How Almost Every Video Business Owner is Selling the Wrong Thing! EP#081- Somi Arian

Hey guys, welcome back to this second part of my two part series with change architect and filmmaker Soumi Aryan. Sami Aryan is the top voice on LinkedIn in the UK and if you missed last week's session, I would really strongly encourage you to go and listen to that because it really sets up what we're talking about this week. But this is the second part of our conversation. What we're talking about this week is the, the rate of change and the rate of development of technology and what that is doing to filmmaking. We have a very serious conversation about the impact of machine learning and technology that's going to be really disrupting our industry quite significantly over the next five to 10 years. We even talk about the fact that I predict that the editing will kind of diminish as a skill and that 80% will be done by machine learning. So really fascinating talk with someone who's at the cutting edge of this. So please do enjoy this session. We're recording this in the middle of the pandemic.

Yes.

And the businesses that have cash in the bank, who are nimble, are sitting pretty just now. I would imagine any business that's over leveraged and scaled too fast is in a very, very tight position.

Exactly, absolutely.

And this should be a lesson to us all, a really valuable lesson to us all that going too fast, going too big, buying too much gear, having too much at risk, like there are probably, and this is a tough thing for many, many families just now, is that I've always maintained that the majority of the population are two paychecks away from financial ruin and that financial ruin is now potentially upon them. And that's going to be a really tough lesson for a lot of people. But I just wanted to kind of really reinforce that, that if you go too big and you leverage too much, it creates really negative stress.

Yes, absolutely. One thing that I understood very quickly when I was creating the documentary was that you don't need incredible gear.

Because remember Moore's Law? I talk about Moore's Law a lot in my book and you know, I can't even remember how much of it my editor took out, but I talk about this exponential growth of, you know, technology and remember the power of technology is doubling every other year. So the iPhone that I have now, you know, I know that by the next iPhone it will be so much better, you know, and after that it will be so much better. And we are getting to a point now that I can imagine that within the last. So within the next few years, two years, two, three years, I mean, that's how fast it's growing. I will probably even be using my GH5s. So then I need to find a way to justify. And I mean, even already with this COVID 19, this is happening in that, you know, I'm trying to. For example, one of my clients now is in south of France and I'm getting his son to record him on the iPhone and send me the footage and then we edit it and put it. So that's one step closer to the person saying, I don't need you, but he is gonna need me because of the building business model that I built. So if you think that you can create a cookie cutter business and scale it, you're wrong. It's not gonna happen. You might do it for a short amount of time, but because of the way that technology is growing and that's everything that that book is about, because of the way the technology is growing, you are not gonna be able to do that. You know, you are not even going to be able to necessarily say, create a business out of being an influencer. Even that has got a short time span. There's a whole section in my book on the influencer culture. And the reason is that we are entering in an era where there's going to be an increasing overlap between the digital, you know, virtual world and digital world and the physical world. There are already Instagram accounts of digital influencers, you know, virtual influencers that are not real people that are in render that are, you know, able to. As long as, you know, if see, anything that can be replicated, will be replicated. So you want to be creating a business model that nobody can replicate. It's not that nobody can replicate, but what it is that it is, it's gonna take so much hard work that many people will give up that will be like, you know.

There are so many things you need to find that inner talent, something in you that is going to help you do something special. Don't be a headline reader, be a deep diver. You know, I was like, most people, most people read headlines. You know, I'm not a headline reader. You know, I read to the very footnote because the proof is in the footnote, you know, it's in the. It's in the details, you know, you know, when I read a book, I also read all the books that that book was based on, you know, all the references, you know, I look at their references and the most interesting quotes in that book, I'm like, oh, I need to read that book. That was bad. So when you think of it that way. I've not built a business that is going to generate multi millions for me. I might generate multimillions from my other investments. But my business, my core business is not a multimillion dollar or pound business. It's very niche. It can be scaled, but it can be scaled within limits. And it takes time and I don't mind it because it provides me with a nice income that I can support. You know, it's a lifestyle business. You know.

Daniel Priestley talks about this is like there, there are a few different business types, right? So there's the lifestyle business which is up to about 12 people, a team of about 12 people. And you have no ambition of making it bigger. You want to focus on, you know, generating a high level of income within that, you know, and, and everybody has a nice comfortable life. And usually those are business models that not many people try to replicate. You know, it's where most people want to go for the big thing. And we have, we have a saying in Persian which says trying to pick up and throw a big stone is a sign of never being able to do it. You know, so, so it's like you're like being to be a lot of. There's a, there's a chapter in my, my book on critical thinking and it's about being, thinking critically. There's a whole section on thinking critically about your success. You know, so we need to think critically and I thought critically about my success and I had to redefine success to myself.

So I'd say don't go for scale and don't rely too much on technology. So the whole premise of the book is that we need human skills. We need to develop our human skills. Our human skills are emotional intelligence, critical thinking, contextual creativity. And my business, my, this new business model is built on contextual creativity, which I will just explain. And mindfulness. And mindfulness I argue is at the core of all of these.

Because mindfulness, what it does, it helps you be fully engaged. You know, most of us are not fully engaged. We are just going through the motion. We are on autopilot and we are trying to follow the trend. The, you know, I used to get, I used to get even until like three or four years ago. I used to get really frustrated when I looked at Entrepreneur, you know, magazine and like looked at social media and all these people were, you know, becoming successful, you know, making million dollar businesses in a short time. I was like, how are they doing it? But you know, why can't I do it? And Then became realistic about my background, my, you know, where I come from, what are, what are some of the things that are values to me? And I realized that my value was not money, you know, my value was something bigger. My value is this. The thrill of learning, the thrill of, you know, gaining knowledge, understanding, you know, that sort of. I'm a seeker, you know, I'm not a money seeker, I'm a knowledge seeker, you know.

So I think just sounds like what you're saying, I just want to recap for those listening, is that if you're a filmmaker right now, the skills you might be selling right now, which are editing and filming, you want to be thinking about becoming more of a producer. But not just a producer, a well read producer, someone who understands technology and messaging. Because that seems to me, and sorry to interrupt you, but I think it's an important point, is that filmmakers need to be pivoting now because the future is never going to be the same. So they need to be thinking about how can you add value to not just the filming job, but the outcome the client's looking to achieve and go niche.

Exactly. The key word you set here is the outcome that the client is looking to achieve. That's exactly the key word. Right, so you, so people are selling. Filmmakers are selling the wrong thing. They are selling their filmmaking expertise. That's not what people are buying. What people are buying is a solution to their problem. So you need to find a market.

That resonates with you, that you can solve a problem in that market, which I found that market for us at the moment, that could change. See, one of the things that I. You've got to accept that nothing is permanent. You have to be ready to constantly pivot. Constantly. You know, you can't say, oh, okay, I'm sorted for this year. Look, I honestly thought I was sorted for this year by March. Me and Lola looked at, you know, beginning of March, me and Lola looked at the amount of invoices that we had submitted and the contracts that we had already.

You know.

Signed. And by the beginning of March, end of February, I remember I was on the phone to my friend Justine from Marie Claire and I told her, yeah, I just had a great day with Lola. We went through everything together. By the end of February, we've already exceeded in terms of invoices and contracts. We've already exceeded the whole of last year in terms of our income, which means that we still have another 10 months to bring in so much more income. Look, a month later, it's exactly a month Later, I've lost all of that.

Decimated. Just gone. Like that. Yeah.

Yes. Like, I've lost, you know, like some of my talks have been postponed. But yeah, I've lost a lot of money. A lot of money, you know, and. And it's like you've got to be ready for that, you know.

And yet. And yet you don't seem worried.

No, I'm not worried. I'm not worried because I.

For several reasons. I'm living in an Airbnb right now, right? So you could say that I should be very worried. You know, I've just come out of a.

Five year relationship, I'm living in an Airbnb, I'm trying to buy a flat and it's been one problem after another.

There are several reasons why I'm not worried. One is that I love challenges because I feel like when there are challenges, there are not many people who have my resilience. And.

Every time there is challenge, it means there will be less competition after, after that. So if I can get through the challenge and come out of the other side still being indispensable to my clients, then.

I'm in a good place and I'm taking this time. For me, my day hasn't changed, you know, honestly, I have been so busy. The only thing that has changed is that maybe I can go on a shoot, but most of my work with my clients is mental support on the phone, you know, which I'm doing anyway. And the other thing is because I've invested in a few different businesses. So, like for example, in this situation where most people don't have enough work, Lola, who is my right hand, and I spent the whole of Friday, Saturday.

And Sunday working on the business plan document for one of the other businesses that I have invested in because we had an investor meeting on Sunday afternoon. So I spent three days in the middle. And she worked full time, she worked overtime, you know, and she's so indispensable to me that I told her, well, you work so hard on the weekend, you can take the Friday off. But I'm already thinking, shit, if Lola takes the Friday off, what am I going to do? There's nobody else in my team that has the same level of, you know, I can't live without. And, well, I also have one other person abroad who is very, very valuable to me. But, but that's what it means to be indispensable. So, you know, I'm indispensable to my clients because although they can't pay me right now, they're like, you know, somebody just, our business is shut down. So. But what, what are we doing? I haven't stopped working with them. I said, no problem, you can't pay, it's okay. We are still going to support you, you know, we are still going to create content for you from distance and we're still going to continue to do what we're doing for you. And once this is solved, then we will, you know, we continue so. Because I can afford to pay my team, right? So I'm taking the hit so that my team is not out of a job. Maybe they will work part time or three or four days a week for now. But my team are engaged. My clients are engaged. They feel extremely supported, they feel extremely grateful.

And with some of them, we've come up with an agreement to pay half during this period. And even then to some of them, I've said, you don't know, no rush, wait until you get your government grant. Wait, why? Because I have cash flow.

I have, which is really like the number one smart move in a business is to start stockpiling cash. I was saying to my clients middle of last year, start stockpiling cash now. Because typically it goes quiet, December, January, start stockpiling, run your year on a 10 month year. And those that did, they're relaxed.

Just now.

The people that are not relaxed are having to learn a very, very tough lesson. But you know, in business we don't learn lessons from success, we learn lessons from failure.

And you know, my career went tits up in 2001 when I broke my leg and was told one day I can't be a cameraman anymore. I had to start again.

You know, I moved to Australia five years ago, started my business from scratch again, went through the global financial crisis in 2009, 2010, had a thriving business. So I just choose to be really, like, I'm not naive, I'm optimistic and I'm pragmatic and I put cash aside and I don't buy fancy cars and I don't buy fancy stuff. I stockpile. And that's why now I feel I've got breathing room. And it sounds like that's exactly the position you're in.

Yeah, I mean, like, I don't buy anything, you know, like I have some nice stuff that is currently in the storage, you know, that I haven't needed. You know, I've been living in this Airbnb with like just one skirt, you know, that I've been using to go to meetings and stuff, you know, and now then this has Stopped. And I have two BA man jackets that are in the storage that I don't miss. You know, one of them was a.

Gift for my birthday. You know, like any designer shoes that are there that I just, I'm fine without them, you know. So I really think going forward, I mean, a lot of those things were gifts when I was in a relationship, but then now I'm not. And I'm thinking more moving forward. I'm not going to buy designer clothes, I'm not going to spend money on those things. I'm investing, I'm investing in things that interest me because you know what, despite like having 10 pairs of high heel shoes and I love shoes and I think one of the things I want to do one day, I want to bring out my own shoe company, you know, my own shoes. And actually I'm already working on my next book potentially. I have the title in my mind, Walk in My Shoes. And it's about why women have not been as successful as men in business and economy and politics, art, science, everything in history. So it's a.

You know, kind of like historical.

Research on why women have not been as successful and then how technology can help us close that gap. So that's my next project, my next book. But yeah, I love shoes. But the thing is that I find myself most of the time, no matter if I have 30 pairs of shoes or 10 or three, there are only one pair of shoes that I seem to be wearing all the time. You know, that's the one that's the most comfortable, you know, and I'm always wearing my leather trousers, which is the most comfortable thing. So also like 80, 90% of the time I'm wearing that stuff. So it's like, so just wear what is comfortable and don't spend money on, you know, you don't need fancy car, you know, you just, you need to. We are, we are going into a period of.

Increasing uncertainty. Increasing like uncertainty is going to be the defining characteristic of the next few decades. And I don't know if you've read or heard of the book the Singularity is Near, which is very, very interesting by Ray Kirk as well. And.

It'S very interesting like within the next 20 to 30 years, I'd say that humanity is changing massively because we are becoming increasingly able to manipulate our bodies, our minds. And so one of the companies that I've invested in is.

In biotechnology, bioelectronic technology. And it's an, it's a fascinating, fascinating area. So the short story, the long I don't know what the thing is, the medium that the way to say. But essentially, essentially you've got to be sure that you can protect yourself through periods of uncertainty.

So don't buy lots of gear. Filmmaking is changing.

Maybe this is now the time to explain to you about the niche market that I chose for my business. So the niche market I've chosen and now we are currently in a process of revamping our website to be more focused around this, is built around this concept of transition architecture. So the idea is that we are already doing this. So our niche market is thought leaders. It's like people who are, for example, retired and want to start a new career, you know, a new consultancy career, or people who are most of them. So pretty much all our clients are over 45, you know, so. So these are people who either have a good level small business and they want to be known as an industry leader in their industry. So, for example, one of our clients is.

A property finder and she works on a.

You know, she works on so high level, you know, she finds property for mostly kind of people who are coming from abroad, you know, who want to buy property in London. And.

Her business is quite niche in a way, right. So, but we are building her profile as an industry leader on LinkedIn. So I'm leveraging my knowledge. So part of it is the video production, but part of it is my knowledge of LinkedIn, you know, and how I have used LinkedIn Sales Navigator to build, you know, our.

Audience, essentially. So that's one of my clients. So we are building her. So it's kind of like pr, digital pr.

Digital PR marketing for thought leaders. So currently we have a handful of clients, just under 10 clients that we are doing this for. And.

Two of those are. One of them is the MD of Steinway, which means that in addition to building his profile, we are also creating content for Steinway uk.

And another one of them is the CEO of this bioelectronic company that I have invested in. So it means that we also get to create content for them. And that's part of my investment, is the work that I did that I do for them. So one thing I would recommend to people is look at investing, start looking at, you know, don't just think about, here is my services, pay me 400 quid for my day. Think about how can you make yourself so indispensable, find unique businesses where you can invest and say, look, you know what I can do for you. Firstly, yes, I agree with being a producer. Don't Be just like a tool, you know, because anything, anybody can do that. So if that is, if you have the ambition of building a business, it's not for everybody. Many people, you know, there's nothing wrong with freelancing. There's nothing wrong with, you know, working as an employee, because that gives you a different kind of protection that many people prefer. You know, what I'm talking about here is for people who want to build a business, if you want to build a business, build a business. Don't, you know, don't be like halfway like this half. I don't work as an, as a freelancer. I'm a producer. You know, when people come, they say, can you film this? I say, no, I don't film this. But, you know, we, I turn work down because I'm like my, my. Also another thing is I don't take any meetings. I do not go to meetings anymore. So I have Lola, she does, you know, because I have built a profile, you know, so people understand that I'm genuinely busy. I'm genuinely busy. It's like, you know, I'm working 16, 17 hours a day, so I don't take meetings. So there is no free meeting with Sami. If you want time with Sami, you pay for a strategy session. And that is, that's how all of my clients that have now worked, that are now working with me, all of them, with the exception of Steinway, because Steinway, I developed a relationship with them over three, four years. Literally every single client I have, they have first paid for a strategy session for me, with me before they became a client. What that means is that they value your time. They know the value of your time. They know that, you know, I don't even get on the phone call with them. I don't sell.

I agree with you 100%. I have just recently added to my website the same thing. I have a 30 minute strategy session, a 60 minute and a 90 minute. And if you just want to ask me a question, it's $97 and I'll record you a video answer. Because in the filmmaking industry I increasingly have people saying, hey, I love your show. Could I just ask you a quick question? It's like great to connect. Of course you can. Over here is the options. And it's interesting how many people suddenly don't have the question anymore. Which is great because I value my time. You value your time. Therefore, when people pay, they pay attention.

Yeah, and exactly. So, like, one of the best books that I read early on when I started, you know, thinking about Building the business in this way.

It's a book called Oversubscribe by Daniel Priestley that.

I love that book. It's phenomenal. It's an incredible book.

Daniel. I did his KPI courses. Well, I wouldn't say, you know, the KPI course was great.

But, you know, I think if somebody doesn't have necessarily, you know, I wouldn't say that the KPI course or any course will change your life. You know, the changes that I made are not as a result of that. They are as a result of, you know, that that sort of was like, you know, it was a good, like starting point and thing that I did with you. It was definitely a starting point of like switching something. But ultimately you need to gain the courage to change your business model. And the reason why people don't gain that courage is because they haven't done their homework, you know, because if you down inside you, if you believe that you are not worth that, that you don't have that worth, if you are not clear to yourself, what is it that makes you special and different? Not in an egoic way, I told you, like, like I'm losing my ego day by day, you know, not in an egoic way, but in the sense of I have 16 waking hours in the day. You know, I'm trying my best to get seven, eight hours. I'm actually wearing this ring now. She is like, it monitors my sleep and all my movement and everything. And like, I'm trying my best, you know, to get enough sleep so that I have. So okay, let's say I have 16 waking hours in a day, right? I have to have time to go for a walk. I have to have time to meditate. So I need some time for myself, for self reflection. I need enough time to eat. So really, when I say I work 16, 17 hours of the day, most of that is in the form of I'm listening to an audiobook while I'm eating or walking or whatever. Because when I say I'm working, but I'm reading or listening to a book that's working because I'm always developing. So I have put so much effort into my own development to a point that you can give me any context, almost any context, from biotechnology to real estate to future of work, you know, like, to anything, right? And. And I will be able to create, you know, or direct my client to get the best out of them and to give them ideas that they hadn't thought of, you know, and that's what happened in. I worked with Steinway, you Know, like I've encouraged them to start thinking about creating content, you know, and I've me and my team now. Laura also helps with the script, Elizabeth helps with the scripts. So we come up with suggestions, scripts for them for Steinway, for my client in, you know, real estate, everything we call it suggestions with them. Say on, for example, with my client in real estate, I said you should start talking about the economy of house buying, should start talking about smart houses, how technology is changing the house market, how we work, is changing the housing market, how working from home, all these things. So she has gone from being a property finder to being a commentator from an economic point of view. So now we are putting her forward to journals, to magazines, to, you know, websites. So what we do is no longer just video production. We are promoting her, you know, we are.

Promoting her to, you know, we're putting her up for speaking engagements, you know, so it's like building someone's profile. It's the bigger picture because we look at the person and say, what is this person's problem? How can I solve that problem? Their problem is to build their profile to. I suppose you couldn't call it a problem. But their challenge is to build their profile so that they can get more business. So my goal is to generate more business for her and build her profile. My goal is not to make her some videos and charge her for that.

Well, soumy, I think that's a beautiful place to kind of wrap up our conversation for now because it's so valuable and I think some people will struggle with this concept. But what I love is that you've ridden the road, you've put rubber on the ground, you've invested financially, you've made content, you've pivoted your business multiple times and essentially have created your own genre. So where can people learn about the book? Where can people learn about you? Where can they find you and connect with you?

You? Well, depending on when you are going to put this out, we are just launching the Somi aryan.com website. So from now on everything will be, everything to do with my personal work will be there. So Smart Cookie media is going to be focused on this concept of transition architecture, which is where we help thought leaders transition, you know, to build their profile and transition and navigate through the impact of technology on their business. That's what that business is going to be about, Smart cookie media.

But then in terms of my book, my content that will be on somirean.com.

We'Ll link to that on the blog post to do with this episode. And we'll also connect, we'll put a link to your LinkedIn profile as well where people can connect with you. Tommy, it's been an absolute pleasure. It's so exciting to have. We met at a Sony event at Pinewood Studios, I don't know how many years ago and you were interested in the camera. It would have been a good eight, nine something years ago. And what I love about being able to do this podcast is having these conversations and to be able to connect again with you. And thank you so much for sharing what I'm certain if people are really listening will be life changing information.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Dan, you definitely have had a big impact on that journey. You were one of the people who helped with that light bulb moment. I think that you have given the truth is I feel that like you have given that light bulb moment to a lot of people. Not everybody may have taken it and I think I'm one of those people that did take it and, you know, turned it into something.

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@denleny.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 favorite favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. See you next week.