How To Scale From Freelancer To A Team Of 4 With Matt Smolen (Part 1)

Hey, guys. In this week's podcast, I have got Matt Spolin from Balloon Tree Productions in Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. Matt is one of my clients, but he's also a very, very smart and shrewd business owner who shares his story of how he went from being a one man band to hiring his first member of staff and now has a team of three, a studio, a podcast studio and a series of production spaces in Victoria. Now, what he shares is the kind of mindset he had to adopt in growing out of that one man band business and how he had to overcome those kind of reservations that many people have about hiring a team. And he shares how he went about it. He didn't just jump in and hire people full time. He shares exactly how he did it and how authenticity plays a big part in his business and the work he does. And he also shares how he is able to roll out his unique style of production to his clients and how he's managed to have some incredible clients like Specsavers for over eight years. I think you're going to find this to be a really enjoyable episode. Matt shares some absolute goals. It was a pleasure to have him on. I hope you enjoy the show.

Welcome to the Video Business Accelerator Podcast. Each week we uncover the secrets to creating a wildly successful and scalable video production business. With your host, Dan Lenny, discover how the accelerator program is transforming the lives of our members at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com. enjoy this episode.

G', day, Matthew. How are you going today?

Good, Den, thanks for having me on. I'm very well, very well.

My pleasure. One of the. I want to just start by saying we're recording this on the Melbourne long weekend before the Melbourne cup where your entire team have taken the weekend off. But like a true business owner, it's a great day to come in the studio and knock some stuff off.

It's the best because it's quiet so nobody distracts you. You get all of the work done that, you know, you just can't get any consistency on. Yeah, these, these public holidays are the best. The best.

I, I've got a few business, business owner friends, we all been in contact today and it's all like, everyone's getting a lot of work done. So, Matt, I wanted to start by saying, you know, you, you've had an interesting journey and I, and I think without, without kind of giving away your, you know, your financial details, you know, you, you're running a very robust and successful company at the tender age of 29 and already have Gone from one man band to hiring one person, to hiring two people, to then scaling up further. Do you want to take us back to your kind of story, your journey, and help the viewers and listeners understand how you've gone about that?

Sure. So I grew up in the country. I'm a Ballarat boy, born and raised and living out in the country, there's not a lot to do. So you often find things. Some people get into drinking and other people get into filmmaking, which is where I sort of found myself. So from a young age, I was always interested in creating stuff and entertaining my friends and people at school and then sort of jump forward to uni days. I thought I wanted to be an actor. So I loved performance and I loved filmmaking and drama and theater and stuff. But until I actually started working with real actors, did I actually realize that's too much for me, I can't handle that. But I still really enjoyed that tangible element of making something with a team. So I really sort of pursued filmmaking more directly, I guess at the time. A friend of mine who I grew up with in Ballarat, his sister's boyfriend, started a real estate video company. So this was talking 11, 12 years ago now, back when it was still shot on MiniDV tapes and stuff like that, but it was shooting property tours and auction profiles and all that sort of stuff. And they just needed a casual camera operator and an editor. So I was working casually around uni and kind of getting that hands on experience, experience working for clients and to deadlines and budgets and stuff while still studying and learning, I guess, all of the theory and putting terms to things that I kind of learned inherently through doing it as a kid. And then when I finished university, I went full time with those guys, so basically got a crash course in account management. So I was given a lot of different clients and told to produce stuff and then thrown a few different curveballs. So, you know, budgets and all sorts of things and actors and working with, again, really tight timelines and clients and all that sort of stuff, but somebody else's books. While doing that, the side hustle of freelancing started. So I had friends of friends or mutual connections kind of go, hey, you do video stuff, can you come shoot this conference for me or do this other thing? And it got to a point where it was probably about a month's worth of work, so shooting and editing, that I sort of decided I could probably get about three months worth of money out of it in terms of if I just lived on me growing noodles and did nothing else and was really sort of frugal. And that was just over eight years ago. And that's when I freelance full time and kind of committed to making my own, my own business work. And it took me quite a while to, I guess, own the idea of being a business owner. You know, I think when I started it was like, oh, I can freelance and I can make more money doing this for myself and just, I like dealing with clients. I'm pretty personable, I'm very friendly and I can. I got a decent head on my shoulders in terms of financials and, you know, numbers and stuff. But it wasn't until probably three, four years ago that I actually went, you know what, this is a proper business. And we've kind of got to build a bit more structure around it. And that's led us to today where, you know, we're in Brunswick east. It's this great big warehouse conversion space. We've got a white cyclorama studio, podcast studio, team of staff and some amazing clients. So, yeah, I feel, I feel really privileged to be able to have seen that growth from just one man banding to today. And I've kind of just stumbled through it and learned as I've gone along.

So really fascinating to hear that you kind of brushed over the bit. You went from freelancer to suddenly having a studio, a team of three, and running a pretty decent sized business. So I wonder if we can sort of strip back because I think a lot of people listening and watching this show will be potentially freelancers who are kind of running a business, but kind of aren't. And I suppose the best way to sum that up is to say that a lot of people, maybe even 95% of freelancers who are running a business are actually just freelancers trying to run a business because they do everything themselves to keep all the money. Which means they're. When they're busy, they're really busy. But there's. There's no marketing, there's no lead generation, there's no client nurture. What. Talk me through the process you went through from deciding I want to, I want to expand, but I'm gonna have to hire someone or start hiring other people. Can you share a bit of that journey with us?

Sure. I think maybe before we get into the hiring people, probably a little preamble to. That's useful. So all of the clients I had when I started freelancing were word of mouth and referral clients. So people that knew of me either directly or through a couple of people removed. And so You've already got a really strong connection, somebody's recommended you or they've seen your work and that. But I realized very quickly that that could easily get taken out of the equation if you didn't do a good job and make people feel really valued when you were there doing stuff for them. So from day one, I probably didn't acknowledge it directly, but I've always been really conscious about giving a really excellent experience to our clients and our customers. So I'm sure they wouldn't mind me saying, but Specsavers are one of our biggest clients and I've worked with them for almost seven and a half, eight years. So since I started freelancing as a one man band, I got in there and they're a massive company. They started in the UK years and years ago. They've been in Australia for over 10 now. They've got money and they could go anywhere else and find bigger production companies or be, especially when I started. But the reason that they've kept coming back to me is because of the relationship that I have with them. It's about really getting to know them and their brand and their wants and needs and their pain points and how to communicate all of that stuff and how to communicate to their audience whether it's internal, external, whatever. So there's been a huge focus from the start when it got to a point where I was too busy to handle everything myself, as I'm sure every freelancer gets to that point building the team. It was really important to have people that fed into that culture. I didn't want people to just clock in, clock out and just come in, do the work and leave. It was really about giving that experience to clients so they felt like no matter who they spoke to in our team, it was still the experience. And so it took a little while, but it was, you know, they'd call Matt, it was, hey Matt, can you come do a video? Hey Matt, can you do this? And it was a really conscious effort to shift that from hey Matt, can you do this? To hey, Balloon Tree, can you do this? And now some of the most rewarding points in my career have been when I've spoken to clients, I've reconnected with them after, you know, a couple of months of me not dealing with them personally and hearing them say, oh man, Hayley's amazing. Oh, Michelle was great on that job. They're so good. Pass on my regards because you know that they're out there living the Balloon Tree style of doing stuff. And it's, it's really, you know, it's crucial. It's down to that thing at every point. You know, you could be cheaper, you could be more expensive, you could be more experienced, whatever. But I think if people don't like you and like working with you, you've got such an uphill battle. So building a team around that culture was. Was crucial to be able to expand and keep it sustainable, I guess.

I love it. And I've met, you know, Hayley a couple of times, and she really does live the Balloon Tree values because you've got very clear.

Guidelines around what they are. So you hire. Who was your first hire and why did you hire and what was the process?

So first hire was Scott. So Scott was our editor. We tend to work with him a little bit now, but he's moved on to some stuff with ABC here and just. He's doing great things. But when I first hired him, it was because he. He understood the way my brain worked and the way I'd approach something. You know, I. I have always been drawn to leadership. I love directing, I love, you know, managing people, but I've never been up until, you know, I employed Scott, a boss, basically, and somebody that would dictate, here's your job description, here's, you know, your tasks and whatever. So having somebody that fit in with the way I approached an edit and problem solving with that kind of work was really key. And then also he took the place of me whenever I was away. So if I was, you know, God forbid, I took a holiday, he'd basically man the emails and the phones and look after all that stuff. And I knew that I could trust him to conduct himself the way I'd want Balloon Tree to do. Then when that kind of hit capacity, it was like, well, I'm getting an editor. He wants to. He's a great producer, but he's an editor, predominantly getting him to do all of the production side of things. So then went, all right, we've got to find a producer, a production manager to handle all of this inquiry, because we're now splitting his time between two tasks that are completely different. So let's kind of divide and conquer, which is where Hayley came in. And so again, all of that came down to finding. Finding the right people that would, you know, again, conduct themselves in a way that Balloon Tree was known for, but also have skills far higher than I had in those areas to be able to then kind of rise the. The quality of the business, I imagine.

I mean, that sounds fantastic and. But I imagine some people Listening to this are going well. That's all very well, but, like, isn't hiring people expensive? Like, you know, I mean, I know that if you leverage the help of other people, you can go and focus on getting more work to then pay for that. But I wonder if you might just break down a little bit of the. I guess the emotional journey you went on as a freelancer, then looking to pay someone and then take on a production manager. Because I imagine, I know when I first hired my first editor, it's like, it's a big deal because you've got superannuation, you've got salary, you've got all these responsibilities. How did you go about that process?

Sure. So with Scott, it was a bit different. He's always been a contractor, so we've never had him on part time, full time, whatever. And that's worked for him because he's got other clients he works for. As I mentioned before, he's doing stuff for the ABC now, so loves the flexibility. And I knew he was coming in at a rate that, you know, would be higher than if he was on staff. But at the same time, as I was growing, I didn't have the knowledge that there would be constant work to have him on full time or part time or whatever it was. So that worked really well for both of us when it came to employing a producer, a production manager, Hayley, it was kind of a unicorn in that it's a perfect situation that just worked for both of us. And I'm very quick to acknowledge it won't happen this way for everybody. But we'd connected through. I'd made a web series a few years prior, and Hayley and her sister were also looking at developing a web series. So we connected through that, and she and her sister asked me some questions, and we sort of, you know, exchanged a few kind of nice pleasantries and emails and coffee dates and that sort of stuff. When it came to looking at hiring a production manager, Hayley's name popped to mind. I was like, she's really switched on. Had a great, great energy about her that would fit the culture. So just reached out to her and, hey, I'm looking for somebody to help me out. I'm not really sure what the job is just yet, but this is kind of what I'm thinking. Where are you at? How does that work for you? And she was like, cool, I'm leaving my job. I'm keen to go freelance and sort of figure it out as we go along. And so over the course of probably 12 months. We went from essentially hourly, like per job basis to a part time four hours a day, five days a week, to then six hours a day and then eight hours a day and gradually built up the role and the time and the responsibilities to, to fit that. And it was a really, it was a really collaborative process because I, you know, was the first one to say, I'm not sure what this role is. And everything's run from, from in here in my brain. So getting this out to you and letting you be able to run, it's going to take time because a lot of, you know, how we deal with this client is going to be tied up in little idiosyncrasies with this person or this person. And so we built into that sort of increase in time and upping the hours and stuff as part of that learning experience. And then as she got more experience, we brought on more hours. And it was just a really, really nice, organic way of growing that role and figuring out what that was. And now like, I couldn't live without her. If she left, the business would, it would collapse. But like, she's so crucial to the running of this place that it's really a testament to how well she's taken to building up that, that role for herself and really making it our own.

What I love about that is it really demonstrates and I hope the people that are watching and listening like you guys get this. It's like you can build these things up gradually and be honest and go, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I think there might be some help here. And I guess did that, what did that allow you to do when you had her helping you? How were you able to then leverage that time in a different way? Because by this stage, you've got Scott cutting, you've got Haley organizing shoots and producers producing. What did that enable to you, you to do from a business perspective?

Yeah. Oh, you step off the tools, right? So all of the editing, you know, you would get sucked into an edit and you wouldn't do a good job unless you could dedicate hours, you know, in a row to just sit down and work through something. So having an editor come in, all of a sudden you're like, oh man, I can do all of the little things that pop up and, and take last minute meetings or take last minute jobs or whatever it is and be a bit more reactive to that stuff. Then having somebody come in and handle all of the admin and the INV and shoot bookings and crew, like all of that stuff that just takes time and brain power and energy could just move off my plate. So all of a sudden found myself with this really free calendar where I could pick and choose the jobs I wanted to go on and value add to clients. So, oh, this one would do really well if we had a director that could come on and do these things. So I'll go along to that. Or all of us, I could start contacting clients and setting up meetings and talking about new projects, even developing our own creative stuff that sort of supplemented the work we did. Just really freed me up to do the stuff that I loved in the first place, which was kind of hanging out with people, meeting clients and getting them excited about things we could make together, rather than actually doing the legwork of making it all. It's not to say I'm not involved in that process. Like, I'm still very much across edits and shoots and talking to our crew about what's coming up. But being able to kind of go, this is what I like, this is what I don't like. Now you go away and sort it out is just incredibly freeing. From a time perspective, this all sounds perfect.

So Hayley's on board, you've got Scott. At some point, Michelle comes along, you take on the studio, and everything's going along pretty well. Then about four or five months ago, you reached out to me and then we began working together. So what. What was. What was happening at that point which made you go, I need to reach out and find a den or Dan, I can't remember how well you knew me, but talk to me about that process.

Well, I think. I'm sure your listeners are teeing into this right now that I am a very reactive, like, kind of. I'll take an idea and run with it and sort of pursue that like a. Like a dog. Which has been great growing the business. You know, I've seen opportunity, I've chased it, I've been relentless and all that sort of stuff. If I didn't know how to do something, I just go, cool, let's figure it out and just jump straight into doing it. And we hit a point in the business where it was. It got to a point where it was a bit unwieldy. It was kind of like, how do we manage all of this stuff and make sure that it's consistent? Because it's great having heaps of work. It's great having heaps of staff. It's great having this huge space, but if you can't make sure it all works, and works efficiently, it becomes a real issue. So we engaged you. I think I was on your email list for a little while and it was kind of that right place, right time thing where I was like, den knows what he's doing. He's a really switched on kind of guy. This might be the perfect person to reach out to and just see if I can get some guidance. And then found the perfect opportunity to then talk about the struggles we were dealing with. And, and you've helped immensely in essentially building systems into the, into the business that now everything is efficient and works really well.

So you got in touch. We've been working together for about four months now. What have you been doing differently since you've been in the accelerator and what did you think it would be and how has that impacted you and your business?

So we've worked with different business coaches before and it's one of those things where like, I understand the need for planning and the need for SWOT analysis and all of those wonderful terms that everybody talks about says you need to do X, Y, Z. And then actually implementing it is always been, oh, but the video businesses are a little bit different. Or we do think, you know, like we, we don't have staff, we've got a lot of contractors or whatever. It is kind of becomes a different thing. We don't have a product per se. It's kind of like case by case quoting for. So anyway, they were kind of our problems that we sort of found every time we butted up against one of these programs or working with somebody. So joining the video business accelerator, it was just like, well, okay, it's made for filmmakers, it's made for video businesses. So somebody that understands our industry and all of the pain points for that is going to be a huge plus because all of a sudden you understand the language and the terms we're dealing with. If we go, oh man, we got shoot cancel because the weather was bad the day before. You understand what that means versus somebody that goes, oh, why can't you build them the whole whatever. So there was a real understanding on how, how business would run. So I was really optimistic. You know, like some of the, some of the testimonials that I saw from, from past clients of yours were great. And it was just one of those things where I was like, I had a really good vibe about it. Jump forward to, you know, four or five months later after working with you guys. And it's, it's become this great accountability system where there's sort of parts of the program that Mondays we do tops, Fridays we do weekly wins, and there's all these coaching calls that happen every Tuesday. So there's a real structure around it, and then everybody in the team's doing these things, and you see it always coming up that it really solidifies that, hey, this is a process, and you've got to keep working at it and doing it. And then, not to mention, the events have been incredible where, you know, we've gone from running a business that's kind of all over the shop and really just jumping at each project as it comes in to now essentially systemizing the whole thing that it's the efficiencies that we've created and the time we've saved by essentially systemizing and building processes into everything has been a game changer. Like, we've always been doing well, and we've looked at numbers the last couple of years, month on month, and compared it, and there's no real busy period. There's always sort of like highs and lows, and we could kind of figure out where is. But it's not like we could point to August and say, august is the best month every year. So being able to essentially take everything that we do that brings us money and really build the efficiencies into it helps create a more consistent income base. And it's. It's. You know, like we said, we just had our best month in probably six months, just gone. And we talked about it here. We were like, what happened? What did we do? Did we have a big job come in? And there was nothing like that. It was just like, no, I think we just did everything more efficiently. And then it meant our throughput could be higher, and it all went smoothly, and it meant people came back and booked more jobs. And it was just. It was kind of simple, but not easy. It was hard work, but it kind of. Yeah, it really, really worked well for us.

I love that. You know, it's. As you know, because we know each other quite well now. Like, you know, a lot of what I teach and share is not the sexy end of running a business. You know, you see these ads on Facebook. Could say, you know, if you just do this one or two things, your business will blow up. Simple is not easy, but most of the answers are quite simple. And I think the biggest challenge for us as creatives is that we're very much attracted to the shiny object. And the challenge that I think you guys have absolutely embraced beautifully. And, you know, all. All credit to not just you, but, of course, Hayley and Michelle as well, because your team have really gotten behind this. And I think, you know, it's so easy to be distracted by the new thing or, you know, something new comes out and everyone is like, you know, a couple of days ago, the Mavic Tiny or something came out. Yet another drone.

Yeah.

And you can feel the Internet going crazy for, like, you know, justifying why they should buy it. And I think what's really rewarding for me as a coach and as a mentor to kind of watch what you guys have done is that you actually just implement everything I suggest. And it's actually that simple.

Yeah.

You've just got to do it. And I think as free as creators, we struggle with that. You think?

Yeah, well, I think it's, you know, like I mentioned before, I'm really impulsive. If I get an idea, I'll, like, I'll chase, sit down and do it. And so I think the reason that the business grew up to the point where we engaged you was because of that. It was like, cool, there's opportunity here. Why are people making this complicated? Why can't shoots be fun? Why can't clients have a good time and laugh their way through a job? It doesn't have to be like, we're making art and cinema every time. Like, it's, you know, it can be goofy and crazy. And so pursuing that and then. And just. Just doing it was. Was part of the challenge. So then, you know, we. We pay you. Like, we're. We're invested in your program monthly. Right. So if we don't do anything, it's just a waste of money. Ultimately, it's a fair point, you know, so it's kind of like, well, why not?

You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised. Some people do like to waste money.

Yeah, well, and I've wasted plenty of money doing plenty of other stuff, but it's kind of like, you know, it's good idea. We don't know if it'll work or not work until we try it. So just give it a go. And then if it doesn't work, hopefully we've learned something valuable through that process anyway, and then we can move forward to the next thing. It's. I don't. Can't remember who said it, but there's a great quote that something along the lines of every failure brings you closer to that success. And it's like every time you make a mistake, you're one step closer to finding the answer to whatever you're trying to achieve. So, you know, it's. There's no point sitting on your laurels and waiting for something to happen, because if you do that, nothing will ever happen. You have to take action.

Absolutely. But, you know, one of the things that I like about working with you as well, Matt, is that, you know, you came in in the first quarter, so we meet every quarter, and you went away and you smashed out the. The systemization while Hayley was on holiday for two weeks. Then you were three weeks at Myth, and you still managed to do. So you did it in about seven weeks. But then I think what. What we can always experience is like, well, I've done that now. Awesome. Business is great. See you later. Yeah, let's just carry on. But you haven't. What was interesting at the last event was you went, because we've done that now. And I think I just said, so what's next? And so I think the thing about business is that as soon as you fix one thing, it creates time and space to do something else. And the other thing I just wanted to add there was. I thought it was wonderful how you've got yourself into a place now where clients will request you on a shoot and are happy to pay a premium to have you come along.

It's the dream, right? It's like.

As somebody who's been dealing with tall poppy syndrome, growing up in a country for so long now, having value attached to me is really interesting. It's like we look at jobs where we had one happening in Sydney that was a pretty simple, simple shoot. We've got a guy we use up there or a couple of crew up there. But, you know, we knew it was in safe hands and we sort of discussed it here. And I think it's a really good opportunity to send me up there. And what I can bring to that is that client relationship and that the good vibe. I'm the good vibes guy. And so sending me up there has then led to an influx of more work from this client because, you know, it's. It's semi intangible how I do it. I think I'm just a fun, friendly person that people like spending time with and make them feel comfortable and relaxed, that they go, cool, let's do more of this. Like, why would we not do that? And so being able to then look at the jobs we do have, come in and go, all right, Matt can go on these ones. And there's a real value add there from what the client gets, but also what we get back in return is really, really exciting because, you know, the time that I have now to do these things is. Is there so I can go and do that and nurture those clients that exist.

So business development is one of the things that you're focusing on. What else are you focusing on? Now that you've really kind of put a lot of systemization into your business, what is the next goal for the business?

Sure. Well, as we mentioned, we've got a couple of studios here as well. So it's really maximizing their potential. And part of that is ensuring the team is set up to do that because again, it's managing studio spaces, time space consuming and there's this maintenance and upkeep and promotions and all of that sort of stuff. So as mentioned, Hayley's here full time, Michelle's here part time and we really want to build her role up to full time. So part of my job, apart from bringing business in, is supporting her and helping, you know, essentially upskill her to be able to take on full time work and make sure that that's value adding to the business as well. So really, you know, it's, it all comes back to that culture thing. It's like if you've got the right people around you that are all invested in the success of whatever you're doing, whether it's the project itself, the business as a whole, you. You can't go wrong. If people are all on the same page and excited about stuff, then you will always work better as a team. So, yeah, it's, it's kind of my, my thing now. I'm, I'm making sure that the work that's coming in is really great and pushing our team and our community crew to do the best they can. But also the team we have here in the studio, in the office, are really sort of hitting their potential and owning their space that they're working in as well.

Wonderful. Well, I think we'll wrap things up here because what I do want to do is we haven't got a chance to go near the creative side of what you do with the short films that you make and also your style, which is kind of your. What you're known for. But I think what we'll do is we'll wrap things up here and we'll bring you back next week to go deep into Matt the creator, Matt the writer. And I think, you know, you have such a unique style. I think it'd be really helpful for our audience to, to hear how you go about that. So Matt, where can people find out more about you?

Yeah, so just the website's the easiest. Www. Does anybody say WWW anymore? Anyway, I've just done it.

No, you can do that. Yeah, sure.

Www.balloontreeproductions.com just in case.

Just in case anyone doesn't know that. WWW like George W. Yeah.

Or if you want, it's HTTP Semicolon, forward slash forwards. But no, Balloon Tree Productions is the. The website. We're on Facebook as well, and on Instagram. We're Balloon Tree Studios because we've migrated that to be the. The studio site as well. So that's where all our work is. We're all connected through that. So, yeah, connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm hanging out there all the time. So, yeah.

Awesome. Well, thanks, Matt, and we'll see you next week.

See you soon.

You've been listening to the Video Business Accelerator podcast with your host, Dan Lenny. If you are a video business owner who is tired of going it alone and would benefit from mentorship, support and weekly accountability, then mouse over to www.videobusinessaccelerator to learn more about how the accelerator program can help you today. 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.