Lessons from 26 years in the video industry. EP #156 - Den Lennie

G' day guys. Dan Lenny here, host of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast coming to you this week. And it's my birthday. It's my 50th birthday today, which seems ridiculous. I don't know how that happened. It seemed only a short while ago I was 30 and then 40 and then suddenly I'm 50. So.

That'S something I'm going to reflect on in terms of how does it feel, but more importantly, what have I learned in the last 50 years spinning around on this planet? It's fairly mind blowing actually. Good news is people say don't look my age, which is nice.

So here we are, episode 156 and the 50 and that represents my actual birthday today, which is. It's kind of weird, you know, when I got to 40 I was really freaked out, but it doesn't, doesn't bother me being 50. In fact, I feel pretty chilled out about it. You know, I'm in a good place in life. I'm, I'm working as much as I want to work. I've got some great mates, I'm happily married, you know, I've made a bit of money. I don't really want for anything. You know, we live by the beach in Australia. It's like it's plenty of worse places to live and worse ways to live. But I wanted to do today was just talk a little bit about some of my experiences. I've gone through the decades. I mean, this is my third decade in video production and I don't assume for a second just because I've been doing this longer than a lot of people that it somehow gives me any kind of rights to predict what's going to happen next, because it really doesn't. But.

There are things that I've observed along the way that I want to share with you that I think, you know, experience teaches you that there's a certain way of behaving that I think is, you know, more fruitful than others. And the first one I'm going to start with is it's a bit of a pet peeve actually. And it's something that I'm seeing increasingly and that is.

Video businesses that are essentially a one man band, to use that kind of phrase, but they present themselves as if they're a bigger company than they actually are. And there's one example, I was talking to someone a while ago and you know, they had like eight people on their website as being part of the team, but when I actually spoke to them, they're making a couple of grand a month. And it was like the kind of, like all their mates had got together and gone. Let's all put this, this branding on and look like we're part of the same. And I think there's a real dangerous precedent with that approach because I think people see through it very, very quickly. It doesn't take anyone really any time to suss out if you are a big agency with an established reputation, therefore you would have that kind of level of staff, or that you're just kind of trying to look bigger than you are. And I see this more often than I'd like to, really, where business owners seem to choose to pool resources or have a kind of like, you know, a bunch of mates or freelancers on the website as part of their team. And the thing is, I get that, you know, you might hire those people from time to time, but I think where the, where the precedent is misleading is that you're basically lying to customers before you even done any business. You're saying, hey, we're willing to kind of try and pull the will over your eyes and pretend to be like a bigger outfit than we are. And if for some reason someone does get in touch, there's two things that might happen. They might be thinking, well, you've got all these staff to pay, so you're not, you know, you're not going to be cheap, you're going to. And not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing, but someone might be looking, saying, well, they've got a lot of mouths to feed, therefore, I mean, their price is just going to be through the roof, as opposed to a company that's got two or three people. And I have so many incredible clients who are doing multiple six figures a month, and I'm talking 40, 50, 60, 70, $80,000 a month. And they are in a business with two or three people, and it's absolutely possible to do that. So I don't really understand why business owners try to pretend that they're like a bigger deal than they are. I mean, Look, I did 8, 10, 12 years working with Sony. I never had the fact that it was just me. I mean, I didn't highlight the fact that I was working from a shed at the end of my garden, but it wasn't important. And the one time when they did ask me how big my team was, I said, well, the core team is only two of us, but we scale up and scale down depending on what we need. And he wasn't bothered by that. In fact, I would always argue that if you say, look, we are operating quite a lean way, then what we're actually saying is we want to make sure that any money you invest with us is seen on screen and we don't waste necessarily on daft offices or overheads that kind of just add to our daily operating cost which then ultimately gets passed down to a client. And I remember talking to a friend of mine who was working at Sony at the time and European marketing and he said, you know, I'm just tired of agencies ripping us off. I remember him showing me this thing quiz. We're talking, you know, maybe eight years ago showing me a one page ad they had written for an OLED monitor. And it was like 25, 30,000 pounds as the quote. And it was like creative director fees and account manager fees and copywriter freeze and art director fees and graphics fees and agency fees, you know, account management fees and. And he just said to me, look, I'm just sick of being ripped off. He said, what could you do with this kind of money? And we were like, well we could actually go and produce all of this content. He went right, why don't we do that then? And so he kind would rather work with a smaller company that we still made money on it. And he was happy with that, but we were giving him so much more for his coin and I think he ended up spending 60 grand with a sterling in pounds to produce a series of video content that became, I think was a Blu Ray DVD on the FS100. But they gave that away to every customer that bought a camera and it became this really powerful marketing tool. So I guess what I'm saying is, what experience has taught me is don't pretend to be something you're not. Just be proud of who you are. And actually people will respond better to that authenticity than they will someone who's trying to pretend to be a bigger deal than they are. Because when you look like you've got 10 staff, like it doesn't take anyone more than about three seconds to dig into. You have a phone call with you to realize that when they call you, you pick up on a mobile phone and there's no kind of front of house. If you had an office with 10 people in it, you'd have someone on reception, you'd have someone diverting the calls, so or different people would be picking up the calls, or you'd have a direct line and there would be a certifiable office that you go to, not just like a kind of an office which is like a Registered office in another country or, you know, another town. So. So I want to just kind of be really open with you and say that. Don't bullshit your customers like they are onto you. Like, people want sincerity, they want honesty. They want to see that you are just like, authentic. And so I think in my 50 years of spinning around on this planet, which really I've been working for the last. I guess I started working about 20, 24. So what's 30, 40, 20, 26 years? I've been employed in various roles in television and broadcasters and companies that rent gear and sell gear and run my own business for 11 years. And I've seen quite a lot and, and I think, you know, especially with the way in which we communicate these days, people just smell bullshit a mile off. So, like, just be authentic. Be yourself. Especially with what's happened in the last year, there's no need to try and pretend to be a bigger deal than you are. Another thing that I see a lot of which I think is, is very, very questionable morally is someone being a DP or working on a project and, and then passing off the entire project as if they've produced it. And I think that can be a bit tricky. And I think there's times when people do that and they get into trouble with the agencies that perhaps have hired them. And we've had a few members talk about this where they've got suppliers who say, hey, can I use this footage in my show? Real. And what they're doing is they're putting it on their, their, their page as if they produced the whole thing, rather than saying, hey, I was the second camera on this or I was the editor on this. And you know, again, like, be proud of what you're doing. You don't have to try and pretend that you are this amazing all singing, all dancing agency when you're in fact a filmmaker who makes corporate videos from, from your spare room in your house. Like, listen, there's no shame in that. And I think there's a real problem in the industry where I think it's slightly out of desperation, where people are just like desperately trying to come across as being a bigger deal than they are when there's just no need. And I think that's what experience has taught me. Just be who you are. You don't have to pretend to be something you're not to try and impress someone, because if you understand your target market, then you understand their needs and you understand how to help them solve their problems. They will be the biggest fans of you you know, most. Most creatives get this wrong.

They try and overcompensate because they think they should be further down in the career than they are. And the fact is, you are where you are in your career. And the businesses that I see having the most success.

Are the ones who stick to the lane, who serve their audience really well and go deep and help them just achieve their goals. And if you do that, then you will find yourself in a position where you can completely and utterly serve that market very, very well and have no issues. You'll build your business. So that's the subway. Second thing that I've noticed a lot recently, and I talked to a lot of filmmakers, and I'm always surprised by, you know, dare I say, the amount of bullshit that I hear and the amount of stories that people are telling themselves. I mean, the fact is, video production is like any service industry, okay? It's about helping a client solve a problem. You don't have to convince people that video is like the next best thing, you know, for managing their lead generation. You don't need to be an evangelist for video. You just need to ask them, what is it you're trying to achieve and how can I help you? And then if you can figure out that you can help them, then you can actively talk about how that might look. And from there you can discuss if you are, in fact, the right people to help them with that, because in many cases you may not be. And I think that where a lot of people make a lot of mistakes is that they're trying to do everything for everyone. It's like the classic, oh, look, yeah, we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. Yeah, we can do that. Rather than saying, look, our area of specialism is helping these types of business achieve these results with this method that we use, which is very. It's proven to show that we get results.

But actually, this part of the area is not something we're specialist in. So we can actually outsource that on your behalf or we can point you in the direction of a company that can help you with that. But we're happy to manage it for you. Just to let you know, we'll probably outsource that bit. So if that's cool with you, then we can certainly do that. People will respect you far more if you are honest with them about what you can and can't do. So I think that's another lesson that I learned with experience is just stay in your lane. Get really good at being known for that one thing. And I say that one thing. I mean, from a marketing perspective, what is your key area of specialism? What is the one thing you really do very, very well?

And we've noticed that in our own business where we used to have a lot of different ways in which we help people. And it became kind of like there's an analogy called chasing too many rabbits. You know, when you're, you're constantly going in different directions to try and keep the plate spinning and you end up not really serving anyone. So we just decided, you know, three or four years ago to just focus on helping video business owners succeed in business. And we've seen our business grow exponentially year on year because we're focusing on that one thing. And great friend of mine and mentor Ben Simkin, who's been on the says, you know, you only need one target market, one offer and one funnel to make a million bucks. And that is a kind of. It's an analogy for the fact that most people try and do too many different things. They feel like they've got to offer lots of different services. And so a lot of websites I look at when I'm. When I'm reviewing and people. People to join our programs, I look at their websites and I can see they're trying to do too much. And the businesses that I find have the most success.

Core focus on two or three markets and they go deep and they help them really achieve their goals. And one of the biggest advantages of focusing on niche markets is that you can go deep into that world. If you're working in education, for example, then there's certain precedents in education, certain safety and police checks you have to have. But there's a certain understanding. If one educational establishment is looking for content to help attract students into their establishment, then other establishments are going to be looking to do the same. And so you become known for expertise in that space and you might have certain insights into how that might look. Perhaps you work in healthcare. I have clients who work in healthcare and they get known within the healthcare world amongst consultants who move from company to company and they know that compliance and.

Certification is a very big deal in a lot of those spaces. And so when they're working with a supplier, they know they don't have to keep explaining. So I've got a client who works in distribution, haulage.

In manufacturing, and in.

What's the one I'm looking for? Distribution, you know, warehousing and haulage. And the words escape me. But he's in a very specialist niche whereby that industry understands his market.

And oftentimes in these companies, the people that are working in them have relationships with other people they've worked with in other companies. And so it's a great way to refer a business. And so I think that that's my biggest lesson as well. One of my biggest lessons is that, you know, going deep into a market and becoming known as an expert in that market really helps you to establish your authority. And you get incredible referrals. And, you know, once you get one referral, once you get known for being in that space, people just trust you more. And so, you know, be having the. Having the guts to go niche and really focus on that will serve you enormously well. And the funny thing is, when you do go niche, you know, you'll still do other bits and pieces of work, but once you're known for a particular approach to storytelling or a particular approach to filmmaking, people will get to know that and be like, well, we want to work with people like you because, you know, you know our industry. And I think that another big lesson I've Learned in my 50 years is that nobody cares about, you know, us and our passion nearly as much as we do. And I think filmmakers there, I say we can be a little bit kind of, you know, dare I say, upper on ours. We kind of get a bit too carried away with the tech and a bit too carried away with the. The process. And we sort of fall in love with the process and we sometimes forget to really hear what the client's trying to achieve. And it's not that they don't enjoy the process and love it. It's exciting, you know, but. But it's like the mistake I see people making is that they. They simply don't spend enough time in the client's world, in the client's head, understanding what the client's prospects and customers need and helping to communicate that through video. I think that's a real kind of problem area in video production. But there's also a lot of really positive things you that, I mean, I'm fortunate. I work with incredible clients. We have really successful businesses growing year on year inside the Video Business Accelerator. And what I observe is the ones that do well are extremely focused, extremely disciplined. They know their space. They are experts at delivering high quality. They're not afraid to charge what they're worth. And part of our training is making sure you maximize the revenue you generate from every project. And it's not that you kind of rip clients off or necessarily make huge in every project, but we look to build a lifetime value. We look to charge what we're worth. So people respect the fact that we're not cheap. You know, no one likes to buy cheap, despite what they might say. Now, if you're going SEO and attracting lots of inquiries into your website and that kind of general nature, then, yeah, people are only going to base you on price. And, you know, I was talking to someone last week and I said, look, you know, you're like a plumber. You're just. You're charging per hour. You'll do pretty much anything. You'll go out for three hours and film and like, that's okay. But understand that you're never going to be treated on anything like, other than a gun for hire, a service provider. And if you want to be treated like a partner, then you want to get more involved with an industry, more involved with a set of clients that you can really, truly help.

So that they understand that you're there as a partner to them. And some of my most successful clients just have a catalog of amazing clients who they partner with and they just automatically go to them. But that takes time. And I think that's probably my last lesson to share with you is that patience. You know, when I was 30, I just wanted to do everything yesterday. And there was this mad rush. Now that I've hit 50, I realize there's plenty of time. And I'm 50. And some of you listen to this. Probably a lot younger, maybe you're older. But, you know, as you get older, you realize that there is plenty of time. Just use your time carefully. Don't be wasteful with your time. Make sure you focus on helping people who want your help. And if someone doesn't want your help, it's okay to say, look, if you don't want my help, that's okay. Just let me know and I won't bother you again. Because I don't want to be chasing people. And you shouldn't be chasing people. In your business, there's a difference between fault following up with prospects. But you get to a point where a prospect's just not ready to make a decision. And you've got to say, well, is this, Is this just a kind of question of timing, or is this something you're not ready to commit to? And then you can move forward and drive your energy towards helping people who do need your help. Because you know, not everyone is going to be ready for what you've got to offer. And so getting clear about what you're offering, who you're offering it to what your value is and understanding how to communicate that effectively to the world. That is very important. And that takes time. That absolutely takes time. Getting your marketing strategy dialed and getting your marketing dialed and your follow up strategy, your ongoing nurturing sequences, those things take time to create. Having said that, once you've got them up and running, it is an absolute kind of gold mine because you've got predictability. And once you've got predictability, that's when you can start to relax. So guys, I'm gonna keep it short this week. I'm off to celebrate my birthday weekend with friends and thanks for listening and I will talk to you next week. 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@denlenny.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. So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.