How to protect your video business from the impact of COVID-19 - EP #72

G', day, guys. It's Tuesday 17th March, and it's time for a shorty week, 12 of the year. And we're in unprecedented times with coronavirus. So today I'm going to address.

You know, some of the challenges that you might be facing around that. But more than that, I want to give you encouragement that of all the industries that are going to suffer during this crisis, and it may well get much worse before it gets much better. And video is one of those industries that can really support businesses out there who are struggling, who are unable to, you know, continue for these times. And we've just finished kind of emergency strategy call with our video business accelerator members who are, you know, addressing this challenge and, and, you know, I've got to say, you know, with great pride, you know, we, we have a process where every Friday we do what's called a weekly win video. And virtually everyone was saying, yeah, we've had jobs canceled, yeah, we've had, you know, things postponed. But we're also reaching out and, and talking to our clients and finding out how we can support them in other ways. And that's really what I wanted to talk about today, is that you have a choice. You know, you can, you can choose to absorb the craziness of the media and think that everything's going to go tits up, or you can, you know, be calm and measured and proactive. And I love this, a scene, you know, one of my favorite films of all time is Bridge of Spies. And it's a scene where James, played by Tom Hanks, is like, in the courtroom with Rudolph. And he says, you know, you never seem to worry. And Rudolph says, would it help? And I think that essence is really important not to take away from the fact that coronavirus is obviously very serious, but we need to put it in some perspective. And so, you know, perhaps your inquiries are slowing down, sales may be slowing down, shoots are being postponed or even cancelled. And, you know, I've observed some, some panicked posts on groups like commercial videographers where people are just like, oh, you know, panic, panic, hustle, hustle. Do any kind of work you can, any kind of money you can get. And that's not the right way to respond to this, you know, is, is the fact that everything's slowing down because of what's happening out there. It's the wrong question to ask. Because what you're really saying then is everything that happens out there that affects me and my business is because it's controlled externally rather than being controlled internally. Like we, we Are we have the responsibility to run our business regardless of the challenges. You know, if you are captaining a ship through a.

Your number one job is to keep that ship upright and afloat. And that's what I want you to focus on right now for your business, is keeping your business afloat and making sensible decisions.

A friend of mine, Ben Simkin, who's gonna be on the podcast in a couple weeks time, he gave us an incredible speech which I've modeled a lot of what I want to share with you on today. He says, in life you get what you tolerate. And so, you know, is coronavirus likely to wipe out civilization? Civilization as we know it? Well, I mean, there's people fighting in supermarkets over toilet paper and you know, it could be, it could, it could wipe us out, but probably not. You know, I think we'll be around for a bit. Yeah. So within every crisis there's also opportunity, but you've got a choice. You can choose to listen to the main news channels and watch news channels where it's, you know, headlines of pandemonium and rationing and mass epidemic and families will lose loved ones and, you know, stocks tumble, virus hits, you know, schools.

It's kind of gone a bit crazy.

So what I want to encourage you to do is focus on what you can control and not what you can't. You can choose to respond to this crisis any way you like. You can watch the television and you can read the newspapers and build up that fear and panic. And Ryan, one of my clients, said on the call, you know, it's important to be informed. So choose your sources of information carefully. You know, I'll, I'll typically go to the BBC or does the Australian Financial Review Ryan was mentioning or, you know, go to a news organization that, you know, has a balanced and measured approach. In fact, one of our clients, his wife actually works for the EPIC for the epidemia and is running a lot of, the, kind of, the kind of the active, you know.

Response in Sydney right now. So we've got some pretty good insights, but I'm not an expert, so I'm not even going to go there. I want to talk about how we can support you and perhaps alleviate any concerns you have and give you some actionable strategies to take away and actually implement. So the real questions you want to be asking yourself are how can I improve my sales? How can I get more leads through in this difficult time? How can I think outside of the box and give more value to my clients?

You know, how can you close more deals you know, the business still has to go on. How can you go out there and do additional marketing? How can you support your clients? You know, the advice I'm giving to my members. And look, you know, I don't hold back stuff on the podcast. I'm not one of these people that goes, hey, you know, here's the secrets, and if you just buy my course, I'll tell you the rest. I want to tell you what you need to do, okay? If you want support implementing, you want to be part of my community, then talk to me, because it will certainly make it a lot safer for you. But, you know, how can you support your clients? What I said to all of my guys this morning was, call all your clients up and ask them, how can I help? You know, what can you do to fix or improve your results at the moment? What can you do differently? You know, you want to be doing that rather than thinking it's just like, oh, I've got. It's got to deal with it and live with it, because it's all happening out there. You need to take control. Because what's happening out there.

It'S not true in the sense that it's not going to control whether you succeed or fail during this process. If you accept that fate, you might as well give up. You need to grab this with both hands and be measured and not let something out there control what you're going to do, because if you do, then you're always going to be at the mercy of something or somebody else. So I want you to really think very seriously about that. So what should you do? What. What can you be doing at this time to provide, you know, solid footing for you and your business? Well, avoid negative press and panic for a start. Just don't read or consume any of that stuff because it's just. It's just unhealthy. Be informed, you know, read government reports in the country that you live in. Take advice based on what the government, health organizations are suggesting. They don't have an agenda. You know, their agenda is to keep you safe. And I'm not interested in going into conspiracy theories or any of this nonsense either. But the fact is, you know, newspapers, independent media that is run by a public or, you know, a private company, they've got an agenda, which is more eyes, more fear, more ad sales.

So just avoid negative press and panic. The most important question that you can ask is, what can you do? What can you change to fix the situation rather than listening to everybody else telling you to put up with it. And that business is slowing down and you got to accept it and buckle down. I even saw a post on Facebook of someone suggesting hey, how about we can just get all these companies to not villas personally for the next three months. And I'm like, well how does that work? I mean that, that means you're okay not being paid yourself. The economy has to keep spending in Australia. Here the government has been stimulating economy. They've dropped interest rates to 0%. They're offering small businesses incentives to, you know, to kind of be surviving. There's a, there's an increasement increase, increased asset write off. The lifting the threshold to $103,000 from $30,000 and making more businesses eligible to use it. And they're going to be running that now immediately till the 30th of June. So if you're in a business where you need to buy an asset, that's an opportunity. I wouldn't suggest anyone in video starts spending money at the minute. Honestly, I'd be kind of trying to kind of, you know, be, be frugal.

There are, they're backing in business investments by offering businesses a limited time incentive to invest and accelerating depreciation deductions. If you employ people. There are cash flow boosts for employers to cover employee wages and 50% of PAYG here in Australia with a minimum of $2,000 payment up to a cap of $25,000 over six months. So it's again stimulus to help people kind of, you know, keep their businesses running.

And then there's the stimulus for private households here and assistance for people who are severely affected in the regions. So the fact is the government is doing what it can to stimulate the economy. But what we have to do as business owners is steer our ships through these stormy waters. And so, you know, accepting that business is going to slow down and you just have to put up with it. I'm here to tell you the answer is you don't have to do that. You don't have to accept that. You have to kind of decide that you want to support your business and support your professional community and ask them how you can help them. So you can choose whether you want to step up and change the way in which you're playing the game or you can sit back and just watch the business fade away. It's entirely up to you. You want to be thinking outside the box and keep pushing forwards. Pizza Hut. Sorry. Pizza Hut Nuts. Domino's have launched a contact free delivery service to help stop spread of the deadly coronavirus. This is from the sun in the uk.

But the pizza chain is launching a contract free delivery service from next week. So what it's doing is, it's, it's, it's kind of serving the community by saying, we're gonna, you gotta keep eating. We figured out a way to minimize the spread of the disease, but keep feeding you. That's going to be a massive boost for Domino's because they've just, they've jumped straight out the gate and said, how can we help our community to get through this? And so I want you to think about some. How can you help your community? You know, how can you sell differently? How can you go after different markets, maybe different opportunities? You know, what do you have to change in your marketing message? How can you keep the business going? How can you improve your sales? Even in the worst time, there are always opportunities. A friend of mine, Warwick, runs a line marking company and he was saying to me yesterday, you know, they've lost some big jobs because the big events have been canceled like the Sydney Easter show. But they've also recognized that if big manufacturers shut down their operations, they'll keep a skeletal staff and they'll go into maintenance mode, which means they'll start repainting lines and car parks and things. So given that that's happening, there's always going to be opportunities out there where when everyone's being sent home, other things will be happening. Connect with your clients, ask them, how can I support you? Is there anything going on that you want us to document or film.

That will have a minimum crew, you know, a small footprint of one to two people, therefore not breaching any regulations around Group S. Also, of course, you know, repurposing content that you already have. But you know, what could you recut for a client? What could you repurpose? You know, go and create videos@splashio.com and forward slash den. You get four free units there. So splashio.com dem you get four free credits. Could you go back over your old content and.

Repurpose something for a client? Say, hey, I know this is a tough time. How can we help you communicate a message to your, to your clients? So let's say Domino's are putting this delivery contact, free delivery. Maybe you could approach Domino's and say, do you want to make a video for you showing how this works in practice? I think it was JetBlue over in the US about a week ago, sent a note from their CEO saying, We want to give you confidence that actually.

We are on top of the coronavirus. We Spend seven hours a night cleaning our, our planes and you know, we are, we're basically, we're on top of this. We what? Here's a video showing, showing us doing it. You know this video production companies have a very unique position in this chaos of communicating all the big football matches here. Rugby matches are being played behind closed doors with no, with no crowds. But they're still being filmed. So start thinking. How can you help your clients find them solutions, you know, call them up. Do they need any PR videos to help them address their market and communicate what they're doing to prevent the spread of the disease? How can you help them keep their business growing? Livestream Partners. Could you contact Livestream Partners and say how can we support you? Live stream companies are probably getting slammed. Go in contact with them and just be deliberate and prepared and prioritize revenue generation but be very informed about what's happening. Look at the government websites, find publications or communication channels that you trust. As I say, I tend to trust the BBC most of the time.

And defer non revenue generating tasks. If you're going to paint the office or you were going to.

Recut your show reel, now's not the time for that. You want to be deliberate and prepared. And in my group with the video business reality, we're asking everyone to review their plan, identify the priorities. The group is there to support them. We just had a 90 minute call and shared a lot of valuable insights to help people through this.

And serve your market. And let's attack this issue rather than to wait and defend and keep pushing forward and don't give up hope and keep asking the right questions and reach out for support if you need it, you know, wherever you, whoever you go to for support and that's where we can support you. If you've been thinking about, you know, how can you scale your business. One of the advantages of being in the accelerator program is that we have business owners on calls every week in the group sharing with each other what they're doing, how they're approaching certain situations. In fact, one of our clients, Declan, he, he saw something we posted last week. He reached out to his chamber of commerce. They said what a great idea, let's make some content. He said it wasn't a huge job but they appreciated him reaching out and he's, he's got that job from it and now that, that's how you should be approaching this, this challenge by, by getting out there and connecting with people. And I'm here to support you as well. If you want to have A conversation about maybe joining the program and helping us. You know, now maybe a good time for you to come in and actually get that support and before it's too late. Because, you know, we had to make some difficult decisions on the. On the call this morning with client who's. Who's gonna have to let a team member go. But he got lots of support from, from the group on how to do that. So, guys, we will, we will continue to support you through the podcast, but I'm not going to feed the beast. I think, you know, today's podcast was my, my contribution to what you should be doing now. If situations shift dramatically in the next week or two, then we'll come and address it on the shorties. But other than that, it's business as usual. It's very important during this time that we maintain clarity, maintain focus. You want to be the captain who's guiding your ship through the storm, because once you've done that, you know, you'll get through this. It will pass. We started our business in 2009 in the middle of the GFC. Wasn't even aware it was on. We just kept selling. And. And the same will be true for you. The weak will go by the wayside, but the strong and the smart people who are. Who are getting support, who are. Who are stepping out of their comfort zone and actually asking for help, they're the ones who are going to survive. So, guys, have a great day and just stay strong, stay focused, and keep going.

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

Sa.