How to win one of 5 VBA Scholarships. EP #290 - Den Lennie

G', day guys. It's Dan here with episode 290 of the how to Scale a Video Business Podcast. Now, this week I've got something very exciting to share with you. It's been a little while since I've done a solo episode. We've been doing some great interviews recently with Grant and with Andrew and with Chris and with Amy. If you want to check those out, go back and look through. We've got some amazing insights from how to get hired by agencies, how to kick the freelancer kind of curse and build a proper business. And that's what I wanted to share with you today. So I realize that perhaps I've not been entirely clear with you, or perhaps I could have done a better job of explaining this. So I've got something for you. Very exciting. I'm going to share with you in just one minute.

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So where I think the confusion's come in is about a number of people asking me questions about the accelerator programs. And so I wanted to do is just spend a few minutes getting really clear on where these programs sit. If you're someone who's looking to get some help and some support and some mentorship in scaling your business next year. Um, so we have two distinct programs under the accelerator brand and these came about when we initially started the accelerator, the VBA Elite Mastermind. And this was really, it's a 12 month program that helps established businesses scale up. So to qualify for that program, you've got to be doing between 50 and 20k a month, have been in business for a few years and are ready to start looking at scaling your team, scaling your marketing, looking at paid ads, looking at systems, looking at accountability to build the business up so it can work without you. So that's probably the best way to describe that program now that's been running for three or four years now, and very successfully. People in that program double and triple their business in two years or less. And we've got clients that have been working with us for four years now in that program. So it's an ongoing annual insurance policy if you like, to help you scale your business and ride out the storm that can exist in the video production industry. But what we found was there's a lot of people coming to us who weren't at that level and they were not being able to qualify for that program, we're sort of being turned away. And so about a year ago we set up something called vba UP Level. And vba Up Level is to all intents and purposes the same core training material, the same GPS for your business, but at a different point in the conversation. And so whereas UP levels are one year commitment and it's a price point that sort of justifies the four live events a year and the one to one coaching, but most people see at least a five to ten times ROI on their investment. So it's a straightforward, you know, unemotional, put money in, get money out with the support of the community and an incredible group of people who, you know, really support each other and mastermind all the problems in a business day to day. But UP level is a kind of, it's not a diluted version, it's a, it's a version where the conversation is at a different stage. So at the stage where you're really trying to get out of that freelancer way of doing business and develop the real skills to grow your video business to 15 or 20k a month means it's a lot of focus on marketing, a lot of focus on who you're targeting as your customers, a lot of focus on, you know, making sure you're clear in your messaging, revising your pricing to allow you to make more margin and therefore more predictable profits. How to get new clients in the doors and, and paid up early on 30 days or less, using an engagement script that we use and a formula for being able to get people to kind of take action on your terms, not them.

Get people converting into customers at a rate of 30% or more without you feeling sleazy as a salesperson and building a semi automated marketing funnel that allows you to send one email for every new inquiry that comes in. And it gives them all the information they need to make a decision to whether or not to book a call with you or not. And then we focus a lot on using LinkedIn to connect you with your ideal clients who are ready to engage in a cool and again a very non salesy way. And then finally that helps you to create, create stability in your business. We're very focused on sales marketing, on getting you in front of clients, looking at pricing and helping you to really scale up what you think is possible. And a lot of businesses that come to us at that stage are making somewhere between 3 and 5k a month, sometimes a bit more, but certainly under 10. And, and the one caveat we have is you should be passionate about helping your clients is get great results with their video. But you're probably struggling with marketing and getting regular clients and you probably lack a little bit of confidence in selling and probably don't have any solid systems. So the key here is that we deliver this training via an eight module program. But it's very comprehensive. No stone is unturned. And then we add to that a really powerful community where you can hang out with other people on the same journey on a daily basis. We give you templates, tools, scripts, guides for every aspect of business growth. But there's weekly accountability. And this is a thing that's different from every other program that's out there. Okay, is that we have a weekly 60 minute call, 48 weeks of the year. There's four weeks of the year, we don't have calls. Christmas and Easter and some other holidays throughout the year, but there's four weeks here. We don't have calls, but there's 48 one hour calls a year. And this is designed to give you the confidence in building the right foundations for your business. So we're going to be looking at what does success mean to you and what do you need to do to get there to allow you to scale faster in the future? And by scale, I mean at the pace you want to scale. We look at your mindset, we make sure that mindset is, is, is in check and we want to make sure that there aren't stories that are holding you back. You know, we all carry our own stories from childhood. Our belief systems impact our actions and we need to make sure we manage those limiting beliefs so that you can drive forward. A lot of times people are being held back by their own mindsets. So we're very big on mindset and strategic planning. How do you make sure you can break down all of the tasks that are required to build your business into bite sized chunks and then execute them in a timely manner? And, and you know, I think it was Tony Robbins that said most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in five. So it's important that you kind of plan the journey and pace yourself and everyone's got tons of time. Then we look at marketing. Um, so you know, what are the strategy and tactics to help you to attract your ideal clients that want to work with you and that you want to work with? And then how do you then go on and generate leads and inquiries? So we're going to help you create a systemized lead flow that's going to lead into a sales pipeline where you're going to be generating consistent inquiries. And again, I, you know, I'm very, very honest about the time this takes. There is no quick fix. We're not going to just plug in some landing page and suddenly people are going to be throwing money at you. It's not realistic. And anyone who's pro promising that is frankly full of. But then we're going to teach you how to sell, how to sell ethically with a really cool engagement script and format and structure that gives you a framework to ask questions. And when you ask questions, you diagnose the client's situation, you diagnose what they need. And then that's going to help you win more deals. And as you win more deals, you'll get to get busier and then you'll have capacity challenges. So we give you all the systems you need to help you to scale up your business and hire people. Be that contractors, be that part timers, freelancers, maybe even staff. Without systems, it's hard to know what to give your staff to do. And then the final module is looking more at leadership, team building, culture. How can you step away from the business and people will be able to do without you being there? So, so that's, that's the program. And within that we've got the weekly calls, we've got the community. And so my big news is, is that we've been adding a lot of new members to this program recently and people are getting really cool results. But I'm also conscious as we come into November, December, almost December now, that once the hoo ha from, you know, Black Friday's out of the way, people have, you know, spent money on stuff they shouldn't be buying, they don't need and never going to use. And you know, you're going to go to December and it's going to start to slow down and January is going to look a bit quiet. And I want to encourage people to take this time to start thinking about the business for next year. Now, you could, you could do this program in eight weeks and, and some people have, but most people take six to eight months because of the nature of working in video. But what I'm, what I'm proposing today, what I'm announcing today is I'm going to give away five scholarships to uplevel. Now, when I say giveaway, it's not going to be free. So if you're looking for free, that's not me, but I'm going to give you a $2,000 voucher off the cost of up level. Now, the reason for this is I'm basically going to invest $10,000 in you. I'm going to give five people the opportunity, and it's going to be first come, first served to join UP Level before the end of the year. And it probably. We're probably gonna be at dateline of the 15th of December when we're shutting down for Christmas. But you get to join up level with a $2,000 discount and really put a kickstart on your business for next year. This is really one of my core premier mastermind programs. And the reason we're doing this is that I want to support people who want to get started but don't have the full resources to buy the full program right now. This program is more than worth what we're asking for it. And if you're someone who recognizes that you're where you're at in business and you want to get to 15 or 20k a month, you know, there's a bit of work involved in that. And so if you're interested in being considered for that program, we've got five scholarships now. They are going to be first come, first served. Once they're gone, they're gone. You can still come into the program, but you'd be paying full price. So if you have been even marginally thinking about doing this, this is my Black Friday offer, okay. And it's going to run into December if it lasts that long. But we're going to offer five scholarships. So if you are interested, here's what you need to do. You need to send me an email denleny.com that's D E N denleny.com or go to my website and fill out the contact us form@denleny.com or send me a message on Instagram, follow me on Instagram or find me on LinkedIn and send me a message and say, hey, Dan, I was listening to the podcast and I'm interested in learning more about the scholarship. I'm then going to send you some questions and if I feel like you're a good fit, we'll jump on a call. And that's when I can explain what it looks like, what the investment is. But just know that you're getting 2,000 off the full price. And if you're interested in that, then I'd love to hear from you. Um, because the people are in the program who are doing the work are getting phenomenal results. Um, I just had someone the other day saying they just want a £12,000 project that they'd kind of followed up from since August, and they were really pumped that they hadn't given up. And that's what this Mastermind does, is we get on a call every week and we keep encouraging you to keep going, to keep going, especially when you're not feeling like great about things. So guys, that's it. It's the five scholarships. I'm not doing any big fancy landing page. I'm not doing any special Black Friday page offer with countdown clocks and the likes. Because if I'm not, I'm not trying to sell a quick fix. I'm not trying to make a quick buck by selling some program at discounted price. This is about supporting videographers who perhaps are just on the edge of wanting to do it but don't quite have the resources. So we're basically going to support you. But there's five places, and as soon as this podcast goes out, if you hear this and you're even thinking about it, drop me a message, drop me a line, and hopefully we can work together and help you really scale up next year.

You've been listening to the Video Business Accelerator Podcast with your host, Den 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.com 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.