Procrastination: The curse of the Videographer. EP #338 - Den Lennie

Procrastination.

Is that something that resonates? That is today's topic. Because I believe that procrastination and avoiding tasks and strategic focus in place of fun stuff or stuff that's not as important could be the thing that's actually holding you back from growing your business and taking control of your life.

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.

So I want you to ask yourself a really honest question. And I'm saying this as a recovering procrastinator, okay? So please don't bullshit yourself, because you're the only person you really let down.

How much time do you spend actually being productive and effective?

Because the chances are you have to do lists of things that seem like they're important, but actually not.

So if you're sitting thinking, oh, I've got a lot on my plate, I've got to give some thought to this and thought to that, I've got to do this, that the next thing that may not be anything that's moving the needle. And really what I want to talk about today is are you ready to move from video operator to business owner? And by video operator, I mean, like, the freelancer. Are you ready to do that? I mean, hearing a lot of stories recently of, you know, social groups, Facebook groups, a lot of chitter chatter amongst freelancers going, oh, it's really quiet out there. There's not much work. And part of the problem here is that the boom cycle has gone, okay? That the heyday of lots of work, lots of video work, people just paying you good money to do stuff, it's gone. The only way to survive now is to start building your own network of opportunities. And that is going to take some time. There is no quick fix. And I'm here to expose the nonsense that I see being advertised on Facebook, where operators are promising, you know, their system or their flow or their hack or their funnel or their way of getting clients, and it's gonna, you know, give you 30 grand in 30 days. It's. It's just. It's just bullshit. Building a business takes time. Building anything real takes time. You have to build a relationship with clients. You have to nurture that relationship. And clients are not just ready to buy right now.

And I see a lot of people advertising this kind of like, hey, I'm looking for Five businesses to try a new video service where I shoot, you know, three months of content in two days.

I see those adverts everywhere. And you know what? Maybe if you're looking to work with dentists or chiropractors, you might get a few business bits of business here and there. But like, the people I work with, they want to do meaningful work. They want to do work that inspires them, work that makes them feel good, work that tells a story, communicates, is tactile, that engages the human response.

And I can tell you now that that notion of like shooting lots of content for shorts and reels, that's going to die because everyone's doing it. We've tried, we've tested it, and it just doesn't work. You know, volume is not the answer. Quality is. And we started testing some different bits of content which are getting four or five times the views than the kind of, you know, generic. Churn it out, stack them high. I was selling these kind of packages four or five years ago when it was still like there was a market for it. But in anything, you know, marketers tend to screw things up. So people who are looking for a, for a quick win sign up to these things and they, you know, they kind of, you know, they do okay for a while and then it dies off. But back to today's topic, which is really how to achieve productivity nirvana. And you can claim five hours back per week. People often tell me they don't have time to grow their business. That's bullshit. That is the time you're allocating to. It is not enough of a priority for you. So first of all, you got to identify, are you the video person or are you a business owner? Because consistent growth is the result of rapid implementation of the right tasks. Let me say that again. Consistent and predictable growth is the result of rapid implementation of the right tasks.

And if you want financial security.

You need to identify as a business owner. So you need to do what business owners do. You need to act as if you are a business owner, even if you are the freelancer. So if you were running a company doing half a million dollars a year, would you be doing some of the tasks you have on your to do list right now? Think about that for a second. The videographers that I see doing really well over a one to two to three year period are really dialed into this. And so you can choose to spend time in Facebook groups where people are talking about all sorts of shit that doesn't mean anything. And actually what's really going on there is no one's really being honest because they're all too scared to share anything in case you steal their clients, because they totally steal yours in a heartbeat. And so if you're looking for a community that isn't like that, please come and check out videobusinessaccelerator.com and click on Free group. We have a free school group where we are having open and honest conversations from a place of abundance, not fear and scarcity. And if you've not joined yet, I really want to encourage you to do that because we do a weekly call for free. There's some great resources in there.

And you can dive deeper into this idea of procrastination. So stage one is we want to claim you back five hours per week. Okay. And the way we do that is you have to audit and review your current situation. You know, you need to be kind of really honest about how you're spending your time. Are you using your time effectively?

And then we need to move on to the mindset and develop principles for being productive. Okay. This takes a shift in mindset, a shift in priorities, and then we need to clear your plate. Okay, There's a practical application using the 4DS, which I'll come on to in a second. And then you can identify your needle movers, which is what should you focus on? Because not everything needs your attention in the same capacity. You know, tidying your desk might not be as important as going and finding new clients.

Reorganizing your gear, not as important as reaching out to people on LinkedIn. But the chances are you probably feel more uncomfortable reaching out to strangers on LinkedIn than you would organizing your gear. You know, we can justify anything to ourselves. And then some daily productivity tips how to maximize your days. So step one, you want to audit, in no particular order, the priorities in life for health and fitness, family, relationships, friends, business, personal finance, fun and spirituality. Mark them out of ten. Okay, maybe you've not done that before. Really important, because they're all interrelated. And then mindset. I want you to start instilling a sense of urgency into what you are doing with your time. You know, it's really important. Urgency is important in everything.

Now. Doesn't always go well. Sometimes it bites you in the arse. But hey, that's life.

Now, some of the mindset principles for being productive. The first thing is you've got to separate your feelings from the task, because the goal is balanced and sustainable performance.

And it's all time. Everything takes time. Systems for execution will beat willpower every single time. So I use systems like I put in my calendar. You know, record podcast, do sales calls, create marketing content. I can't rely on myself to remember this stuff because I'll always go and do something more fun. I can stay at my Canon Pro 1000 printer and go, maybe I could print some pictures. I could go next door and play the drums and, you know, distract myself. But I sit in my desk and I create systems that will beat willpower.

Also, prioritize yourself. You know, make sure you put personal things in your calendar. Spending time with your wife, going to the gym, seeing friends. Those things fill your cup. And if you don't set rules.

In how you operate your life, others will make them for you. Now, I want to move on to what I call clearing your plate with the four Ds. So if you imagine a piece of white paper in front of you and you draw just a cross and you've got four quadrants. In the first quadrant on the top left, I want you to write delegate.

Beneath that I want you to write delete. On the top right hand corner, I want you to write defer. And in the bottom right hand corner, do.

So this is what you want to be doing differently. Okay, so what should you delete? Well, speaking to unqualified leads. You know, just. Just randomly speaking to people and having coffees because you think there might be a business opportunity you want to qualify. People scrolling on social media. Stop doing that. It's not serving you any purpose, having unnecessary meetings. You know, you should only have a meeting with a client once there's something on the table, you know, and if you have one in a meeting, have a zoom meeting. So don't drive to meetings and have meetings unless there's something tangible on the table. You know, do calls. Don't waste time on degrade clients. Don't waste time managing degrade suppliers, staff or contractors, or even friends who drain you. You need to stop doing all of that stuff. And it might seem brutal, but that's what's required if you want to really grow your business. Delegate really important. What are some of the things you can delegate that you're currently doing yourself? And a classic one is bookkeeping. Everyone thinks because zero is easy, they should do their own bookkeeping. Oh, it only takes me 10 minutes a day and I like to do it, but that's 10 minutes a day, every day. That's 50 minutes a week. That's four hours a month. That's something that should be. You'd be paying someone else to do. Plus, if you pay a bookkeeper, they're going to pick things up, they're going to start looking at your expenses and making you feel guilty about the money you're spending. That's a really good thing.

Posting on social I don't do any of my own social posting. It's all done through an app and through my assistant Milka. I don't have unnecessary meetings. I don't take meetings for people who say, can I just, you know, have 15 minutes of your time to bend your ear? I never physically go to meetings. If I can do something on Zoom, I'll always do it on Zoom. I certainly don't waste time on degrade clients. I can't help everyone. I know exactly who we work well with. When people want to book calls with me and they have no money, I cancel the call because there's no point in having a conversation if you have no money to invest in your business. So I guide them to my free group and then some of these will say, well can you look at this? And I'm like, no, like, like I don't work for free. I create a lot of value and I provide free resources in my free community. But I set the rules.

If you want to work more closely with me, there's ways we can do that. And managing degrade supplier staff and condors. I only work with a players and any other low level tasks that just not important. You know, I, I order all of our toilet paper from who gives a crap because they deliver it every three months in the 60 rolls. I order all of my, I drink a lot of sparkling water, you know, infused sparkling water. I get it all from Amazon, I deliver it on Amazon. I buy everything in bulk. I don't, I don't go to the supermarket. I order everything in. I want to maximize my effectiveness and spend time on high level tasks, not low level tasks. You know, don't fix tweaks to your website. I have a company, I need something fixed. I just say to my assistant, hey, can you get the company to fix this? I use Fiverr for a lot of things. Updating your branding, nobody cares. Stop messing about with your logo. That's not important. No one cares. And don't go to low quality networking events or networking groups. It's a disaster.

Coffee catch ups with no real agenda, pointless.

And then perfecting things unnecessarily. This is a huge one in the creative world. Don't be focusing on all that stuff. Don't build systems yourself, get someone else to build them. For you and then, you know, just another really big one. Don't apply perfectionism when it's not required. So what should you do? What should you do more of? Well, setting up partnerships, calling past clients, selling more to current clients, following up with old leads, connecting on LinkedIn, emailing your database, training your team and contractors if you have them.

So what are some daily productivity tips?

I want you to think about TTP task time and priority. I also want you to think about stacking tasks. But in order to do that, keeping white space in your calendar because the white space will always fill up. If you fill up your calendar every hour, every minute, you're going to start getting stressed that you're going to get behind and then the building blocks of productivity, which is sleep, exercise, water, meditation and rest. So I want you to create a simple action plan for yourself. Do the delegate, delete, defer, do and ask yourself this, what is the number one change you need to make that will actually move the needle? And if you want more help with stuff like this, we do have our free community, which is Video Business Accelerator on school. If you go to videobusinessaccelerator.com and click on the button that says join our free group, you can, you can join a free group. There's no catch. You know, the, the truth is we provide great information and we treat you like a client. Now we have a weekly call and you know, in full transparency, four or five people now in the last few months have decided to join our up level program, which is our paid program where we go much deep. But there's no expectation that you'll do that because enough people are doing it. Naturally that says to me this is a great strategy. And so by us providing this free information, this free resource, I want you to just get on your journey a little bit further. And if you can beat procrastination, that is one of the single most important things you can do. All right guys, don't procrastinate. Go and join the free group and I'll see you next week.

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.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.