The video studio in your pocket

The video studio in your pocket…

This newsletter is about giving you insights into the world of exec comms at the biggest AI company on the planet and actionable ways to write and create better in the age of AI.

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Last time we spoke about the ten stages of posting on LinkedIn.

This week, I want to talk about something I'm genuinely excited about and pushing for in executive communication: making content faster. A lot faster.  

The barrier is imagined and keeps people stuck 

For years, video budgets have been huge, and the honest answer to “can we turn that into a video?” was “yes, in about a month.” 

A budget conversation, a scoping call, an agency brief, a crew, a shoot day three weeks out. That was simply the price of doing it well.

That price has collapsed. What used to take a month now takes an afternoon, and the quality gap is closing (see the picture above for something I recently shot at Cannes on the Osmo) 

We are now at an exciting moment where the process can be collapsed. And having an idea to shooting it can be done in moments.

Why video matters?

Video is no longer the nice-to-have at the bottom of the content plan. 

On LinkedIn, video viewership grew 36% year over year, to 154 billion views. The talking-head format — a leader, a camera, a point of view — is now one of the most-used video types on the platform, and it rewards exactly what an executive is uniquely placed to give: a face and a position.

The trust data is the exciting part. Edelman and LinkedIn's 2025 B2B Thought Leadership report found that 82% of buyers say reading executive-authored content increases their trust in a company and its leadership. 

75% of decision-makers say a single piece of thought leadership led them to research a product they weren't previously considering. And content shared by an executive travels 24 times further than the same content from a brand page.

Put those two things together, a format that's exploding, and an audience that trusts leaders who show up and its a great time to be all in on video. And figuring out novel ways to shoot quickly.

The Tools

A camera like the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 puts broadcast-adjacent footage in your pocket, and its companion editing app turns raw clips into a finished cut in minutes.

 On the generative side, tools like HeyGen and Synthesia compress work that used to take weeks. AI production runs roughly 70 to 90% cheaper than the traditional route.

We no longer need to wait weeks for the “edit” or the supposed magical “grade” or “audio sweetening” all elusive terms designed to push the timeline out. Needed for theatrical films, not for a social video. 

Five ways to move fast

1. Stop chasing perfection.  Just ship the video. The video that actually goes out, beats flawless version still in the edit suite. Audiences don't reward polish the way we think they do. They reward truth, and truth doesn't need another color grade.

2. Reset the timeline. An agency quotes four weeks. A creator with a phone posts in an afternoon. The gap between those two numbers is almost never quality — it's process built to protect an old way of working and old budgets. 

3. Pre-viz, but stay nimble. Know the flow of the video, the kind of shots and even make a fake version of it (pre-visualisation) - so you know the vibe. Then shoot to that.  

4. Seize the means of production. You don't need a crew of twelve anymore. The camera, the edit, the captions, the distribution. If a 12 year old youtuber can do it. I believe in you. You can.  

5. Let the executive be the executive. The leader is the voice. The new tools exist to remove everything between them and the camera, not to add more layers. Set up fast, get them talking, let their thoughts come through.

Actionable tip of the week

This week, take one idea you'd normally send to production and shoot it on your phone instead. One take. No agency. Caption it, cut it, post it. 

I suspect it'll outperform the thing you spent a month on.

The leaders who win the next few years are the ones who see this moment for what it is: the first time in history that the speed of your ideas isn't capped by the speed of production.

Show up, as yourself, while the idea is still percolating. The tools are here. 

Mischievously,

Connor

Communicating Mischief is the weekly newsletter for people trying to build a real LinkedIn presence and the craft of executive voice in the era of AI.

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