creating video.

Just get that first one done and realize that you have to build this house. You have to build this, the video plan, one brick at a time, shoot that first video, learn from it, and every single time you shoot another one, you will get better. You will improve, and you’ll start seeing results nearly right away.

We’d love to have all of you guys here to join us with the OpenReel technology. We think this is an amazing solution that’s revolutionizing the way people go about and think about creating video. So if you’re looking for testimonials, if you want to create interview-style videos, if you want to capture thought leader content just like being just like us and really get some results on these social sites with video, then OpenReel is going to be your best source and we look forward to meeting all of you guys and talking to you soon.

 

Ian Garlic

Awesome. Tyler, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it and make sure you all check out, Open Reel. Click on those show notes and make some videos, make lots of videos and one other thing, be consistent. Be consistent. That’s really what’s going to get at anything, you have to be consistent.

You know, have a strategy and say, “I’m going to stick to the strategy and get it done.” But the other thing is people are gonna comment about it and you’re getting the more videos you get out there, you’re going to get some bad comments. So that’s part of life. 

Tyler, thank you so much for being on the show.

 

Tyler Korayk:

Thanks for having me. 

 

Ian Garlic:

And thank you all for taking Tyler and I on your journey. This has been Ian Garlic and the Garlic Marketing Show.