Should You DIY or DFY?

I’m often asked how I know when it makes sense to DIY (do it yourself) something or get it DFY (done for you) and have someone else take care of it. My answer is always the same which is, “It depends.”

I have a quick checklist I go through anytime I’m faced with this decision:

• Am I capable of doing the task?
• Will doing the task myself save me money?
• Is the savings worth my time?
• Can I complete the task efficiently on my own or would it be much faster to hire a professional?
• Is the quality that I can produce good enough, or does this task require a more professional look?

Take for instance BRANDING FOR MOO-LAH. If you and I are connected at all on social media, you know that my team and I built and launched a virtual brand school. When I put together the timeline to build and complete it, I also put together a budget. In evaluating the two, I made some decisions to DIY some of it and DFY the rest.

For example, within this brand school there were 38 video tutorials that needed to be recorded. Obviously, I wrote the curriculum, so it made sense for me to write the scripts, too. But, I chose to have them professionally edited to ensure I was communicating in such a way that the lessons could be easily interpreted by any and all students.

Now, due to my tight timeline, I didn’t have enough days in the schedule to hire a video team to shoot over multiple days. I only budgeted one day for hair/makeup and shooting. ONE day because I was attaching the launch with a milestone date. That meant I needed to DIY the video footage (and attempt to maintain my sanity). I made the decision in part because I owned the equipment necessary to film. I had been shooting my own videos for a while, so I felt comfortable attempting this project.

So, when it came to "fee" or "free", here’s how the video portion of BRANDING FOR MOO-LAH played out:

• Kelly writes curriculum. FREE
• Kelly writes scripts. FREE
• Copywriter edits copy. FEE
• Kelly records videos. FREE
• Tech manager edits videos. FEE

Now, I saved physical dollars, but I burned a LOT of hours on this decision. Why? Because there were glitches... oh so many glitches. First, my voice activated teleprompter didn’t work. I’m not sure if it didn’t like my northern accent or what, but it required additional takes (13 hours worth) and extensive editing (which I hadn't planned).

And second, there was something wrong with my lapel mic. I’m still not sure if it was the extension cord or the mic was simply defective, but each take had to be checked by walking around the lights, unplugging the mic, and listening to the full playback before moving on, which took a TON of extra time (see 13 hours above).

Both issues required extensive hours in editing to try and “fix” as much of what was glitchy as possible. And, there’s the added time for a handful that had to be reshot - so extra expense both in time and dollars.

And of course, I’ve had to replace my shoddy equipment.

Want a giggle? Here’s the raw footage of one of the tutorials. You can see how frustrated I am with all of the manual “issues”. And don’t worry, it’s safe to view at work. I chose the cleanest blooper for you - no swear words in this one.

And here is the finished version after editing:

A huge difference, right?

Want the inside scoop on what’s involved in making those changes? Here’s the process:

1. Each video must be scrubbed and each error marked.
2. These “bad spots” must then be cut from the video.
3. Transitions must then be chosen and added into the areas where the video was cut and these must be reviewed to ensure there are no audio overlaps.
4. Next the video and script has to be reviewed for areas to insert relevant slides, text, etc. to enhance the teaching.
5. The slides or still images must then be created from our worksheets, videos, or other media.
6. Now, the section of the video where the slides will be inserted must be split into an audio and video channel and the video replaced with the corresponding slides.
7. Finally, there is one final check for any audio overlaps or jumpy video transitions and the new video file is exported and uploaded to the course.

Now, I “get tech” but I certainly couldn’t do all of this myself as I’ve not been trained in this type of software, so I chose DFY for this piece. Once all videos were edited and uploaded, I balanced expenditures against hours invested to determine if future projects will play out the same way in my decision to DIY versus DFY. This exercise helped inform what adding more curriculum to my brand school looked like.

Now for me, the most rewarding part of DIY is the knowledge I gain. When doing it myself, I learn so much, sometimes even things I never wanted to know. For example, it wasn’t until the day after I was 13 hours into recording, frustrated beyond measure ready to throw in the towel, and all videos taking THE ENTIRE NIGHT to upload to the video editor, that I realized the teleprompter app had a timed scroll option. This means I could have set my natural speech speed and read straight through without starting and stopping a million times! Sigh...

I also learned that triple checking everything won’t help if you buy cheap equipment because there’s no guarantee it will last. And I’m talking really cheap, like $12 mic cheap! I had to throw away six perfect video tutorials and start all over again, because the mic was screechy. When I discovered it, I wasn’t my best self, so it was a good thing I was taping alone!

If you choose to DIY, be patient with yourself and the process because it’s unlikely it will be perfect. Also, you have to resign yourself to the idea that sometimes, “good is good enough”. Yep, took me a while to learn that one but it’s the only way I survived shooting 38 videos in a single day… crazy Kelly!

To recap, choosing to DIY versus DFY depends on a few things:

1. Are you capable of doing it?

I’d never in a million years watch an open heart surgery on Youtube and think for a second I could perform one. Same goes with whatever we are trying to accomplish in business. I knew I could shoot video for myself, but I knew I couldn’t edit them.

2. Which route will ultimately save you money?

Just because the upfront cost may be cheaper, doesn’t mean when all is said and done DIY-ing it will save you money. You have to weigh expenditures and account for “what ifs” and then test it and if you guessed wrong, change the method next time.

3. What’s the project timeline?

Sometimes DIY-ing takes longer than having it done for you. I’ve witnessed this a million times. I knew by DIY-ing my videos, I was running a risk of it not working in my favor. There were a few kinks, but I wouldn’t change how I handled it because in the end it’s working out as I envisioned.

4. How good is good enough?

In other words, does it need to be perfect in order to launch? Perfect is a relative thing. One person’s perfect is another person’s mediocre. So, one of the things I did was show a few raw videos to my target audience to get feedback.

Whatever you choose, do what makes the most sense at the time and be prepared to pivot if necessary keeping top of mind budgets and timelines. In a perfect world, everything would be DFY, but we’re in the “real” world where a little DIY is necessary. Just be prudent on which you choose for what. Good luck!