3 Key takeaways from 2021. EP #245 - Den Lennie

In this episode, we're going to look at the three big lessons from 2021. This is Dan Lenny calling you from Australia on the final episode of 2021 of the Head Scale of Video Business podcast. So we're here, we got through 2021 and I thought I would do as I do each year, a little summary of three lessons that are key takeaways from this year. We've just had terms of running your video business. This is episode number 245 of the how to Scale a Video Business Podcast. So thank you for joining me this year. I appreciate you listening and this is going to be my address to the nation. And this is definitely an explicit episode because I'm not going to hold back on the lessons. So let's, so let's get straight into it.

The first lesson that I'm going to share with you, having worked with a number of video businesses this year, some of which have hit seven figures, so this is really significant and congratulations to them, you know who you are.

Is to stay in your lane and to go deep into your niche. I've talked a lot about niching over the years and I still very much stand by the power of niching or niching, because when you stay in your lane, the deeper you go into your niche or niche, the more you will understand about the pain they're in, the problems they want to solve, and you will understand in a very intimate way the language of their.

Industry and, and how they work.

When you become the leader in your niche.

Something magical happens. You get talked about. In fact, Chris, one of my clients in the uk, works in the arts, culture and heritage space. And just a couple of weeks ago he had a shoot with one of Andrew Lloyd Webber's productions.

And he met the head of marketing for the really useful group. And that woman said to Chris, I've had four separate people tell me that I should speak to you now. That is niching on overdrive. When the kind of companies you would dream to work with approach you and say, I've been told by four different people, I need to talk to you. That is the power of staying in your lane. Another client, Alex, works in the education space and by his own admission, struggled a bit with the whole niching thing to begin with. Just bought a house with his girlfriend. It was a big goal of his on his vision board. A year ago he's renovating the studio. He loves doing DIY and is able to work half days at the moment because he's got a 30 grand job. In January that is in his niche. So he's also just sort of surrendered to the idea of niching and that it can provide all of the wealth and opportunities that you could possibly want. Because you're in this space where other people in that industry talk to each other. And if you are a leading supplier in that industry, then you're going to be able to talk the language of that industry better than any other competition. You cannot go into next year thinking that you can just be a video production company. You've got to be a partner and you've got to be a partner that understands intimately the problems you're solving for that market.

You know, it being in a niche doesn't preclude you from doing other things. Grant, one of my clients here in Australia, he's in the very specialist niche around haulage, distribution.

And big scale.

Shipping. And he's become very well known on LinkedIn for that market, has people approaching him, but he's also being approached by other businesses who see him in other spaces like aged care and other opportunities. So being in a niche, really, it's about marketing to a specific group of people. And what I've seen time and time again is when you focus on marketing to a specific group of people, other opportunities always present themselves. And so the very opposite thing happens when you start to niche, you actually get more opportunities outside of your niche as well. Now, the key here is to make sure that you don't deviate too far from your core market. And that's why I said stay in your lane and go deep in your niche. That will provide you with all of the opportunities you can possibly want and need. And I promise you, it will provide all of the income and wealth you can ever dream of. The hard part is just sticking to it. And so it's very important that you look at that. And a great exercise is to just go through all of your clients from the last year and look at the 8020 principle and figure out who provided 80% or 70% or 60% of your revenue. It will be particular niche area or specialism. And generally speaking, those also are the clients who you enjoy working with the most. It just goes hand in hand on most cases. So the deeper you go in your niche, the more you stay in your lane, the less distracted you will be, the less energy you will expel on the wrong opportunities. You know, business opportunities are like buses, they come along all the time. Not every business opportunity is going to be the right fit for you. And the biggest mistake I see businesses make is they go in too many different directions. They take any work that comes at them. And I know from working with all my VBA clients in the year, they've often said this to me. They know when they shouldn't have taken a job, but they took it because they thought the money would be good. And it's always a bad, bad lesson. So, you know, you have to learn this yourself sometimes. But lesson number one, stay in your lane. Go deep in your niche and become the only choice in that niche, and you will find yourself getting into a position where people will be coming to you and they won't mind paying more because they've got the expert, they've got the best people to deal with. Now, the second lesson for 2021 is to focus on innovating and delivering an exceptional service to your clients. I don't think it's ever been more important to really care and think about how you can make your clients experience better. All too often I see video businesses skipping around from one client to another. And when we get to work with them, we start focusing on this idea of, you know, how many clients do you actually need to provide the income that you want? It might be 20, it might be 40, it might be 60. But you don't need to be chasing every opportunity. In fact, saying no is a really healthy thing to do in business because it impacts your culture. We had a great discussion a few weeks ago on the coaching calls about delivering a great mission statement and culture for your business, one that appeals to businesses like you. So you end up attracting more people like us and you repel people that aren't a good fit because not every client opportunity is a great fit for, for you. And we've all got experience of working with the wrong people and how detrimental that can be and how you know that phrase, one bad apple rots the box. It can really drain you if you work with the wrong kind of clients. So ask yourself about who you're working with and think, you know, if you love working with someone, ask yourself this question, how can I innovate? Deliver a level of service that they just simply weren't expecting and you don't have to go crazy. It can be just checking in with them outside of projects and saying, hey, how's it going? How are you guys traveling? You know, just wanted to check in and see how everything was going. You know, how's the last film going? You know, is there anything I can help you with? Please just reach out. I'm here to support you in any capacity that I can often Just reaching out to someone. And when I say care, I mean take the time to get to know your clients. Really think about who they are, what kind of challenges they have in their life outside of work. And if the more you can get to know someone, the more of a genuine relationship and connection you will build. And that means that when there is a problem, it will always be a small issue to sort out. If you don't invest in those relationships and it's a less than positive relationship, it's just transactional, then when there's a problem, small problems can become big issues. And so I've always, always, always maintained a level of intimacy with client relationships. And I don't mean that to sound weird. It's like it's genuine. Like, I genuinely love my clients. I genuinely love working with them. They've become friends now, yes, there's this relationship, but that is almost secondary because I genuinely want to see my clients succeed. That's why we're putting a cap on the number of members in the VBA. We're going to cap it at 40. We're at 29. So there are only 11 spots left for the entire year. And the only way to get in will be to get in those 11 or if someone chooses to leave, a spot will open up. But we're going to make it a kind of hard door shut at 40, because I want to maintain that level of intimacy with my clients, clients where I understand what's going on in their lives, I understand what's going on with some of their projects, so I can support them in a way that is far more meaningful. We're about to launch a new app at the end of this month. Now we're going to move all of our content groups off Facebook.

And Facebook is a free service, and we're going to be spending about 10 to $15,000 a year on an app that is something we rent and pay for every year. We're moving our content to a new platform, which is another, you know, five or six thousand dol. So we're going to spend somewhere between 12 and $18,000 a year on something that we currently have, which is free. But let me tell you this. When something is free, you are the product. And we're making the decision to move away from Facebook because enough of our clients have found it to be nothing but a distraction. I find it myself. I go onto the group to do something, and 20 minutes later, I'm lost in some rabbit hole because the data scientists and psych as Facebook are designing that platform to make us get distracted and go down rabbit holes. And that is not conducive to building and scaling a business. And so I feel very passionately that in order for us to deliver an exceptional service, I'm willing to invest that kind of money in something that is currently free to us. But on the other hand, we have a single sign on. So our clients who pay us get an exceptional service. They log into the app. Once they have access to all of the training content, all of the tons of resources that we have available, and an immediate discussion forum where they can get questions answered to immediate problems. They're going to have a database of all of the members we have around the world. So there's this kind of member directory of crews and high quality production companies around the world. And many of my clients do work together around the world. So it's a really added benefit, but it's about delivering an exceptional service. All of the other coaches in this space all have free Facebook groups, and we've had one for nearly three years. But the time has come where I want to create and innovate and deliver a level of service that people just weren't expecting. And the changes are almost nominal. It's like instead of logging into Facebook, you log into the Denlani app, and when you download that app, you've got immediate access with no distractions, no ads, just answers to your questions and discussion forum for people running businesses. And at some point this year, earlier, probably rather than later, I'm going to open up a discussion forum for listeners of this podcast as well. It won't be immediately phase one. We're going to focus on our, obviously our paying clients first, because that's what you would always do, you look after your paying clients first. But we will be introducing some, some resources and, you know.

Opportunities for you as a subscriber of this podcast to kind of get involved as well. And, and so that's really what we're doing is we're looking at ways to make the journey smoother because we've had incredible results with our clients in the last year. In a year that was, if you listen to a lot of people, was a disaster. But our clients are all growing and having record years.

One client's like 25% up on his target for the year. We have many stories of people making significantly more money during a pandemic. And that's because we've focused all of our attention on.

Making sure we guide them. And if you just look after your best paying clients exceptionally well, you will never have to worry about money ever again. Which leads me onto my third point, my third lesson for 2021. And it's that you are in control of what you consume, and it's very important that you choose your community wisely. You know, there's an expression that says something along the lines of, your income is the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So if you add up the people you spend the most time with and you add up their income, you divide by five, you within plus or minus 10% of that. And so if you choose to hang out on Facebook in free communities that are full of opinion but no one's paying for anything, that is going to give you a very different experience to being in a community of 30 or 40 people who are growing video businesses, some of which have doubled and tripled in the last year. Some have hit seven figures. Some have just, you know, added more team and increased their revenue and had to do less work.

So you've got to be very careful where you hang out and what you listen to. The last couple of years have been very interesting from a news point of view. You look at platforms like Facebook and just television news, it's all designed to scare you.

The rhetoric is, be scared. This, you know, disease is going to get you this. This virus is going to get you. There's no point in going out. Be at home, stay home, be safe.

And a lot of comments I've observed are people saying, well, it's been a really tough year because of the.

Pandemic, and yet I've got clients in my community who are having the best year ever. So what do you think is changing? Well, first thing is, as soon as the pandemic broke, we just said, stop looking at the news, get off Facebook, don't get involved in conversations. Facebook has become like a giant stage where everyone in the world has a microphone and a PA system, and as soon as someone barks yellow, someone goes red, or someone barks white, someone goes black, and it becomes this cesspit. Opinions. You know, the thing with other people's opinions, they're like arseholes. Everyone's got one, and mostly they're full of shit. Now, I use that expression with full intent. It's the only way to describe how that shit happens on Facebook. And the more you consume of that, the more fearful you become or the more irate you become, or the more opinionated you become to want to battle with that person and prove them wrong. And it's a very, very poor use of your time. So if you don't want to be part of the conversation on there, remove yourself from it and just silence people you don't want to listen to or just come off that platform altogether. Focus on what you can control, because you are in control of what you can consume. We can't necessarily control what the government mandates are, but you can control how you respond to them. You have a choice in how you respond to everything, and you can respond like the majority people do, with anger or taking sides or polarizing, you know, opinions. And there can be many people with different opinions on Facebook as an example, and it's okay for someone to have a different opinion from you, but I see these battles going on, and it's just. It's so horrible to see how societies are kind of polarizing each other. So let's not go back to what it was like in the war where minorities were sidelined and us and them became a thing, and those horrible atrocities happened in the Holocaust. Let's avoid all of that rubbish, okay? And let's focus on what you can control. Because if you build a really successful business that is profitable, that has great cash flow, and that delivers excess profits, you can start to build wealth. And with that wealth, you can start to do work that fills your cup. That could be sponsoring a charity. It could be getting involved in some charitable work. It could be doing some pro bono work for charities or some other organization that you believe passionately about. You know, it was said of Mother Teresa that, you know, no amount of poverty can save the world. No amount of poverty can change the world. And she was renowned for getting money out of people that she met. And she was a very shrewd businesswoman because she recognized that in order for her work to have meaning, she had to have cash to be able to pay for the kind of environments that she supported the poor people of Calcutta. And so it's really important that you get comfortable with building a business that makes a profit, that helps you to achieve great comfort and success for your own family. And once you've reached a level of comfort there that you feel like you are safe and secure, then you can start to support others. And that is life changing, because not only do you start to support your team.

The impact of your ability to provide employment for other people goes way beyond just yourself. And that, my friends, is a purpose that is about building something lasting and meaningful that will impact the world in a way that just being a videographer doesn't. And so, as I leave you before the end of the year, I want you to think about those three things. Stay in your lane for next year and go deep into your niche. The deeper you go, the more you will understand about your niche. Talk their language, the more they will get to know you and you will become a talking point in that niche and you'll have more work than you ever imagined.

Focus on delivering an exceptional service for your clients. Just genuinely care and really think about how you can make their experience better. Ask yourself how you can innovate and deliver a level of service they just weren't expecting and think about how you can continue to make it better. Because retaining clients is where it's at. Going after new clients is expensive. It's time consuming. It takes a long time to build that trust. Existing clients already trust you, so just don't let them down. Always be sure that you're giving them more than they expect. And finally, be wise. You are in control of what you consume. Choose your community wisely and if we can help you in any way, please reach out next year. We have 11 spots left in the VBA and once we get to 40, the doors are shut until someone leaves. So guys, have a wonderful new year. Don't drink too much and I will see you soon. Ask yourself this has owning your own video business been everything you dreamed it would be when you first got started? It might be hard to admit, but think about whether you're genuinely achieving everything you set out to when you made that decision to grab the camera and go it alone. Are you really working less? Are you really earning more? And are you really in control? Chances are you're bloody good at what you do, but you're having to work like a dog, 70 plus hours a week, whether it's filming, editing, marketing, or any of the other jobs that come with being the big boss of your own video company. When you're managing projects, constantly searching out for new clients and worrying about cash flow, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture or make real progress. Let's face it, that stress is the last thing you need when you're trying to run a profitable company that supports you and the people you care about. Truth is, a business that provides financial, professional and personal freedom really is achievable. But maybe you've got that nagging feeling that you're overworked, lacking stability, and struggling to get to where you really want to be right now. It could be that you just don't know how to make a positive change on your own. So I created the Video Business Accelerator coaching programs to really supercharge your video business with these unique coaching programs. You'll learn all the tools you need to get complete confidence in the success of your video business. You can take the first step on your journey to a successful business that doesn't control your life. Let me show you how. Head over to denlani.com and click on Accelerator.