Mastering Video Content - Chris Perilli of Pixel Mobb

Hey, what's up, Fitness Family? Welcome back to the Future of Fitness podcast and interview series. I'm your host, Eric Malzone. This is episode number 40. Can you believe it? Uh I get to talk to Chris Perilli. So he is the CEO and founder of Pixel Mob. And he uh is the godfather of video content. Yep. I said it. And he's gonna be blown away with that title because uh he's a big time into Godfather movies and uh he deserves it. So he's been doing it for a very long time, and he works on a lot of huge names Tim Ferris, uh Ghostface Killer, Wu-Tang Clan, and within the fitness industry, some big names that you'll know as well, including Stephen Boyle, Warren T. Miller. Uh, and he's taken their projects and developed uh incredible video content for them to use and sell. So he knows his shit basically is what I'm trying to say. So before we get on to that, I'm just gonna ask you for three quick things. Uh if you could please go to iTunes and subscribe and favorably uh rank us, uh, as well as go to our YouTube channel, which is in the Fitness Marketing Alliance, and uh it's the Future of Fitness series. And if you could subscribe to that and rank us favorably, that would be great. And then lastly, if you find an episode that you really like, please share it on social media, uh Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, whatever it is that you like to use and tag me. Uh I'm on all of those platforms, and I would love to hear from you and what you like and uh start a dialogue there. So please do those things. And without further ado, this is Chris Pirelli, and I think some of the things you'll get from this, which are really valuable, which I did too, is he takes years of experience, right? Decades of experience, just like all great fitness coaches, and it boils it down to some very simple, actionable steps that you can do today to start your video content and start getting uh the attention and awareness that you need for your business. So here we go. Episode number 40. Everybody, welcome back. This is Eric Malzone with the Future of Fitness Podcast, and today I have Chris Perilli, and he is of Pixel Mob. So, Chris, give us an introduction. Tell us uh who you are, what you do, who you work with, and then we'll get into some really uh some great content for these fitness professionals.

Awesome. Thank you, Eric, for having me here. I appreciate it. Uh, I look forward to sharing some of my expertise and knowledge. My name is Christopher James Pearley. I am the founder and executive producer at Pixel Mob. What Pixel Mob has done for the last decade is we have created info products and productions for some of the top fitness and martial arts in uh entrepreneurs in the industry. And we've helped our clients make multiple millions of dollars every year. And in that time, I've had the opportunity and the honor to work with people like Joe DeFranco, Tim Ferris, uh, Mike Boyle, everybody from that side of things to people like Fat Joe and the Wu-Tang clan. And I've had a front row ringside seat to seeing what really works when it comes to using video to leverage your business, service, or product, and get it out there and get in front of people and ultimately get attention and get sales.

Wow, that's quite a uh that's quite a list, man. That's that's pretty cool. Uh so it runs the gamut. Yeah, I bet. Yeah, it sounds like it. So give us an insight then. You know what uh I I everyone in the fitness industry, or most people in the fit industry are on social media or they're creating their websites and they're trying to figure out this whole branding, marketing, messaging. Uh it's a lot, right? There's a lot of opinions, there's a lot of information, there's a lot of quote unquote consultants, there's a lot of people who do it for you, people who showed how to that you can do it your your own way. Well, from all of your wealth of experience, what's your what's your takeaways and what do you want fitness professionals to know?

Okay, so um, I must have had this conversation with multiple people over the last like couple of weeks about like how to create how to create marketing and video marketing specifically that's going to propel your business forward. If you're a martial artist or if you're a fitness business owner. And essentially, I think that there is uh a disconnect in the sense of understanding what actually works. So let's break it down for a second. Um we all know that we need to be using video, and if you don't know that you need to be using video, I'm telling you right now, essentially, you need to be using video. It they show the statistics that by 2020, 90% of the content that's going to be on social media is going to be video. If you look from a statistics perspective, um all of the most trended content right now is video on both YouTube and Facebook. And if you look from a sp a perspective of ad sell, Facebook ads really like it's a huge benefit to use video. We have used video for our customers and our clients along with ourselves and have gotten as low as like 0.0004 of a cent per video view. And that's like really unheard of at this point. So if you're not using video, you have to get on it. Um, if you are using video, a couple of things that I can tell you that work tremendously well. Now, everybody now walks around with your phone, right? So you have the ability to have a high-powered camera in your pocket at all times. So the excuse that I don't have the equipment is no longer a valid one. But what this does and gives us as a blessing, it also is a curse in the sense that it allows us to, as a general whole, just take the phone and start talking into it and making a video and putting it out there. And while sometimes that works if you are an excellent communicator, most of the time what happens is that there's so much content being put online, and social platforms just are unable to show you know a multitude of different things to various different people. So what happens is there's this area of white noise and like mediocrity. And what when so much content is being put online and so much information is being put online that it's very hard to kind of stand out and get above that noise, right? So in doing this for a decade, I've come to see that if I could boil this down to one single concept. This one single concept is the foundation for not just all videos, but all marketing, all movies, all books, anything that is consumed on a regular basis basis. And what that is, is emotion. If you're able to create emotion in your marketing, in your sales letters, in your email campaigns, or in your videos, you will make your marketing that much more sticky. And when I say sticky, meaning that people will gravitate towards your marketing, but not just gravitate, they will actually sit around, stick to it, read through it, and possibly act on it, which is a huge thing. I think a lot of times people they get sidetracked with the idea that I'm just gonna put out some videos, I'm just gonna talk to the camera, and if there's not a thought process behind what you're doing and what you're specifically trying to say and how you're trying to say it in a unique way that's enticing to the viewer, it's kind of gonna get lost in the that middle area of digital noise. So that's what we try to prevent as best as we possibly can by giving people the information and understanding that if you're able to create emotion in your videos, you will make them so much more exponentially better than anybody else and better than your competitors, and you'll be able to connect with your audience on a level where they'll be primed to purchase from you either now or in the future.

That's that's huge advice, and it's true because and we have all the statistics to back up what you're saying, too, is you know, there's an incredible amount of content being published now. I mean, it's everywhere. Everybody has, right? You're right, with the phone everybody has in their pocket. Um God, I read this. I wish I could dig up this staff, but it was something like Um the large majority of adult Americans have their phone within two feet of them 90% of the day. Right? Even when they go to sleep. Yeah, it's crazy. It's it's wild. Who would have thought? Uh I guess the question is if I'm sitting here and I'm I'm a fitness professional and I I'm not creating content at this point, you know? Um but I I need to get started. In your mind, what's what's more important? Just starting or taking a uh taking your a thought process and running it through so that you make sure the content's as as impactful as possible? Or is there a happy medium there somewhere if you're uh gonna give advice?

Yes, so I always think that, and this goes to anything that we do from a branding and marketing perspective, is it's there's a crucial part of any type of creative that needs to be thought out. So the thought process behind it is very, very important. Matter of fact, you could honestly say that the thought process drives all of the action after that. So if you have the thought process down correct, then going and creating the content is essentially filling uh painting by numbers, right? But if you just try to go out, and this is what I see a lot, is people will go out and they'll be like, okay, I'm gonna start creating content. I don't know what I'm gonna really create today, but I'm just gonna jump up here and talk about something, right? And while that works sometimes, you'll see statistically that that stuff kind of doesn't connect again unless you're have perfected your like I know there were a few people in the game that are just amazing orators and amazing communicators, and they can get by with their energy and with like what they what they're actually saying, what they're saying in the way that they're saying it, not necessarily what specifically they are saying. So, what I suggest is anybody that's looking to create content, it's really easy. I think as entrepreneurs, I think you can agree on this. We all overcomplicate our lives so much more than it really needs to be, right? It doesn't have to be complex, it doesn't have to be complicated. I know for a fact because I'm probably one of these people, the way I make things way more different at the beginning of our business, I made things so much harder on myself than they needed to be. So one of the things is if you if you don't have a sim a simple method and a simple strategy, the chances of you, it's just like the gym. If you don't have a simple workout schedule and a simple nutrition schedule, it's probably not gonna happen. It might happen for a week or two, but it's gonna fall to the wayside. So, really easy. I'm gonna give you a quick way for you, for anybody watching this to lay out a content schedule. Really simple, right? Think about this. From a perspective of the business that you run and the people that you help, think about the five biggest problems that they have. So, just for instance, weight loss, right? Not enough time, don't know what food they they want to eat, uh, have a lot of dogmatic ideas in their heads and misinformation, um, don't really have the energy to get to the gym or train on a specific time, have kids and have a family and don't know how to work around that. Boom. Those are your five problems, right? And I'm just freestyling right now, off the off the head. But those are your five problems. Now you come up with five solutions that your program solves those five pro problems. So, for instance, one is okay, easy done for you method uh of workout, nutrition, uh, nutrition plans that are laid out specific so that that you don't have to recreate the wheel every time. Um I I forgot actually what the other the problems were, but having two not enough time with kids. Yeah, so to uh how how to break up your your workouts in a way that you and your spouse can get them done, right? So, like if you you solve all of the problems, and then people are like, well, you know, that's great. So so essentially you have five days of content, and five days, so you have five problems, five solutions, and Monday through Friday, you can make a video every single day touching on that problem or that solution. And then people ask me, well, you know, how do I speak about the same thing over and over? Well, that's really easy, right? If you think about it, they take take any of those things, take nutrition, for example. You can there's layers to that. So one day you can talk about um meal prep and cooking all at the beginning of the week or in the middle of the week so that you are able to, you know, have these meals set up so you don't go crazy. The next week you could talk about how you know being dehydrated actually has something to do with your fat loss and performance. The next week could be like adding grains or beans into your diet and what that does to you or what what it might affect you from uh allergic standpoint. The next week could be what types of lean meats and how do you make breakfast in the morning on five minutes? And literally you could go on as an expert. You know, I could talk about video stuff all day long. As a fitness expert, you could talk about stuff all day long. So once you have those five problems and the five solutions, that's essentially your content plan, your content strategy. So you have Monday through Friday, and you every week you could go deeper or shallower, depending on the um depending on what you're talking about, and you have a year's worth of content that you could just lay out quick, fast. And now, if you miss a day, no big deal. You just pick up the next thing and you keep going.

Yeah, I love it. And I think you know, one of the the issues, and I I get to talk to a lot of fitness professionals. So the I don't know if it's more prevalent in this industry than it is in the other, but the imposter syndrome, right? The feeling that you you don't really know what you're talking about. You're not an expert, right? It's these little voices that come at us in our head. And uh I think what you're talking about right now of laying out a plan and having it keeping it very simple and elegant, right, in the same way, I think can really combat that too. Like, listen, all you're gonna get up to do, and all you're gonna cut a three-minute video on how to do a healthy meal plan for people with kids, right? That's it. That's all you're gonna talk about, right? You don't have to sit up there and and do a two-hour lecture on physiology and kinesiology, you just have to keep it simple and valuable to the to the listener, to the person who's absorbing the content. So that's a huge tip, and that's really big for so many reasons, because I do believe that imposter syndrome is the biggest reason why most people aren't getting online and doing this type of content. You know, they're scared.

If you if and and to to even make it even more simple, whatever video you're doing, one point. That's all you need to do. Cross one point, make one point in the video. If it's about specifically eating fruit, make it about eating fruit. You know, like sometimes I'll see people they'll create videos and it goes off on tangents and in one point, three minutes, it's so much easier to get something across that's one point and let somebody walk away from the video understanding one single thing, right? So, like, for instance, what I just said earlier, emotion. If I could boil it down to one thing, it's emotion. Now, talking about that imposter syndrome, I myself, I'll I have no shame in saying this, I've dealt with that for very many years. That at the beginning of this, and sometimes still there's there'll be that voice that creeps in, and and it'll be like, you know, I think it's funny too because I've talked to um entrepreneurs at the highest level that are making eight, nine figures even, and they too have this same thing. And I went to a Tony Robbins event, and Tony Robbins said that he had the same exact thing, and then people would ask him, Well, do you have a degree? And he's like, Well, no. And well, do you have um certifications? He's like, Well, no. And he's like, So what do you have? He's like, I got a PhD in results. I get results for people. I love it. And that's the truth. You know, you get results for people on a day-to-day basis. Who cares what like certifications or any of that other stuff? It really doesn't matter. As long as you're getting results for your clients and for your the people that come looking for results and you get them those results, you're an expert.

Yeah, I love it, man. That's that's great. And I agree. I have talked to some very, very um impressive people and people who I would be like, no way that they they ever have imposter syndrome, right? It's like, no, and they should and then the higher level they are generally the more apt they are to admit it. Yeah that's the big that's the funny thing, right? Yeah. Uh and I I mean I I have it, it's like a daily thing for me. And I'm always, you know, I can't put that out there. That's I don't that's not proven, right? You know? Uh so um so I'm interested now. You've you've got this this huge, you know, you've got this this decade of experience in here. Um, and I see the activity that you have online, and I know you're just a very uh driven active person. What's what's next for Pixel Mob? What are you foreseeing in the next two years for what you guys are doing?

So Pixel Mob is going to continue. So what we've been doing for the last decade is we've been helping uh entrepreneurs put out info products, and info products are exploding, and they continue to explode. But I'm noticing that there's uh a bit of a change in the market. So we're going to continue to ride that wave, and we're going to continue to put out more and more products and work with high-level coaches and entrepreneurs. Um we're actually venturing into other business sectors besides just the fitness industry. But we've we've developed now crews of teams, so we're going to be able to service a bunch of different people at different levels. That's something that's really, really um really really exciting for me. Um, I've started my consulting business, which is Pixel Muscle. Um, and we've had so much curriculum coming out for I actually have a uh a product coming out for fitness uh fitness professionals on how to create content for their gym. So and it's similar, it goes over what we talked about, but a lot more in depth. Um and alongside that we have video muscle, which is my coaching group that if somebody wants to learn how to really up their level of videos and get the results that they've been looking for, that's what we do. It's a lot of interaction with me myself. But you know, to touch on one thing about just to to backtrack for one second. Sure. I think that one of the reasons that people, besides the imposter syndrome, that people, I guess it all ties in, right? We all fear being judged. We all fear the backlash of what would happen to us if we put out content and nobody likes it, or worse, everybody hates it, and then comment on it and you're an idiot, and like, you know, I've put out content and some stuff went great, some stuff nobody's looked at, and some stuff has been flamed horrendously. And just people are there is this the internet gives us this ability to connect with people all across the globe, and it's amazing in that right, but it also gives us the ability to kind of show some of the darkest parts of humanity, and because there is no set of repercussions, right? So people could say whatever they want and do whatever they want online, and there's no real punishment for it. Um I think the biggest thing that has helped me get over all of this and has and I've helped my clients get over this as well, is to understand that when you're putting out content, it's not about you, it's not about me, right? If I focus on me and focus on the way I look or the way I sound, or I'm never going to release a video ever, right? Because I'm always going to pick up part, something about myself. But if you focus on the message and you focus on the people that you're helping and the value that you're giving to people, that kind of falls away. I'll tell you a quick, real, a real quick story. I was deathly afraid of public speaking. This video, maybe 10 years ago, I would have never done. I would have never been on here talking to you. Uh, and I actually get hired to speak in front of people now, which is the weirdest thing in the world because it was my biggest fear. And I knew that, you know, from training jujitsu and martial arts and muay thai and everything, I knew that if something I was afraid of something, I have to do it. So I put myself in that position where I went out and consistently did these things, and the first one or two were mortifying. I don't think I slept for like two nights. I was just deaf. I was like sweating. I looked like I was down a slip and slide, but there was AC on, right? Right. So I was like sweating and and it was it was a tough situation, but I realized uh from one of my mentors, John Spencer Ellis, he said to me, he said, This is not about you. This is about all those people that are looking for you to help them with their business and growth. And and at that point, that was my third speaking engagement. He said that to me and it touched me on the shoulder. And when I went up, I had no nervousness, no fear. And I all I did was focus on the fact that I'm helping these people better their lives, essentially, and better their families' lives, because the information that I'm gonna give them is gonna better their life, it's gonna trickle down. And that's the same thing. If you can get somebody healthy or strong or more confident in life, that's what fitness people do. I mean you're literally changing their lives from the inside out, and that will have a cascade effect across everybody else that's in their life. And that's what you need to focus on. If you focus on that, I don't care how nervous you are, if you focus on that, all of your nerves will fall away.

Oh, that's beautiful. That's really powerful. You know, and I'm I'm gonna add something in there um that I think may add some value because when we talk about imposter syndrome um and that voice in our head. It's interesting if if and I read you know uh a book on this topic if you understand the mechanism behind it right so back in the day when we were in tribes literal tribes running around the plains hunting and gathering right if we were seen as different we were ostracized from the group and then therefore out on our own and most likely gonna die. Nowadays we don't have to worry about that right if someone doesn't like our Facebook post or someone doesn't like our video we're not gonna die. We can still run down to the supermarket and get some food right we can still do all so it's this if you can understand the mechanism that's going on in your head that it's not it's not actual sanity. It's just crazy the stuff that's left over in our genetics. And then when you top it with with that what you're saying about it's not about me anyway, right? It's about the message and it's about the work and that's what it's about. I think that's uh that combination right there is is enough to God it makes me want to jump up and go do a keynote right now. You know that's uh that's really cool man. That's really cool Chris. So you know with all the stuff you're doing if people want to get involved in pixel mob, uh Pixel Muscle, video muscle, all these things that that you're um that you're now expanding into uh how do they get a hold of you? How do they get started?

They could take a look at two things at www.com and on that site there's a bunch of free downloads on like how to really create amazing videos. There's a couple uh the seven pillars on what you need in your videos for you to really get attention. So if you want go ahead shoot over to that site and download that stuff. Also uh I have videomuscle.com and you can that is my my flagship program that if anybody is doing videos and they really want to take get it to the next level and continue on um check that out it says videomussle.com and the best way to contact me if you wanted Pixel Mop to come in and and film uh a product for you is to just contact me through Facebook at this point, uh Christopher James Paroli on Facebook and just private message me friend me and get to talking.

Awesome and I'll put all those links in the notes as well so people can find you there. So uh Chris this was awesome man there was uh you know you go into to an interview like this you think we're gonna talk about video and then we get into these huge topics about life and and success and business and uh that's why that's why I love the show man I love doing this. So thank you man I appreciate your time and your insight you have a lot to offer and uh I look forward to seeing you just touching more people in the industry.

Thank you for having me here I appreciate it.

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