21 steps to 6 Figure Profits with Den Lennie

Howdy folks. It's Dan. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. Now before we get into this episode, I wanted to just share a little anecdotal story. So anyone who knows me, I've never been the fittest person in the world. But I started going to the gym in February and it's now April. And I had actually February, most of February was off driving around Australia. But March and April, I've been going pretty much daily, at least three to four days a week. And I'm starting to notice a real impact. And you know, they say that the first month of the gym is just pain. The second month is pain with a bit of familiarity because you know what you're doing. In the third month you start to see results. And it really got me thinking about the fact that building anything real takes time. You know, you simply can't just go to the gym for five minutes and build muscle. It was my wife this morning who went, oh, I can actually see muscle being kind of developed in your shoulders and arms. I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. But actually more than that, it's the process of going to the gym that's making me feel strong and I'm alert. And we were out last night, went to see Norah Jones in Sydney who was just outstanding. But we got back late, we'd had some dinner and normally I'm in bed by 9:30. You know, I basically need my sleep because I'm up at 5:30 and I could easily have cried off the gym this morning and said, oh, I don't want to go. But I didn't. I still went and it was a tough session, you know, I didn't really enjoy it. But I tell you now, an hour and a half later, I feel sensational. So really the moral of this story is.

There'S certain steps that you have to take to build the memory and the muscle and the muscle memory to build strength and resilience. And so today's episode is all about that. It's the 21 steps to six figures. And I've worked out these are the 21 steps that I've gone through to build a six figure business. We're talking about six figure profits, not just six figure turnover. So I wanted to share this with you, cause it's actually quite kind of eye opening. You know, one thing I want to do in this podcast is make sure that we're talking about real shit, you know, not just promising ridiculous kind of promises. Building something real takes time. And so in this episode I'm going to share with you the 21 steps that I have witnessed as being required to build a six figure business.

Welcome to the Video Business Accelerator Podcast. Each week we uncover the secrets to creating a wildly successful and scalable video production business. With your host, Dan Lenny, discover how the accelerator program is transforming the lives of our members at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com. enjoy this episode.

G', day folks, and welcome to another episode of the Business for Creatives podcast. We've had quite a run here now of just me doing some solo monologues and as I'm doing them, I'm just discovering more and more topics that I want to share with you. So today I wanted to reflect and kind of over the last few years work out, you know, what are the different steps that have to happen to create a business that generates six and multiple six figure profits in a business that you love without needing to work 70 to 100 hours per week. So that's what I've been working on. I was doing a lot of thinking about, you know, how our journey evolves in business. And I've mentioned this before, if you heard me speak or maybe another podcast. But you know, we often wildly overestimate what we can achieve in a year, but wildly underestimate what can be achieved in five years. And this was originated, I think, by Tony Robbins. I think back to five years ago, 2014, I was in a very, very different place. So never underestimate what you can achieve in five years. In fact, 2014, I was working in the UK and living in Essex. 2019, I'm sitting in my camper van on the Byron Bay coast, a place which I feel really connected to on a kind of spiritual and beauty level, recording podcasts in my van that's been paid for through the business, which is a mobile production suite stroke campervan.

And that's all in five years. So, you know, never underestimate what you can achieve in five years. But the other key lesson that I've learned in the last five years is that the importance of having a very clear strategy and a very clear roadmap. So what I wanted to do in today's episode was share that with you. Now, I converted this VW van into a mobile office camper April last year, and I haven't been out in it that much, but this is a trip that I'm taking 28 days out to do. I did an event in Melbourne a few weeks ago and then, sorry, a few months ago, by the time this goes out and then I'm doing an event in Brisbane, so I drove, I decided to see some of the country drive and, you know, so like what I've just done is just stopped and kind of worked out what are the 21 core elements to a six figure business. Now when I say six figures, I mean six figure profits, not six figure revenue. It's not that difficult to create a six figure revenue in video production because we have so many additional costs that we bear. But six figure profits consistently, that's a different thing altogether. Now I was first inspired to get into business when I read Tim Ferriss, the Four Hour Workweek. I read that back in maybe 2008, 2009, and it really inspired me to believe that you can actually have a lifestyle. You choose of your design and design it so it suits you perfectly. My philosophy on business and life is about having time to spend enjoying life, enjoying the world and choosing to do things like convert a van into mobile office so I can work from the beach if I choose. And that's kind of what I'm doing today. I mean, I'm literally 100 meters from the beach, but I'm actually sat in a van recording multiple podcasts today because I want to get ahead of myself.

I want to break down the 21 steps to six figures. Now, having all of these things in place are mandatory for running a predictable six figure profits, creative business and enjoying an income that delivers you the freedom to choose how and when you work. So let's get straight to it now, I just want to prefix this. You can't skip any of these steps. You can't think, oh, that won't work for me, I won't do that, I'll do something else instead. These are 21 steps that I have implemented to generate six figure recurring profits for more than five years. So number one, identify the target market specialism or market niche. I've talked about this a great deal over the years, and if you're not willing to narrow down your specialism, you'll never get the destination you want to get to, which is freedom and income to enjoy it with. So start with what you love, what you're known for. Now the caveat here is you may love shooting travel, but travel may not pay a great deal. So you need to accept you may not get to do exactly what you love and if you do, you're not going to earn very much money. If you love making music videos again, you might get the opportunity to shoot incredible work, but you won't make much money from it. So long as you go into this understanding that if you choose an area of special which is also a commercial opportunity, it's very, very likely and important that that will turn out to be a good thing, everyone. So don't be too obsessed with what you love because that's not necessarily where the money is. I have a great client here who makes very kind of, you know, I wouldn't say ordinary because the quality is very high. But he does a lot of tutorial videos, a lot of how to videos, a lot of internal training videos, which to many creatives just wouldn't seem that exciting.

But he makes an awful lot of money. He's on target for seven figures this year. So don't discount the work that may not appear that creative because it can be very, very lucrative. Now, if you could do one thing every day that you loved so that we'd never feel like work, start there. Identify something you really enjoy and even you could do it 50 to 70% of the time and really enjoy it would leave you 50 to 30% of the time left to do stuff you really love. So it's important to understand that in order to turn your passion into Prof. Your offer must be perceived to be valuable to the market. Now, there are elements of this company that I don't love, but what I've done is I've systemized them in a way and handed them out to somebody else. So what I love doing is creating content, holding coaching calls and actually discussing, you know, having calls with clients, potentially potential clients, about maybe joining our program, the Creative Business Accelerator, because I get to learn a lot about business and their business and if they're a good fit, I invite them to join. We don't actually invite everyone to join because not everyone's a good fit and we have a quite high caliber of client base there. So, you know, you can find things that you love within a role. You're not going to enjoy everything. But what you can do when you scale a business is actually offer those tasks out to team number two. Create an in depth client profile to deeply understand their wants, their needs, their fears, their frustrations and their desires. This is very, very important, in fact crucial, that you only ever talk to one person at a time. In any marketing you create, if you don't understand exactly who it is you serve, you can't fully deliver them a service that's actually going to help them. So it's very, very important that once you've chosen an area of specialism, you actually choose and identify a key target customer. Now, again, the best way to do this is to identify one of your existing customers or choose your ideal customer. Who would you like to work with? Build a profile, an in depth client profile around who they are to give you an idea. I've created several of these documents within the coaching program that we run and some of them average 10 to 14 pages long. That's how much detail I go into profiling my ideal clients. And the more detail you go into here, the more likely you will be to succeed. Number three, position yourself as an expert in that chosen field. So if you chose to become an expert in the legal profession, for example, become the go to person, the go to company who makes video content for that legal profession. You want your name to immediately come to mind when a prospect thinks of creating content or film and video in that space. Number four, write a book or at the very least an ebook. Authors create authority. The word authority comes from the word author. So in order to position yourself as an expert in your chosen field, a book or an ebook will position your knowledge and expertise in such a way that people will naturally assume you know more about their problem than they do. So give that book away for free in exchange for an email address that begins a relationship that can grow into customers. Now I've got three physical books on Amazon. That's the next level up. If you want to go ahead and write a physical book, it's going to have even more power. But I still intend to give my latest book away for free in return for an email address. The majority, if not all of what you who read this will at some point or have listened to this podcast may at some point have downloaded a free ebook from me. In fact, we still offer free free opt ins in our marketing today and that's an exchange for an email address. In fact, what we do in the podcast is we offer you downloads and bonus content in exchange for an email address. And that means we can contact you with when we've got new episodes coming out. And then what we do is we follow up and build relationships with you. It works across every single industry. And don't worry about the gdpr. That's actually not as big a deal as people got worried about a few months ago. You can follow the rules, you make sure you're compliant. That's all it is. And all it's going to do is weed out the kind of charlatans in the industry. That's a good thing. Number five, simplify your website and ensure there's a clear message. This needs to only attract your Ideal client, for example, your target market that excludes everyone else from even knocking on your door. This is what's critically important.

Give your book away on your website and that's a free lead magnet. Something that's valuable and relevant that your target market actually wants to spend 15 minutes or 20 minutes of their time reading. You can't simply throw some words together so it looks like a book. You must invest the time answering your target market's most burning questions. This is simple, but not easy.

Number six, create a follow up email autoresponder sequence and use it to nurture your prospects into a position where they can engage in a discovery call with you. You want to be able to build a relationship with someone. You want someone to feel like they're getting to know you, to like you and to trust you, and you're someone that can help them solve their problem. You can do an autopilot with an email autoresponder and you can accelerate the process of that nurture. You can also use autoresponder services and Facebook messenger, which are very, very effective. In fact, you can do all of this now on Facebook.

With what they call instant experiences. But number seven, ensure your message and your branding is coherent across all social media channels. When you do the Google Sniff test, you know when you Google your name or the name of your company, it should appear on page one with articles, blog posts and video. You want to make sure all of your video content is uploaded to YouTube is tagged correctly so that it shows up naturally in organic search. And YouTube is very good for this because it's owned by Google. So if you've got YouTube videos, even if they're not getting many, many views. When we started this podcast, it was a video podc and we don't get many views on YouTube, but it ranks when people search for us. It helps people find you. You also want to make sure there's articles that show up on your blog and you want some photographs to be tagged so they show up. So people Google you. You look like the real deal and you look legitimate. That's really what the Google sniff test is all about. Number eight, create thought leadership on LinkedIn and create blogs on LinkedIn that demonstrate your authority. Now, what we've discovered here is that this is a really interesting space. A lot of change is happening on LinkedIn and it's becoming a very core focus for us. And I know a lot of our clients are getting a lot of good feedback on LinkedIn, connecting with people and really making good contacts. You want to be able to connect with your target market daily. Now, LinkedIn is a closed platform, so anything you post to LinkedIn won't necessarily show up in a Google search, which is why it's important to embed your videos and your LinkedIn profile and your LinkedIn blog posts from YouTube. So Google can have a way in. But LinkedIn are also developing their video platforms. So, you know, this may change in time and it may be kind of forcing you to upload natively, which is probably what's going to happen. But for the time being, it helps Google find articles. It's one of the most powerful platforms to connect with your target market. You just need to go back and really kind of think about who your target market is and can you connect them and you can actually use the LinkedIn, some of the LinkedIn services to really connect with clients. And actually it's very, very powerful. We don't have the capacity in this podcast to go into detail. Number nine, create a compelling and irresistible offer. Make it so good that they'd be crazy not to hire you. Now, this is a simple sentence with absolutely massive, massive impact on your business. An irresistible offer is just not, hey, we'll do your video for 20% off. An irresistible offer Is someone feeling so compelled by what you're suggesting that you can help them with that. It becomes a no brainer decision. A hell yes decision. That's an irresistible offer.

Irresistible offers are not easy to construct and they are things that you will always continually improve based on feedback from your market.

Number 10, create a new cost of services rate card. For internal use, you must have a pricing policy that you use internally. Now, different clients sometimes require different rates. It's not a question of one size fits all, but apply a price increase. It's the quickest and easiest way to increase your profit. And you want to have a system that you can refer to so there's consistency across your business.

If you don't have a clear pricing strategy, you can't deliver consistency. And what I want you to do is look at whatever pricing you're working on just now and add 30% to all of your current rates. Now, if that feels uncomfortable, then you're on the right track. You can add a spreadsheet column with a 10% increase, a 20% increase, a 30% increase. But on your next job, apply the price increase. It is the best and easiest way to increase your profit. Number 11, where are your audience hanging out? Referencing the detailed customer profile that we uncovered in point 2. Begin to test marketing across multiple channels and we talked about this in one of the previous episodes of the podcast, which was when we talked about the social media content creation system, which is episode 15.

You want to be kind of really clear on what your customers needs are and then work out where they're hanging out. And the only way to do this is to test across multiple channels until you can identify the best performing channel for your specific niche. Now, what I mean by that different media channels and marketing channels have different audiences. Some people like to listen to podcasts, some people like to read newspapers, Some people like to go onto Facebook. Some people love Instagram, some people like to spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. But the most important thing about LinkedIn, just to reference here, is that majority of people on LinkedIn are either selling a service or looking for a job. So as long as you understand the psychology of what's happening on that platform, then cool. The good news is that everyone uses their personal email addresses on LinkedIn and there's a way to download all of that information and upload it to Facebook and create a custom audience. But again, out with the scope of this podcast. The majority of people on Facebook are browsing. It's an entertainment platform. They want to see what everyone else is up to. So any marketing you do there needs to be interruptive marketing and it's much harder to get people off what they're there doing. So your offer has to be very compelling and images can be very, very powerful here. Instagram is a place where artists and food and lifestyle are created and curated. So could work for your business. I know some clients of mine that it works very well for. They're in the music space. Number 12. Learn to write copy or hire a great copywriter. You want to be creating compelling headlines, sub headlines and copy that intrigue your market. To take the next step towards engaging you with the IDA formula. The IDA formula is Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Now, if you don't figure out how to write compelling copy, no one will engage with your message. It's not enough just to go, hey, here we are, we make video. Human psychology hasn't changed in hundreds of years. We are intrigued by great stories. We are intrigued when there is a sense of mystery. Stories and intrigue is what allows us and encourages us to read the next line. Some of the greatest headlines for Inspiration, come on dig and aol.com, so check them out and you'll see what I mean. These are sites that have had great headline copywriters designed to stop you in your tracks and read the article if you read the article, the advertiser gets eyeballs across the copy. It's the same in business. You want people to read your stuff. If it's not compelling, no one will read it. And copywriting is very, very hard. So hiring a good copywriter expect to pay some decent money. But like I said, this is the key to multiple six figure profits. It's not easy. 13. Create, test and invest in advertising campaigns on Facebook. To attract your ideal client, you'll have to test multiple campaigns over time until you hit the sweet spot. There's no significant reach with organic or free traffic, and Facebook has millions and millions and millions of your target customers using it on a daily basis. You can target locally, regionally, internationally. It's a platform that cannot be ignored. It's also very cost effective for the time being. This is the part of business building that most people ignore. It costs money to test, but you can test small. And if you're targeting one market, it becomes far easier than trying to reach everyone. Number 14 follow up until sales are finalized. Again, a short sentence with massive ramifications. You must create a sales process from the point where someone visits your website until they do or don't buy. Most people give up after one or two calls. This can be simple or it can be complex, but it's not easy. If you don't track this, you won't be able to improve your process. Most people give up on the first or second sales call. If you call 6, 7, 8, 9 times, you are more likely to secure the deal. It's a skill that you have to learn or get a team in to do it. But you have to learn as the business owner. You have to know how to sell your product before you can develop a sales team to sell it for you. You cannot outsource sales if you can't sell your own product. Number 15.

Create a system for selling. Call it a methodology. You can follow a script. You create and turn leads into active clients so you can do it predictably. Selling is an essential part of business growth. If you choose to ignore it, you'll never reach your income goals. And sales is a skill. It's an art and a science.

Scripts can be very useful. Again, we're with the scope of this podcast, but scripts are used extensively in sales to help you do the process repeatedly and modify the script as you handle objections. Number 16 Implement a system for tracking visitors, leads, prospects and clients. What you can measure, you can improve. And by a system, I mean something that's actually trackable. It could be as simple as using a spreadsheet. But when you start to focus on targeting a key market and sending messages to that market, there are so many variables within that that if you're not tracking effectively, you don't know what's working and you don't know what's not working. You must be able to track business to your website. Number of visitors, who leaves the details. Visitors leave the details and become prospects and prospects that become leads and leads that become sales. And you want to be tracking that weekly. Number 17. Follow up with existing and previous clients to generate more sales. Existing customers are 70% more likely to buy from you again if you did a great job. So you have to have a way of asking them to refer new business. If without a strategic and structural referral process, you're simply not going to be able to generate more sales more easily. Repeat business is the easiest business you can have. Number 18. Establish systems and processes in your business. Implement them in your business so you can automate process such as email, follow up booking software, messenger bots, quotes and invoicing. But you can do so much more with systems. Everything you do in your business can be systemized. If you're on the road and then you're on location, what happens when a client calls up? They get your mobile, you pick up and go, I'm sorry, I can't talk right now, I'm in the middle of a job. Simple booking software can allow you to set aside times in the week when you know you'll be available. Or you can have people book into you and have calls with no effort. But if you're also out on the road all the time, you can't be building a multiple six figure profit business. The business owner needs to be office based. Being the captain of the ship.

Create a structured referral system. One that gets you testimonials and introductions to new clients. This follows on from number 17. Following up leads and making sure you connect with them once they've bought. That's number one. But the second thing is asking them to refer other business to you. Because if someone's enjoyed your work, the chances are they're going to know other people. That will be enabling you to generate more work through a referral. We never mind referring great business on, so don't miss this opportunity. 20. Create joint venture relationships. A JV as it's known as, must enable a win win outcome for both parties. That means approaching other people within similar industries or related industries that are non competing that can share opportunities with you and you can get in front of their audience and they in turn can get in front of yours. And number 21, take action fast. Success is 90% speed of implementation, and the thing that holds most filmmakers back from really achieving more in their life is the lack of speed when it comes to implementation. They spend an awful lot of time procrastinating and that can be a terrible killer of a business. We spend too much time deliberating, thinking about something, pontificating and not enough time actually doing. If you just implement this one thing, take imperfect action, your business will go through the roof. So There you go, 21 core ideas that you now have to master to get six figure profits. There are probably things outside of this as well which assist this or make it easier, but These are the 21 I've identified the core habits, the core steps that must be in place to succeed at that level. A lot of information there, folks. As I say, you know, that's what I've discovered are the steps that you have to have in place to do this consistently. And it's a lot of work, but doesn't it make sense to do the work and guarantee it 6 to 12 months from now? That's it for this week, folks. Great to speak to you as always. I always look forward to reading your comments and suggestions. So until the next time, we'll see you later.

You've been listening to the Video Business Accelerator Podcast with your host, Den Lenny. If you are a video business owner who is tired of going it alone and would benefit from mentorship, support and weekly accountability, then mouse over to www.videobusinessaccelerator.com to learn more about how the accelerator program can help you today. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes, and we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review.

Sam.