Can you do me a favour? Shorty EP #098

G' day guys. Dan here on Tuesday 16th June, 2020, week 25 of the year here with a little snippet, a little shorty from the how to Scale a Video Business podcast. How you going today? It's coming up to mid winter here in Queensland and it's looking a bit gray. Gotta sound like a radio DJ from some local radio station. Anyway, I wanted to share something really exciting with you today because we are coming up to an anniversary in seven days time for this podcast which I want to get you involved in.

So we are up to episode 98 of the podcast, which means in one week's time we will be up to episode 100, which is a pretty massive milestone and I wanted to get you involved in that somehow. I want to get straight into it. So basically I am going to set up a speak pipe link on my website underneath this post@denleny.com if you click on podcast you'll find this episode and I'd love to know, what do you want to know or what do you want to share? So I'm going to open up the 100th episode to questions from you, the listener. So whether or not you're a new listener or you've been a listener for a while, I'd love you to send me a short message, like a minute, minute and a half, asking a question, share perhaps what you love about the show and then ask a question. What I'm going to do is I'm going to answer those questions on next week's show so you can ask me anything to do with business, filmmaking, anything you like. I just thought it'd be a cool way to, you know, see that milestone and just talk a bit about, you know, the journey in business is one of many times it's, it's monotonous, it's, it's like, you know, doing repetitive tasks over and over again. But, but measuring and benchmarking and testing and ensuring that you are always improving. So we did a big training this morning in the accelerator, all about marketing automation and we were talking about.

The importance of getting very clear on your target market and what you're offering that market. But once you do that, within the powers of Facebook and all social media networks and paid advertising, it's incredible how well you can target people. And.

So you might be asking, where does a podcast like that fit into our business plan? Well, the podcast is organic marketing, trust based marketing, it's relationship building marketing, and it's a significant amount of work. I mean, I won't lie to you. It's, you know, we put two episodes out a week at a minute, and it involves cost, it involves other people, but it's, it's what I call, you know, a trust building exercise. So if you have been listening for a while, then clearly you enjoy what we're sharing. Perhaps if you're new to me in the podcast, you know, there's 100 episodes now to go back and listen to. We cover off many, many different topics around building a video business. And so, you know, I actually really enjoy making the podcast. It's, it's, it's something that.

Is incredibly enjoyable from a point of view of learning about people and interviewing some fantastic guests. And so it's great to have the opportunity to hear from you, the listener, to, to kind of, kind of send some questions and. Because, you know.

It'S a funny medium, you know, I obviously deliver two episodes a week, but other than people that tell me, they listen and we see our statistics and I'm excited to say that, you know, we've tripled our downloads from this time last year. And so, and actually I was having lunch with Gideon Shalwick and Ben Amos, who have both been on the show just last week, and we were talking about, you know, podcasting, and Ben said, you know, it's interesting, things start to kind of really change when you get to sort of episode 80. And he's right. You know, we started to see a lot of different traction, you know, getting guests on the shows a lot easier. You know, you've got, you've got some statistics, you've got some track record. And it's a bit like growing a YouTube channel. You know, people say that people that grow a successful YouTube channels sometimes spend two or three years just continually putting content out regardless. And it's kind of been like that with the podcast. You know, we started off near 18 months ago, maybe two years ago with just one episode of Fortnite. So we got started and then we went to one episode a week, and then beginning of this year, we went to two episodes a week. And it's a big commitment, there's no doubt about that. It's a commitment to consistency. But I always enjoy listening back. You know, when I do listen back, which isn't that often, you know, it's, it's kind of. It's a weird thing to listen to your own podcast. But occasionally I'll put it on at the weekend and just go, oh, that's actually pretty interesting.

So my point to you really is this, is that building anything real Takes time. You know, we're now at a point where we're seeing significant growth in the downloads, and that's exciting.

And we're getting, you know, the opportunity to work, to talk to some interesting guests. I mean, we've always had interesting guests, but getting guests to come on the show now is a lot easier when you've got 90 episodes than it is when you've got three. So you find yourself not having to. To pitch people quite as much, you know, have to sell them into it. They just look at your show and go, you got 100 episodes. And I think it's a bit like growing a business. You know, when you're. When you're trying to grow a business or you're trying to move into a new sector, a new market, you know, you're kind of the new guy or the new. The new girl, and, like, you know, you don't know anyone and they don't know you, and it can be a struggle. But.

I think it's. It's important to remember that, you know, taking anything from scratch and building it will take time. There aren't really any shortcuts. And so the only way to grow a podcast is to literally put a podcast out every single week for, you know, 50 weeks, 200 weeks, whatever it is. And I know some podcasters, you've got 6, 700 episodes. But it just becomes a habit. It becomes a habit of just pushing content out, thinking, what can I give the market, which is a value? And, you know, we see consistent numbers every week. And I hope, you know, I hope you enjoy the show. I mean, if you're listening, I'm guessing you're enjoying it, but. But more importantly is, you know, what. What are you taking away? What are you implementing? Because it's one thing to listen and go, oh, that's a great idea. I must do that. It's a very different thing to actually put it into practice. And that's really where the kind of rubber meets the road in any business, is when you actually have to implement the lessons, because there's no shortage of information out there in the world.

It's never been easier to run a business. There's never been more money around, and there's never been more opportunity. But, you know, you have to believe it's there. A lot of what we work on regularly in the group is mindset. You know, you've got to believe the opportunities exist. And it's very interesting because when I talked to my clients, which I do, you know, regularly, certainly once a week on the form.

We are, you know, I'm always amazed at just how much productivity is. In fact, a number of people this morning we have a chat group that, you know, we set out the links for the calls and things and there was two, three people saying, oh, sorry, I'm not gonna be on the calls this week. I've got too many projects on or I've got full on, another full on production week. And I don't think that's a coincidence because, you know, we attract high achievers and high achievers sitting in a group together achieve even more. It's like the kind of the, the sum of the parts makes everyone stronger. You know, a rising tide lifts all ships and I'm very proud of that. But yeah, it's, it's exciting. And today we did a quite an advanced training on marketing automation and it was just so exciting to kind of see people's faces at like the possibility because we're moving into some really deep, deep strategic Stu. And I just know that, you know, the people that stick around are going to be super successful because you need to be surrounded by super successful people. You know, if you surround yourself in Facebook groups that, you know, sprout doom and gloom and I'm in a member of a few of them and occasionally things come up and some of the, some of the that I read is just like phenomenal. And everyone's like, oh yeah, me too. It's such a nightmare. And I'm thinking, well, my clients are absolutely killing it. You know, what's different? What's different about them? And the difference is as they don't allow the external world to dictate their, their success. And that's something that I fully believe in. You know, we are all entirely responsible for the success or failure of our business. If your business isn't doing better, it's because you're not doing something. And that, that's a very confronting position to put yourself in, but also very liberating because then you realize that, oh, actually, it's all done to me. Anyway, I want to wrap things up for now of the shorty. Please make sure you go to the website@denleny.com and send me a voice message and leave me a question. Tell me what you love about the show, where you're from, how long you've been listening, and what would you like to know. And if we get enough interest or any interest, we'll record a show next Tuesday and record the responses. So, guys, have an awesome week. I've got an amazing podcast coming on Thursday with Danny Lacy from Starter Media in the UK and he's going to talk all about how he went from basically being a cameraman filmmaker in his bedroom to having a team of nine. And that's going to be really cool. So, guys, see you Thursday.

You've been listening to the How To Scale A Video Business podcast with me, your host, Dan Lenny. If you're a video business owner who's hit a ceiling and we benefit from mentorship, support and coaching, then check out how you can work with me over@denlenny.com 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. And don't forget to share. If you feel you've gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers you know, then please do me a massive favour and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. See you next week.