Clients Aren’t Buying Talent Anymore- Here’s What They Are Buying (And How to Sell It) EP #373

G', day, guys. You're listening to the Den Lenny show.

The podcast for established video business owners.

Who want to scale smarter, not harder. We talk strategy, systems and the scale method that turns busy founders into strategic CEOs.

G', day, guys. It's Dan here with episode 373 of the how to Scale a Video Business Podcast. And I'm going to just jump straight into the deeper dive that I've been doing into AI and how it's going to impact boutique video production companies. So I think that the majority of creatives, if they're actually playing with AI to any degree, they're going about AI the wrong way. They're focusing on the tools, they're focusing on sort of speed and volume, which is a bit of a death trap by trying to use tools to speed up workflows. Now, I don't, I don't think that's not. Speeding up workflows isn't a bad idea. But not to position yourself as a cheaper option to clients. I think instead of building and buying tools, you should be building your positioning as an expert. So I think that there's an advantage to being boutique. And, you know, you're still early enough and you still have leverage. Clients are going to become increasingly overwhelmed by tools, so they need trusted advisors. And small studios can adapt faster, can deploy thought leadership, they can educate. And there's definitely a land grab happening in the AI fluent storyteller category. So I think what makes creators irreplaceable in 2025 and beyond is the strategic insight, emotional intelligence and taste. And, you know, systems that scale, not just like individual talent. You want to be seen as a.

Creative business partner, not simply a vendor.

So I think here's what you should be doing now while you've still got that massive first mover advantage. And look, this is going to fall on deaf ears for a lot of people, okay? They're going to think densoft being crazy again, jumping on some new fad. Trust me on this. I have an instinct about this and I've been immersing myself in this. We're making some big shifts in our business and we're helping our clients first. But here's what you need to do before the market floods, okay? You need to educate your niche before somebody else does. And you want to launch some kind of authority content, be that a guide, a case study, a webinar maybe, and pick a positioning lane. Do you want to be an AI integrator? Do you want to be a human strategist? Or do you want to be a hybrid content firm. So you need to think about how you're going to productize that strategic inside something like, you know, AI ready brand film strategy. But I do think it's important that you start jumping on those opportunities now sooner rather than later. Remember in 2007, industry leaders said that iPhone was a gimmick. They said it would never take off. People thought that blackberries were gimmicky. By 2010, the iPhone had redefined how business, entertainment and communication worked. AI is in the 2007 moment right now. So you have the opportunity to be the equivalent of an app store pioneer or you can be Kodak. So what does this do for your clients? Well, it future proofs their business without needing to become tech experts. It helps them to stop competing with freelancers and cheap tools and gives them a category of one position in their niche. It reinforces the value of their mind, not just their hands on gear. So here's the I guess that the salt in the wound moment. You know, for years you've won work because of your talent, your eye, your taste, your ability to create something that no template or two ever could. But something has shifted. Clients are no longer buying talent. They're buying positioning. They're. They're buying perceived certainty. You know, I enabled this all in one that they just don't want the uncertainty. And meanwhile, you might be being overlooked. You know, I've heard of a lot of people saying that work is down this year and it's not because you're not the best choice, but because you're not the most visible or the easiest to understand. And that is not fair. Because right now, in boardrooms and marketing meetings across the country, clients are being pitched by people who are less talented than you, less experienced than you, but better positioned than you. They've got a tool, they've got a system. They might have a sexy brand and they're wanting work that you should have in the bag. So I think there's a great creative swap out. You know, there's a shift from being hired based on talent alone to being hired because of speed, convenience and price. And your clients are suffering from it because you get commoditized. They get overwhelmed by mediocre content from cheap DIY vendors and tools. And then when they try and just do it themselves, it's like when they first try to shoot a brand film on their iPhone. Sometimes they get lucky, but most of the time they get stuck. And who are they going to turn to when that happens? Someone who's positioned not Just as a creative, but a creative partner, a guide, an oracle, not just a gun for hire. So you know, you don't need more talent, you don't need another camera. What you need is the ability to package what you already do in a way that clients instantly understand and they see as valuable. Because in today's market, I'm absolutely certain of this, the best positioned person will win. Not always the best creative and not the most experienced either. If you can learn to package, position and sell what you already do, you stop competing with bottom feeders and you start attracting top tier clients. Your rates go up, your stress goes down, you stop wondering where the next job is coming from and you build a business that respects your talent, doesn't just extract it. You know, it's certain to assume that in every business right now, let's call her Maddie, who's 19, works in marketing and it's like, hey, we could just do, I could actually, you know, use some prompts to create this next piece of content. Saves us spending five grand on that video company. That's, that's 100 going to happen. So I think that the, the answer to this, and it became very clear to me today, is that niching is a non negotiable in 2025. Niche, niche, niche, niche, niche. That's the way to go. You have to be niched because that's where the value is, that's where the opportunity is, that's where the, the where you can't be, you know, you can't be replaced. If you are an absolute expert in your field, it's the fact that you know, your genius is the part that can't be created by AI. There's a discussion around. Apple have just released a white paper saying that essentially AI is kind of nothing more than a very elaborate autocomplete. So it's kind of like searching massive database with tokens, which are words. And when a question's being asked, it's using huge computing power to find an answer that would make sense. Now if that's the case, then AI will do a very good job of creating anything for you. That sounds like it's on point, but if you compare that to your specific expertise, the more specific your expertise, the more valuable it becomes. And then AI is just an amplifier, it's an accelerator, it's the leverage machine. But only if you know how to position what you do and stop hiding behind talent alone. And that is the key. And I've been banging the niching drum since day one and here's why? Because business is actually very simple. Someone has a problem over here on the left and they want to be happier over here on the right. And your job is to bridge that gap. That's it. If I want a coffee in the morning, I go to a cafe. If I have a flat tire, I go to a tire shop. I don't browse portfolios, I solve my problem. And here's the shift that video business owners need to wake up to. People just. Days of people just wanting a video are over. Nobody buys video for the sake of anymore. They want results, they want outcomes. And increasingly they're turning tools like V or Sora and Chat GP to try and do it themselves. You know, suddenly Maddie and marketing with the ring light and the AI script is now your competition and that's not going to go away. So how do you solve this problem? Well, you need to get crystal clear on the unique problem you solve, the transformation that you deliver and the people you do it best for, that's your niche. And in a world of 8 billion people, when you pair that unique niche with the amplification power of AI and content systems, you now have scale, leverage and visibility like never before. That's the opportunity and the ones who choose to niche will truly seize it. This, my friends, is how you get clarity on the new way to scale. In an AI driven world of infinite noise and unlimited tools speedier and faster than you can ever imagine, the people who will win aren't the ones with the most resources, they're the ones with the most clarity. So get super focused on your niche. It's not the time to be going, oh, I'm not sure about niching, it's, it's niche or die. But if you get onto this, and we're still early in this process, people, if you get onto this now and you really embrace it and you take all that fear away from what if and you just start working on this, the first part, now that is where you're going to see the traction. You don't need to have the whole roadmap. You just need to start.

This is the Dan Lenny Show. If you've built a solid production business but feel stuck in the grind, it's time to think bigger. Over the past 14 years, I've helped 178 companies generate more than 52 million in documented growth using the scale method and our elite mastermind. If you want to create predictable pipelines, attract higher value clients, and finally buy back your time, head to denleny.com that's where the next level begins.