Authentic Video Marketing That Builds Trust And Drives Real Results, Graham Kuhn

Ever notice how the most memorable brands don’t recite features—they tell stories you can feel? We sit down with filmmaker and marketer Graham Kuhn to explore a human-centered approach to video that ditches teleprompters and leans into real conversation, emotion, and purpose. If your content looks good but leaves people cold, this is the reset you need.

Graham breaks down why audiences connect with the why more than the what and how a documentary-style interview helps founders speak from the heart. We talk about the science of memory—why stories light up more of the brain than raw data—and how simple, vivid language like the smell of sawdust in the morning builds instant connection. You’ll hear practical techniques to calm camera nerves by speaking to one person, plus the guide-not-hero framing that reframes your role from self-promotion to problem-solving.

We also dig into case stories that convert: the chiropractor who helped a student athlete run again in days, the home builder who ties craft to family memories, and the moments when vulnerability on camera creates lines of people eager to talk. Graham shares three scalable production options—on-location, hybrid with local crews, and fully virtual—while emphasizing that the camera isn’t the value; the story is. You’ll leave with a playbook to capture authentic interviews, keep small imperfections that signal humanity, and repurpose one flagship recording into website videos, social clips, and referral-ready proof.

If you want marketing that’s impossible to ignore, start with real stories that make your customer the hero and your brand the trusted guide. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s stuck in script mode, and leave a review telling us the one story your audience needs to hear next.

Transcript

Why Stories Beat Bullet Points

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Telling stories is really just recounting and just speaking from the heart and just talking about why you do something. What that is what resonates with people. I don't care really about what you do. I know that you're a home builder. I want to know why you do this. Uh, you know, I grew up in the working in the woodshed with my granddad, and I was just always uh I was always amazed by what we could create. And then, and then again, the story of how what I'm building is gonna make memories for families, and like that's the real heart of it. Um, so it's not bullet points, it's not accolades, it's not features and benefits. It's tell me about who you helped, or tell me about how you're gonna help me.

Meet Graham Kuhn And His Approach

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Welcome again to the Commission Code Podcast. We appreciate you taking the time to listen and join us here today. We're here to help you increase your business revenue and have time to enjoy it. I'm your host, Maurice Sims, and I've been consulting and training business people for, well, let's just say over 40 years. We're focused on increasing revenue and having time to enjoy it. After years as a professional salesperson, I spent 32 years in the corporate world. I retired as vice president and chief learning officer of the sales department of a large insurance company where we designed and built and delivered training for over 12,000 professional salespeople. Now, I get to consult one-on-one, helping people grow their business and organize themselves to make the most of the time they have. We also build online courses to support business owners in their work as they strive to build the business that they've always wanted. Our objective is really very simple. It's this we're here to help you get what you want from your business and your life. So, right now, let's get on with this episode. Welcome to the Commission Code for your success. Graham Kuhn is our guest today. He's from West uh from Woodstock, Georgia, which is uh pretty close to my old stomping ground. So it's always great to talk to somebody else from the southeast, that's for sure. Graham, thank you so much for being with us today.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Thanks, Morris. I'm I'm excited to be here, man. I love I love talking about this stuff and and meeting new people. So I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Absolutely. And yeah, Graham does videos for marketing. And I gotta tell you, that's something I think is gonna be a really cool addendum to my business. And it's gonna be some things that I think every one of us can can use and help us to get out and become more visible. And that's what it's all about is being visible to the to the rest of the world, being visible to your ideal clients. So, Graham, tell us a little bit about how you use video, what you do, and and where you're coming from and all that kind of good stuff.

Human-Centered Video Over Scripts

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, man. Um, I mean, my biggest differentiator is I I really lean into authenticity and being real, like you said, showing up and being seen by your potential clients. I like to say impossible to ignore. Um, the more content I put out of myself, the more video people see, they're like, God, this Graham guys everywhere. Um, but the way that I do it is like a very authentic, human-centered approach to video production. Uh, we don't do in my business, we don't do teleprompter scripted kind of sales videos. It's more learning about the people behind the brand, um, doing more of a documentary style, conversational question and answer uh videos because one that makes my clients comfortable because they're not professional actors. If you stick somebody on a in front of a camera and give them a script to read, chances are it's gonna be pretty robotic and not sound so good. But if we sit down in front of them and we're interviewing them, asking questions about who they are and why they do what they do, they're speaking from the heart. They're speaking passionately, and that authenticity really resonates with people. Um, it connects on an emotional level. Um, the way the brain works, they're telling stories, so it's lighting up seven parts of their brain. Whereas if there's talking about the business and what they do, it's lighting up two parts of their brain. You're not, you're not getting that connection. Um, so really it's a storytelling uh documentary kind of approach. But my the real focus is to get the clients' results. Like we everybody says this, but we don't work with everybody because it's not a great fit for everyone. I want to make sure that if somebody's gonna pay us for videos for marketing, they're gonna make back at least what they paid us and hopefully much, much, much, much more. Um, and so we've got a pretty stringent um onboarding and pre-qualifying process. Um, but it's really it's about getting them results using an authentic storytelling kind of approach versus like scripted teleprompter robotic sales videos.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, yeah, oh yeah. And I mean, nobody, nobody wants to watch those. That's for sure. That's for sure. I mean, uh my my speaking coach has been my speaking coach for 40 years. He says, you know, you gotta be yourself. You gotta be yourself, you gotta love your audience, and then after all that's done and you've had a connection, then we can talk about whether your content is any good or not.

Speak To One Person On Camera

SPEAKER_01 5:12

I like that. Um, you gotta love your audience. That's great. Yeah, when I'm coaching my clients, if they want to do their own stuff and they want to, how do I do videos on my own? I'm always like, picture one person when you're talking in the camera, picture one person. Not a don't picture a thousand people watching this video. Picture one person and like I pick I picture my wife or I picture one of my clients while I'm talking, and it just gives you a more authentic, heartfelt, emotional, person-to-person human connection than if I'm thinking, oh my gosh, a thousand people are gonna watch this. I have to be perfect, I have to do I love that. Love your audience. I really like that.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

I do too, I do too, and it makes you makes you stop and think. I, of course, did a lot of speaking, so I was always in front of a big group of people. And I would I would love to to make eye contact with a lot of different people, but there was one person in the audience that I always said, I'm speaking to Graham. And I'm gonna tell Graham what the big idea is and and what we're really talking about here. And it makes all the difference in the world when you are yourself and you are authentic and sincere. Because I mean, Graham, don't you think people can see right through it when you're not?

Trust, AI Noise, And Being Real

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Oh, 100%. I just did a post on LinkedIn about it where I was like, people can feel that inauthenticity, it it it um it dissolves the trust. Like if I'm sitting here and you can tell that I'm either I'm reading a script and I'm trying to act like I care about you, and I'm trying to act like I'm being real and authentic, people can smell that. And then I'm just like, I I don't trust you anymore now because you're trying to dupe me, you're trying to get one over on me. Um, so yeah, I think um especially with now with AI and everybody, everybody can make like the perfect looking photos or they can create videos and sales pitches and all that. The human real stuff is really what stands out. Um, you can tell when somebody's authentic, when they're speaking from the heart, um, when they're real, it builds trust, uh, credibility. Um, it just it just opens people up to to to do business with you, just being real so they can connect with you.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

And yeah, you mentioned storytelling. When it comes right down to it, that's probably one of the best ways I've ever found to be able to connect to people. Tell us about storytelling, Graham. What do you what is what are your thoughts?

How To Tell Brand Stories That Land

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah, uh, so I developed it kind of when I was working at my church. I worked at my church for like 13 years, and I was doing music and video production, and we were cranking out two or three videos every week. That's where I the light bulb moment of like being authentic in storytelling came from because one of the gentlemen came in to do a video about, you know, come and join our ministry, and this is the benefits. He had his talking points written down, he got in front of the camera and he did his pitch, and it was so robotic and just didn't connect. And I don't know what it was, but something just told me to start talking to him. And I left the camera running. I was off to the I was off to the side of the camera and I left it running, and I just started talking to him, and I was like, What how long have you been doing this ministry? And he's like, Oh, 18 years. And I'm like, Why do you still do it after all the almost two decades? And he starts telling me about how it's enhanced his life and how but he gets to help in the community, and it was he was a totally different person, and it was the real him, it wasn't this salesy sales pitch guy. And I was like, Oh my gosh, there's something here, there's something here about just having a conversation. Um, and so as when I'm saying tell a story, I don't mean like once upon a time we opened our business in 1992, but it's it's really I focus on why somebody does their business. For instance, if um if I'm going to do a brand video for uh a roofer, um what I want to get to is why do you do roofing? I know you want to make money, I know you want to help people, um, but we're not gonna talk about shingles and gutters and that. We're gonna talk about why do you do this? And then they're gonna tell a story about either um growing up in their parents' house and it was leaking, and the the roofer came and they fixed it, and we were able to have Christmas dinner or something, some kind of story like that. Or they'll say something like, We understand that the house is more than just windows and doors, it's it's a home and it's a place where families make memories. And if you've you know you've got things stressing you out and the roof and all this, you can't make your memories. And so that's what really drives us is allowing people to make memories of their family. Like that's the real heartfelt stuff that that um that really connects with people. And if you want to talk about um how I um set up them telling the story, it's it's it's a um from story brand, Donald Miller's book, um, that we want to focus on being the guide. We uh me as the business owner, I don't want to be the hero of this story, like Graham Kuhn focused films. I don't want to be like, I'm so great, and I do this and I do that. I want to make my potential client the hero of this story and how I guide them to their ultimate goal. So I'm always trying to redirect my clients on camera to talk about how do you help people, what's in it for them. I don't care that you've been in business for 30 years. I don't care that you won these awards. That's great, but the real heart of it is how are you going to solve somebody's problem? Tell me or tell me a story about somebody that you helped. Those are really great, like testimonials or case studies where my clients are telling a story about um, you know, like a chiropractor talking about how a great story was a chiropractor client of mine. He he has a high school student and basketball player who went off to college, hurt his ankle. Their um trainers had them on ice for like three weeks, etc. Couldn't he came to my guy and three days of doing more like heat stuff and working on that, he was able to run in three days. Like those are a great case study, and he's telling the story. He's not saying I went to this college and I have this degree and I have this certification, he's telling a story. And again, when you're telling a story, seven parts of the brain light up. When you're doing data and facts, it's just two parts. So the more parts of the brain that light up, the more memorable it is. Um, so telling stories is really just recounting and just speaking from the heart and just talking about why you do something, what that is what resonates with people. I don't care really about what you do. I know that you're a home builder. I want to know why you do this. Uh, you know, I grew up in the working in the woodshed with my granddad, and I was just always uh I was always amazed by what we could create. And then, and then again, the story of how what I'm building is gonna make memories for families, and like that's the real heart of it. Um, so it's not bullet points, it's not accolades, it's not features and benefits. It's tell me about who you helped, or tell me about how you're gonna help me.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

That's amazing. And sounds like you do such a great job because you know, um the guide Yoda is that's it's what's that the guide Yoda is. Yeah, yeah, Miller. Yeah, yeah. You want to be you want to be Yoda, you don't want to be the the the Han Solo, you want to be Yoda for my younger for my younger clients.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

I use uh Aladdin. I'm like, you want to be you want to be the genie. You're not Aladdin, you're not the hero, you're the genie who's guidey, but yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it, I love it. That's great, that's great. But it's generational, man. Our our people understand Star Wars and Yoda, but you know, there's a new generation of business owners now. So I use Aladdin.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

You're right. I I I show my age regularly. There's no doubt. No doubt. I I did a I did a uh what did I do? I did an email to my email list and I I used uh song from Van Halen and I thought, oh yeah, nobody else is gonna know what right now is from Van Halen, but oh my gosh, I love that song.

Be The Guide: Yoda Or The Genie

SPEAKER_01 13:14

We used to listen to it before wrestling matches and football games all the time. Oh my gosh, that's awesome, dude.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Oh I always wanted to use that. I did that I wanted that to be my walk-up music before I did a presentation to a group. And it's it, you know, the entrance is just too long. Anyway, it's relating to the people with with what you just did. And I love what the stories you just told, Graham, are great examples because you used images and word pictures that people can relate to. I can relate to growing up working in the wood shop with my grandfather. I didn't. I didn't do that, but I can relate to having that happen. That's a real life thing. And using using words that people can relate to that are small, short, and and and easily understood is so much better than trying to use you know$100 words and and make myself look great. I'd much rather connect with you on your level, wherever that might be, and connect with you in your heart as much as I do in your brain.

Images, Simple Words, Real Connection

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yep. Yeah, and I think it's also as a business owner, we have to take our ego out of it. We have to remember, speaking of being the hero or the guide, I'm not here to tell you my resume and how awesome I am. I'm here to convince you that I can help you. I'm here to solve your problem. Um, yeah, I remember one little one sentence I remember from a home builder that I worked with that you want to talk about creating an image was he's a custom home builder. This is six years ago, and I still remember him saying this. He goes, I just love walking on a job site and and and having the smell of sawdust in the morning. And I was like, I can totally smell that. I can totally relate to that, you know. Um, but then speaking about working with your grandpa, like uh there was another home builder who this is I so this is what I love about my upbringing with that. I I I was a college athlete, I wrestled in college, I was a jock in high school, but I was also involved in the musicals. Like I was the you know, the lead in West Side story, I was Tony, and that's when I'm like, ooh, this is what I want to do in my life. Wow. But so I have I have this interesting dichotomy of like work ethic growing up on farms in Wisconsin, you know, jock, hard worker, but then this emotional sensitive side from like the music side and all that. And I'm really good at drawing that emotion out of my client. So when I'm working with this rough and tough home builder, and he's talking about, you know, construction. And then, oh my gosh, I'll never forget this one. This was probably six, seven years ago, also. This other home builder is talking about how he grew up working in the woodshed with his granddad. And all of a sudden, he pauses and he starts to tear up, and then he really starts crying. And I just sat there, like, oh man, this is deep. This is good. And it just turned out that he was like, you know, obviously he misses his granddad, but he's just like, I think my granddad was a great builder, but he never took that chance of being making it a business. And maybe I'm trying to prove to myself that I was as good as I'm like, this is amazing, man. But so I I just I'm getting these big tough guys crying on camera, and I'm just like, oh, dude, I love it. Because I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to be emotional and show emotion and all that. And I think that really resonates with people because the human connection. Um, so I love to go deep with people and get them to open up. And the man, if I can get some big tough dude crying, that's a big win, dude.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

Yeah, that's a big win. I know the the best story I ever told was uh a very true story about when my son at 11 years old was diagnosed as a juvenile diabetic. Oh wow, what happened and how that all transpired. He's 33, 4, something now and doing great as an attorney. But at the time, this was maybe five years after that. And the first couple of times I told the story, it it did bring some emotion to the to the thing. And those are the times that after I spoke, there were people standing in line wanting to talk to me and tell me about their situation later on after I told the story a hundred times, that didn't occur, and you know what? I didn't connect as well. The lines of people didn't show up.

Drawing Out Emotion In Clients

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Well, it's yeah, because that emotional connection is there again as as humans, like we can relate to that. Like it gives there's empathy involved. If I see Morris on stage tearing up about his son, I'm like, this guy is human, he has real emotions, just like me. And I want to give you a hug. Like I see you tearing up, and I want to comfort you, so then you can bet your butt, I'm gonna be in the line afterwards just to either talk to you, give you a hug, ask you questions. There's like there's just this realness and this authenticity that people can relate to when that happens. Now, and it doesn't mean that it doesn't affect you as much anymore because you've talked about it a hundred times, it's just you've built up this emotional muscle that like you've gotten accustomed to talking about it. Um, but yeah, I think that's that's why when people tear up, it's just that this empathy and this like human connection, like, oh, he's not that not go a different direction, but that's why I love doing these like interview style videos because if people kind of go, they go, uh uh uh it's so human, and people can relate to that versus perfectly polished and all that, it's not human. Um, and so there's times when I'm doing some some marketing videos with my clients where I'll leave that little um uh I'll leave that in there because it adds just a little bit of of humanness to it. Um, and then again, the empathy, people can go, oh man, when I try to record stuff, I sound the same way, you know. Um, but oh that's a great story, man. I I love that. I love I love that you show the emotion and you're not you're not afraid to show the emotion. But then the reason people show up for you is because they have empathy and they're like, oh, I can relate to this guy. I think that's so cool, man.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Oh, it is, it's amazing. That the one time I did it that that touched my heart afterwards so much was I was speaking in New Orleans to a group of people, and afterwards this guy comes up and he says, Man, I I understand my daughter has been diagnosed as a juvenile diabetic. And I said, Well, how old is she? Sixteen months. And I said, My word, how in the world did you even see symptoms to to recognize that there was a problem? He said, We were changing diapers left and right just constantly, which you know that's a a sure sign of of uh diabetes. And uh I thought, wow, now that's that's an interesting life those folks are gonna have to to have, but yet Thank God they figured it out and they were able to to to make it okay for the child as best you can for a diabetic.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

That that's also the beauty of storytelling is that you connected with that person. They felt first of all they trusted you because they could relate to you, and then they opened up to you and connected with you. So now you have this connection. So like that's totally not on the same level, but like in my brand story video about my company, I talk about growing up on farms in Wisconsin and going to college to be an opera singer. That has nothing to do with video production, other than my emotional side and my work ethic. But what it does, I can't tell you the number of people that have either told me, man, I grew up in Iowa working on farms, or I went to school for music, or I was a singer, or my cousin goes for musical the it helps create those connections. And so that story is specifically in my brand video with the intent of not look how cool I am. It's people can relate to that and relate to those stories the same as you. This guy's like, Oh my gosh, my kid has diabetes. I want to go, I want to go talk to Morris. You know, I stories help us connect.

Vulnerability, Empathy, And Audience Lines

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Exactly, exactly. And if if there's one thing that that I think we're we're getting to here is the fact that when you tell stories, you do connect, and that's the way you ought to be talking with people, is with stories, much more so than worried about the, as you said, the bullet points and the content. Because if I don't connect with you, if I don't show you that I care about you personally and um that I have integrity, then you're not gonna trust me. And if you don't trust me, then nothing else is gonna work. And if I tell you a story that touches your heart, that's real, that's authentic, and I'm authentic, now there's gonna be some trust developed and in in business that's that's still you know, when it's authentic, is so vitally important because if you don't trust me, you're not gonna do business with me.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Absolutely. There was a networking group that I was in for about four and a half years, and you know, most network groups, you open up the meeting, go around, each have a minute to say what you do and talk about that. What I loved about this group in particular was that it was focused on telling stories about clients you helped because that's gonna resonate with the person that's listening at the table so that they will refer you to someone else. So it we didn't get up at the table and go, hey, I'm Graham Kuhn. I own focus films, I do video, and but I would say so-and-so is a personal attorney, and they were having they weren't home for dinner every night because they were burning the candle at both ends, and we implemented this video to blah, blah, blah. And then here's the result they got. Tell a story about a client we helped because not only does it resonate with somebody, but it's also building that credibility and that trust versus man, I could I could lie to you. I could tell you I've been doing this for 30 years and I've won this award. Like, there's sometimes when I'm going into Chat GPT and I'm like, hey, help me help me uh compose a biography for myself. It's time to redo my my bio. And it'll throw things in there that just aren't true. It'll say, like, one national awards. And I'm like, I I I have not won a national award, but I could easily just put that in there and nobody's gonna know, and I can just make things up. But if I'm telling you a story about a client that I helped and how I helped them, that's gonna resonate so much more and build so much trust. And so that's what I loved about that particular networking group was it was I had to tell stories about people I helped so that the people in the room would refer me to their clients and trust me enough to refer me to their clients. Um, I just I love that.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Oh, that's a great point. Now, I I have to admit, Graham, now you know, we're we're only gonna use the audio off this, but we happen to be on Zoom, so I can see your office and those seven Emmy awards back there on your desk just really, you know.

Imperfect Moments Make Videos Human

SPEAKER_01 23:51

They're just loc, they're just local, they're just regional Emmys. I'm kidding. There are no Emmys. There's none. No. There's actually there are actually some DJ awards. I used to be a wedding DJ, so I'm uh I'm in the uh I'm in the not Hall of Fame uh from uh I think I DJ'd from God 2007 to 2019. Um, but yeah, no, no Emmys, no Emmys.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Oh, that's amazing. Absolutely amazing. Graham, I've got to ask one technical question about your business because it it's interesting to me, maybe to to our audience as well. You're in Woodstock, Georgia. Your clients, I bet, are not only in the greater Atlanta Woodstock area, but are probably all over the country. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah. How do you how do you do that when you're when you're shooting video of somebody that lives in Wisconsin and you're in Georgia? I mean, do you go to Wisconsin? How do you how do you do that?

Stories Drive Referrals And Credibility

SPEAKER_01 24:47

It's interesting you ask that because I actually just did a video with a high school classmate of mine in Wisconsin. Um, so actually, um, basically, I offer three different tiers of price points. And so you've got your on-location where our crew flies around wherever you know the client wants to to pay to have us come there, hotel planes, I'll get our equipment there, whatever. Um, that will be the the in-person on location. Um, the and then we have the totally virtual where it's basically um like a zoom call, but a different platform that's a little better quality to record the video. It records it on separate tracks. So I ask the same questions I would of a client when I'm in person, but I can cut my track out of there and it's just them. So that will be the fully virtual version. And then there's a hybrid version because I feel like the the real value of what we do is not the cameras that we use. Like I could not care less what kind of cameras people have. That is not where the value lies. The value is in the story that we're telling and how we use it. So I don't care if it's an iPhone or a or a Sony cinematic camera, it doesn't matter. So the hybrid version is that um I have crews around the country, I have a network of people around the country where we can have them, let's say it's in Chicago. I find the Chicago crew, they come to the client's location, they set up the cameras and the lights, and then they'll put me on an iPad and a Zoom, and I'll conduct the interview and pull out that story the same way that I would if I was in the room with them. But they've got the professional cameras and the lights and all that. So it still looks exactly the same in the deliverable. The client just didn't have to pay to have our crew go there, but I'm still conducting the interview and pulling out that story the way that we do to get them to talk about what's important, about why they do what they do and tell their story. Um, so really three different you got in-person, you got the hybrid, and then you got fully virtual.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

That is so cool. Uh, I am I am impressed, my friend. Absolutely impressed. And your storytelling ability is just off the chart. Thanks, man. I love it. I absolutely love it. Graham, thank you so much for being on the Commission Code with us today. Thanks, Morris. This was fun, man. I loved it. I loved it. Me too. Me too. Had a great time. Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the Commission Code to success in your business. Remember, go to MorrisSims.com for more information. And in the meantime, hey, have a great week. Get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time, right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes, I'm Morris Sims.