WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 Although I did say your first name, do me a favor. 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:05.459 You say your first name, last name, where you're 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:08.300 located and the name of your business. Well, 00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:10.599 thank you so much for having me on today. It's 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:12.859 truly an honor. My name is Austin Armstrong. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:16.940 I'm the CEO and co -founder of Syllabi. And I'm 00:00:16.940 --> 00:00:20.420 currently in New York City, but I live and reside 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:24.079 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. OK, big difference. 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:28.600 Totally big difference. So world, I asked Austin, 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:31.820 was he a star? So I'm going to say this and then 00:00:31.820 --> 00:00:35.759 you can just imagine it. Austin Armstrong. So 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:39.060 yes. So when, yeah, whenever you hear that name, 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:42.619 he's a star, he's here. Please do me a favor. 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:48.219 Tell me about syllabi. Yeah. So I have been working 00:00:48.219 --> 00:00:51.359 in social media marketing for more than 20 years. 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:54.969 completely changed my life it's given me everything 00:00:54.969 --> 00:00:57.490 that i've wanted every goal i've accomplished 00:00:57.490 --> 00:01:01.229 i have now millions of followers across social 00:01:01.229 --> 00:01:04.950 media from producing videos i worked in the marketing 00:01:04.950 --> 00:01:08.790 agency space for about 12 years i've worked with 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:12.090 every business owner every aspiring entrepreneur 00:01:12.090 --> 00:01:16.109 every aspiring content creator in different industries 00:01:16.109 --> 00:01:19.209 that you can think of and there were the same 00:01:19.209 --> 00:01:22.730 recurring problems over and over again sometimes 00:01:22.730 --> 00:01:25.250 people just don't even like to create content 00:01:25.250 --> 00:01:29.510 but knowing that they need to create content 00:01:29.510 --> 00:01:32.890 but not knowing what topics to create not knowing 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:36.170 what to say on camera or in their videos so that 00:01:36.170 --> 00:01:38.450 actually resonates with the target audience that 00:01:38.450 --> 00:01:41.989 they want to to reach staying consistent and 00:01:41.989 --> 00:01:45.590 accountable not knowing how to edit videos not 00:01:45.590 --> 00:01:49.709 having the time to know how to edit and be omnipresent 00:01:49.709 --> 00:01:52.209 across every social media platform consistently. 00:01:52.689 --> 00:01:55.390 And I wanted to solve all of those problems. 00:01:55.670 --> 00:01:58.450 And so that's what syllabi is. And that's our 00:01:58.450 --> 00:02:00.689 big vision is I wanted to build the ultimate 00:02:00.689 --> 00:02:03.049 video marketing tool. And we're not quite there 00:02:03.049 --> 00:02:05.989 yet, but we're working towards it. So what syllabi 00:02:05.989 --> 00:02:09.750 does is it shows you the topics and questions 00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:13.310 that your customers or your target audience are 00:02:13.310 --> 00:02:16.849 searching for online. with data to back it up 00:02:16.849 --> 00:02:19.430 so you can you're a real estate agent and work 00:02:19.430 --> 00:02:21.469 in mortgage for instance so you could type in 00:02:21.469 --> 00:02:26.050 va loan or fha loan and it'll show you all of 00:02:26.050 --> 00:02:28.530 the questions that people are searching for online 00:02:28.530 --> 00:02:32.090 around that particular topic with data how many 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:34.650 people are searching for it how competitive it 00:02:34.650 --> 00:02:38.370 is etc and then with one click you can generate 00:02:38.370 --> 00:02:41.889 a video script that's designed to perform well 00:02:41.889 --> 00:02:45.370 on social media based on my top performing scripts 00:02:45.370 --> 00:02:50.090 and personally handwriting thousands of scripts 00:02:50.090 --> 00:02:53.969 for people i have it down to a a structure and 00:02:53.969 --> 00:02:56.550 then in one click from there you can customize 00:02:56.550 --> 00:02:59.009 and create the actual video so you can create 00:02:59.009 --> 00:03:02.409 an ai avatar of yourself you can create faceless 00:03:02.409 --> 00:03:04.990 videos which are very very popular right now 00:03:04.990 --> 00:03:08.050 these are sort of ai generated imagery and ai 00:03:08.050 --> 00:03:12.780 videos portraying what the script is saying uh 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:16.599 and it's the full video so it's it's the uh subtitles 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:19.340 it's the background music it's the transitions 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:23.780 it's the scenes it's uh everything um that you 00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:26.020 can think of to make a social media ready video 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:29.060 and then we directly schedule and publish to 00:03:29.060 --> 00:03:31.620 every social media account for you so you can 00:03:31.620 --> 00:03:35.020 connect your tick tock linkedin instagram youtube 00:03:35.020 --> 00:03:39.240 facebook threads and automatically optimize all 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:42.639 of them to be found online, schedule and publish. 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:46.020 And you can even automate up to 30 days of videos. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:48.500 So if you just don't have the time, you don't 00:03:48.500 --> 00:03:51.500 know what to say, you don't like being on camera, 00:03:51.539 --> 00:03:53.500 you don't like social media in general, but you 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:56.879 still want to be able to create content, grow 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:00.520 your following, monetize it, get leads, get sales. 00:04:00.780 --> 00:04:03.740 You can fully automate video marketing now within 00:04:03.740 --> 00:04:08.710 Satellite. Wow. It's so funny. And my goal is 00:04:08.710 --> 00:04:10.930 never to make this conversation about me because 00:04:10.930 --> 00:04:13.330 I'm the co -host and you're the guest. I was 00:04:13.330 --> 00:04:16.250 just having this exact same conversation, exact 00:04:16.250 --> 00:04:19.129 same conversation. And it's interesting because 00:04:19.129 --> 00:04:22.850 I wonder how many people are thinking, running 00:04:22.850 --> 00:04:25.550 on a treadmill, walking down the street, just 00:04:25.550 --> 00:04:29.149 listening to ours and actually saying, how do 00:04:29.149 --> 00:04:33.560 you get over that fear? syllabi is the answer 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:36.379 right and and and what you just told me that's 00:04:36.379 --> 00:04:39.839 the answer to not having to google this google 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:43.139 that uh purchase all these apps to have the words 00:04:43.139 --> 00:04:46.240 come down the screen all that syllabi is that 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:51.660 how do you get over the fear of being just on 00:04:51.660 --> 00:04:55.279 video you know so that's the part where i'm like 00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:59.180 what do you do with that yeah yeah that's the 00:04:59.180 --> 00:05:02.279 that's the biggest you nailed it right that's 00:05:02.279 --> 00:05:04.220 the biggest thing that i'm trying to overcome 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:06.540 is like that that fear of just getting started 00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:10.600 um because once you build that consistency it's 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:12.500 just muscle memory it's just staying consistent 00:05:12.500 --> 00:05:15.360 it's hard to start it's easy to stay consistent 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:18.399 um and try to get back on the bandwagon after 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:20.819 after you stop as well so having this just in 00:05:20.819 --> 00:05:22.560 your regular workflow and it doesn't need to 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:25.740 fully replace what you're doing either if you 00:05:25.740 --> 00:05:28.120 like to create content you know, once a week 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:30.000 or once a month or whatever, like whatever your 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.079 cadence is to still do that. Just have this be 00:05:33.079 --> 00:05:36.220 a tool to help you stay more consistent and stay 00:05:36.220 --> 00:05:39.720 top of mind. Absolutely. And that's, that's the 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:42.660 part where it's like most people. And I believe 00:05:42.660 --> 00:05:45.079 I can only imagine how many people are like, 00:05:45.139 --> 00:05:48.399 I'm, I'm just like you. I don't even know what 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:52.959 to say. So that syllabi definitely is almost 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:56.040 like. your lunchbox and everything is in there. 00:05:56.579 --> 00:05:58.680 You don't even have to go to the cafeteria if 00:05:58.680 --> 00:05:59.959 you don't need to. You could just sit in the 00:05:59.959 --> 00:06:02.000 corner and just do that. And I think that's super 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:07.939 awesome. So is syllabi an app or is it? It's 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:11.240 a website right now. It's full mobile friendly. 00:06:11.420 --> 00:06:15.000 You can use it on your computer or on your phone. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:18.500 However, this month we're releasing our app. 00:06:18.990 --> 00:06:20.850 uh so it's actually good timing so depending 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:23.410 on when you're listening to this the app probably 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:28.290 is already out so um yeah it's syllabi .io we 00:06:28.290 --> 00:06:31.689 have syllabi .com uh as well and it's s -y -l 00:06:31.689 --> 00:06:36.230 -l -a -b -y dot io or dot com um and yeah you 00:06:36.230 --> 00:06:38.949 can uh you can fully use it however you want 00:06:38.949 --> 00:06:41.889 on on the go while you're walking i've made videos 00:06:41.889 --> 00:06:45.509 uh while uh waiting in line at starbucks before 00:06:45.509 --> 00:06:49.430 uh just to cure my boredom. Let me just make 00:06:49.430 --> 00:06:53.170 a quick YouTube video. And you can do that. I 00:06:53.170 --> 00:06:56.009 told you you're a star. I don't think that I 00:06:56.009 --> 00:06:58.930 would ever do that. And it's so interesting because 00:06:58.930 --> 00:07:02.689 you have so much passion behind this and so much, 00:07:02.790 --> 00:07:06.910 if I may say, bravery to say, you know what? 00:07:06.970 --> 00:07:09.069 I know that this is something so many people 00:07:09.069 --> 00:07:14.050 need. I want to know what's your why. Yeah. Well, 00:07:14.230 --> 00:07:17.579 because Video marketing and social media has 00:07:17.579 --> 00:07:20.600 changed my life. And I've seen how much it has 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:22.740 changed other people's lives all around the world, 00:07:22.860 --> 00:07:26.180 not just in the United States, but in countries 00:07:26.180 --> 00:07:31.740 like the Philippines or we have users in Nigeria. 00:07:32.420 --> 00:07:35.319 And some of this can be life changing when you're 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:38.920 able to monetize online. That's become my why. 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:41.939 Before this, I had my own marketing agency and 00:07:41.939 --> 00:07:45.220 we charged a lot of money. five thousand up to 00:07:45.220 --> 00:07:47.639 fifteen twenty thousand dollars per month to 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:50.740 do a lot of this manually going out on location 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:53.620 recording content editing it scheduling publishing 00:07:53.620 --> 00:07:56.100 having the meetings setting the kpis you know 00:07:56.100 --> 00:07:59.060 all of that stuff but the average person the 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:03.660 the the aspiring uh uh entrepreneur or the solopreneur 00:08:03.660 --> 00:08:06.040 they can't afford that and i think everybody 00:08:06.040 --> 00:08:10.420 should be able to create content and be successful 00:08:10.420 --> 00:08:13.100 online and earn from that whether it you want 00:08:13.100 --> 00:08:15.000 to have it as a full -time thing whether you 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.000 just want to start a side hustle and just have 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.019 like an ancient history uh youtube channel that 00:08:21.019 --> 00:08:22.939 brings in a couple hundred dollars a month or 00:08:22.939 --> 00:08:25.379 something like that i think anybody should be 00:08:25.379 --> 00:08:28.060 able to do that now with ai and with software 00:08:29.080 --> 00:08:31.699 And anybody can do it. Our plans start at twenty 00:08:31.699 --> 00:08:34.960 five dollars a month, which is as affordable 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:38.519 as we have. We can possibly make it. This is 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.460 not a get rich thing for me. This is how I want 00:08:41.460 --> 00:08:44.860 to help a million people be successful on social 00:08:44.860 --> 00:08:48.899 media. That's that's my that's my why I've had 00:08:48.899 --> 00:08:51.220 the success. I want to help others now. And that's 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:52.919 why that's why I'm doing this. And that's why. 00:08:53.340 --> 00:08:56.360 Our margins are very thin. And that's why I talk 00:08:56.360 --> 00:08:58.700 to users every single day. Our customer service 00:08:58.700 --> 00:09:03.700 is like our number one principle. We have a huge 00:09:03.700 --> 00:09:06.519 Facebook group. And yeah, I'm in the weeds constantly 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:09.440 with our users, just helping, just trying to 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.860 help, just giving strategy, giving feedback, 00:09:12.019 --> 00:09:14.720 giving suggestions. And a lot of our team member 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:17.200 does the same because I am so passionate about 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:20.629 this. Yes, yes. And you hear it. And it's very 00:09:20.629 --> 00:09:23.149 interesting. So you say you've been in marketing 00:09:23.149 --> 00:09:29.250 for 20 years. I can't even fathom the growth 00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:33.690 that has occurred in 20 years to where we are 00:09:33.690 --> 00:09:37.990 now. How did you adjust to that? Yeah, it's been 00:09:37.990 --> 00:09:41.250 a long journey. So I was 14 years old when I 00:09:41.250 --> 00:09:45.210 started on MySpace to take it all the way back. 00:09:45.450 --> 00:09:48.169 And I actually had hundreds of thousands of followers 00:09:48.169 --> 00:09:51.210 on MySpace and I was monetizing it in a lot of 00:09:51.210 --> 00:09:55.129 different ways. And so it's really been a long 00:09:55.129 --> 00:09:57.509 journey. I've seen a lot of these platforms come 00:09:57.509 --> 00:10:02.710 and go over the years. Reflecting back on my 00:10:02.710 --> 00:10:07.120 journey, I started with a bang. uh and and had 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:10.059 a lot of success on on myspace but then as myspace 00:10:10.059 --> 00:10:12.419 kind of went away and these newer platforms come 00:10:12.419 --> 00:10:14.960 came out i didn't have a whole lot of success 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:18.600 being uh the forward -facing like personal brand 00:10:18.600 --> 00:10:21.620 type of person and i started working behind the 00:10:21.620 --> 00:10:25.220 scenes so i started as an intern um at a video 00:10:25.220 --> 00:10:28.620 marketing agency uh i moved out to california 00:10:28.620 --> 00:10:31.179 to do that and really just worked my way up because 00:10:31.179 --> 00:10:34.039 i loved it i loved what i was doing i was unpaid 00:10:34.460 --> 00:10:36.899 That's how much I loved doing it. I was poor 00:10:36.899 --> 00:10:40.240 for many, many, many years. I didn't have a whole 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:42.340 lot of success, but I loved doing it. And I was 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:45.340 so passionate about doing it that I saw the big 00:10:45.340 --> 00:10:48.539 picture. And so I went from being an unpaid intern 00:10:48.539 --> 00:10:50.799 to a paid intern to a part -time employee to 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:53.559 a full -time employee to basically running that 00:10:53.559 --> 00:10:56.860 agency. And then that company failed because 00:10:56.860 --> 00:10:59.500 the business model didn't quite work out. My 00:10:59.500 --> 00:11:04.000 boss was my mentor. And so we both learned. quite 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:05.860 a lot from that experience we started a more 00:11:05.860 --> 00:11:08.649 traditional marketing agency which was about 00:11:08.649 --> 00:11:10.950 six and a half years ago or something like that. 00:11:11.049 --> 00:11:14.429 And my boss became my business partner and we 00:11:14.429 --> 00:11:16.590 grew that. And so that was my first experience 00:11:16.590 --> 00:11:20.929 of me being a full -time entrepreneur and going 00:11:20.929 --> 00:11:23.570 all in and betting on myself. And so that was 00:11:23.570 --> 00:11:26.789 a roller coaster of growth as well. And any entrepreneur 00:11:26.789 --> 00:11:30.129 that's listening to this, it's not easy. It's 00:11:30.129 --> 00:11:33.570 a long journey. There are very high highs and 00:11:33.570 --> 00:11:36.809 deep lows that just are gut punches. And you're 00:11:36.809 --> 00:11:39.440 like, Am I going to be able to make payroll this 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:41.259 month? Am I going to be able to eat this month? 00:11:41.379 --> 00:11:44.919 Can I pay myself this month to pay the employees? 00:11:45.220 --> 00:11:47.919 All of these different roller coasters, you lose 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:51.500 a big client. But you learn and you improve. 00:11:52.220 --> 00:11:55.580 And my agency ultimately didn't work out for 00:11:55.580 --> 00:11:59.600 a couple of reasons. As I was building this company, 00:11:59.759 --> 00:12:03.799 Syllabi, I started to pull away from the agency 00:12:03.799 --> 00:12:06.399 to hyper -focus on this. And one of the biggest... 00:12:06.570 --> 00:12:09.870 lessons that i've learned in business is uh don't 00:12:09.870 --> 00:12:12.450 uh grow a business around your personal brand 00:12:12.450 --> 00:12:16.429 um because if you remove yourself from it then 00:12:16.429 --> 00:12:20.070 the business fails uh and so i tried to to correct 00:12:20.070 --> 00:12:24.070 that uh for a long time and hire people to do 00:12:24.070 --> 00:12:26.090 what i was doing and ultimately it didn't work 00:12:26.090 --> 00:12:30.250 out and so i really took that lesson into syllabi 00:12:30.250 --> 00:12:33.470 and so i'm still very active in promoting it 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:36.539 but i'm like like fourth or fifth traffic source 00:12:36.539 --> 00:12:39.519 down the line. I'm not the sole way that people 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:43.679 are finding out about Syllabi. And so the business 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:47.820 can thrive and survive without me. I can go on 00:12:47.820 --> 00:12:52.639 vacation and I can disappear off grid for a week 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:55.740 or two and the business will be okay without 00:12:55.740 --> 00:12:58.200 me. It will continue to succeed and grow. And 00:12:58.200 --> 00:13:01.080 it's been a long journey, both as a creator. 00:13:01.710 --> 00:13:04.090 And then as a business owner and entrepreneur 00:13:04.090 --> 00:13:07.190 and in various very different industries as well 00:13:07.190 --> 00:13:10.029 as SaaS and startup life is very different from 00:13:10.029 --> 00:13:12.379 agency life. Thank you for being here today. 00:13:12.559 --> 00:13:14.320 I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision 00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:16.940 Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your 00:13:16.940 --> 00:13:19.740 reactions as these episodes continue to move 00:13:19.740 --> 00:13:21.700 forward. This is going to get more and more fun. 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:23.580 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:25.519 We'll invite people to participate in the show. 00:13:25.639 --> 00:13:27.700 And thank you for giving us your time and attention. 00:13:27.980 --> 00:13:30.620 Have an excellent time building out your vision 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:31.960 and becoming a vision pro yourself.