The “3-word secret” to goal accomplishment. EP #234 - Den Lennie

G', day guys. It's Dan here with another episode of the how to Scale Video Business podcast. We are up to, gosh, November.

Isn't it crazy? What a year. Today we're going to talk about, well, something that's a little story, actually. I thought we'd start with a story.

About the whales that migrate past our, virtually our front door every year here in Australia. And, you know, it's become quite normalized to us, but there's a great lesson in this. So here we are with episode 2, 3, 4.

So.

Every year.

The whales, somewhere in the region of 17 to 20,000 humpback whales basically pass by our front door here on the sunny coast on a 5,000 kilometer migration from the freezing winter in Antarctica to the warmer waters of the Pacific. And it happens between sort of June and September with a little bit of a leeway either side. So we saw some whales just last week here and we're almost into November, so a few stragglers.

But what's really cool is you can literally walk down to the beach and see 4 ton whales thrashing around, having fun in the water. And it's an annual event. So they move from Antarctica, say up the east coast of Australia, heading for the warmer waters of far north Queensland, up past Tonga and the warm waters of the Pacific where they may have fun, give birth to the calves and stuff. Now, the young whales wouldn't survive in the freezing Antarctic, so the young are born in much warmer water. So one can feed them up until they've masked enough blubber to keep them safe when they migrate back south. Apparently the milk that Mum creates is so thick it's like toothpaste. And so she squirts it out and the young calves simply hoover up, mixing it with water as they swim up beside her. And we were out on a trip recently, I was asking the skipper how they know where to go and he told me that whales have a very advanced thermostat that can sense subtle temperature changes in the water and so navigate north to the warmer waters intuitively, which is, you know, a lot like business. I think you've got to have a certain sense of intuitive awareness in business and know what those micro changes look like in your business. So back to the whales. Once the calves are born, Mum feeds them for a short time until they have enough blubber to begin the long journey back south. And they head back south, so to the Antarctic so they can feed upon krill in the warmer, I say warmer summer months of the Antarctica, still pretty chilly.

Now, not only are the sight of whales up close, quite awe inspiring for us. Not least of all because my uncle Don was a whaler back in the 50s.

And when most of the world was hunting whales for their blubber and oil on an industrial scale and it virtually wiped out the species. I think humpback numbers depleted less than two and a half thousand. Thankfully today numbers are solid between 17 and 20,000 in the wild. But what's more interesting is whales have this cycle that works like clockwork. And so as I said before, there is a lot of interesting parallels to the whale migration and business. And so every, every year, like clockwork, around mid June, the first whales are spotted heading north and they tail off. Late July, mid August and they start heading back south. Mid September again. And you know, a few stragglers always along the way with teenagers that are not yet old enough to breed being the first to head back south, followed by the mothers and the new calves. It's just fascinating how these 40 ton mammals instinctively know where to go on a 5,000 kilometer journey. So are you clear on your direction? I think the whales serve as a great metaphor for our own business lives. They have a clear purpose, which is to get north so they can breed and give birth. The whales fill up on krill in the summer months, which is stored as blubber, and they use that stored food to feed off while they swim north. If you think about your year in business, we're coming into the latter part of 2021.

Video businesses on the whole typically start to slow down. December, January, February. Depending on where you are in the world. Now, it's not always the case, but it's quite common that there can be a slowdown. And it's something that happens every year pretty much in all sectors, at least for a period over Christmas. So it's not like you don't know this is happening, but how prepared are you for when that happens? I've been saying to my VBA members for some time, this is the time to start really making sure you're digging back into your marketing. If you've fallen off the wagon with it, make sure you're reaching out on LinkedIn, make sure you're connecting with people, make sure you're having conversations. And it has been a very unusual year because of all the lockdowns and varying degrees of disruption around the world. But nonetheless, a lot of my guys are telling me, you know, the work they did during lockdown, maintaining relationships is really serving them well now. But back to the whales and how it relates to business. Once you have a clear destination in mind, then you can focus all your energy on getting there.

I've come across a number of people in my role as leading this business coaching video, business owners that I see a distinct difference between those that succeed and those that don't.

And I've seen this happen in our life here in Australia. Some people have commented in the past of us living in Ausden, said things like, oh, you're so lucky. And the truth is, while their sentiment is well intentioned, in reality, luck has virtually nothing to do with it. We set a very clear intention in November of 2013 to move to Australia before I hit 45, which was in February 2016. And so with that very specific goal in mind and a deadline, we set about writing a massive list of all the steps required to make it reality. And it was simply a matter of taking one priority at a time and doing whatever tasks were required until it was completed. And once it was completed, we moved to the next priority and repeated it until we were all complete. No accident, not lucky, but measured, planned and strategic. And most importantly, it was tracked with measurable objectives along the way to ensure that we remained on course. So are you on course with your business goals or are you burying your head in the sand hoping work will just come in and it will all work itself out?

You know, you've got to be very careful with how you spend your time and what you do with the time that you have. And it reminds me of a great lesson. One of my favorite books of all time is Great by Choice by Jim Collins. And in that book he talks about the concept of firing bullets, then cannonballs. So when you're looking for new business opportunities.

And markets, it's important not to throw all you've got at a shiny object on a whim. Let's imagine that you think there might be an opportunity to create content for a manufacturing business or sector. Well, fire bullets first. So what I mean by that. Well, imagine you were at sea and you're in a combat situation. You have only one cannonball left, but you have a bunch of rifles. If you fire your only cannonball at a moving target, then there's a high probability that you're going to miss. So if you instead shoot a bullet and misk, misk miss, the risk is lower. So fire a bullet, get nothing. Adjust 10 degrees and try again. Still miss. Bit closer. Adjust another 10 degrees and keep going until you hit. Now, once you've nailed the target with the bullet, then bring in the big guns and fire the cannonball. Knowing it's going to strike the target. The same thing rings true in business. The most systematic way to test a market is to test small. If you have an idea, then trial it first, see if there is sufficient demand before going all in. So once you've done a few jobs in that sector, made some money, then you can scale up. Whatever you do, don't buy the camera first, thinking it's best to be future proof. You're just deluding yourself. You know, a Canon C100 is still a very capable camera. The FS5 is still a very capable camera and you can pick them up cheap. Let me say it again. Very few clients are insisting on 4K. And for most corporate online content, 1080p is more than good enough. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't benefits to acquiring in 4K, but if we take it, you know, today there's no reason to have 8k or 12k, absolutely none at all. You're just going to create more work for yourself. You might disagree with me and that is okay. But for the majority of corporate work, if you want to make money, 4k, even 6k is plenty. Most of what you're delivering is 1080p. So be aware of that and focus on what the client needs, not what you want to do.

If you focus on identifying a target market who needs something you are selling.

You focus on delivering for them, you focus on giving them the best possible service, focus on being the best provider of that service in the market and everything else will come.

So I want to just shift gears slightly and talk about something that is an absolute core.

Theme, if you would like, in the work that we do inside the Video Business Accelerator.

It's about the fact that nothing that's worthwhile happens quickly. Everything that's worthwhile takes time.

And so I want to refer again to something called the 20 mile march, which I've talked about in the past on the show and I've been talking about the importance of planning in quite a number of episodes recently. And that's because it's so important.

I see a bunch of adverts on Facebook now. It seems that.

Everyone and his wife is now an expert in how to build a video business. And they're often portraying very significant results in very short periods of time. And you only have to dig a little bit deeper to find that some of these guys are still studying at film school and they've just, you know, they've got some great marketing strategies and a lot of, you know, what look like case studies. People having great success and that might be the case. But what I know from the companies that I work with you in the upper six figure bracket, sustained upper six figure bracket, is that they're building businesses that aren't reliant on tactics. They're not relying on kind of trying to sell in a new idea to someone. They're businesses that maintain high six figures, producing great video content for a broad range of markets. And so you know, there aren't any shortcuts to success. And if you believe there are, you're just deluding yourself. Business takes time. It takes seven to 10 years to build a business. It's going to give you sustained income over, you know, 20 or 30 years.

Sometimes you're doing it quicker than that. But, but it's about understanding. You have to have a strategic plan that is aligned with your purpose and mission and it can be a life or death decision. And I'll tell you more about that in a little bit. Now, thankfully, making films and producing video for corporates and agencies isn't actually going to be life threatening to you, but the severity of a negative outcome that could arise if you don't set time aside to create a strategic plan for your business will be directly proportional to the amount of prep you invest at the beginning of your journey. Now, the good news is it's never too late to start planning. Whether you've been running your business in excess of a decade or just starting. Planning works for every business. And I'm talking about strategic planning with very, very laser focus on the outcomes you want to achieve. The one thing focus I frequently refer to is so important because that one thing, when broken down, becomes priorities. And they can be anywhere from 30 to 50 priorities that contribute to a 12 month period of you achieving your mission. Now, our mission is to help video producers succeed in business. It's clear, succinct, it's concise.

That is not something we have plastered on our website. That is our internal clock.

And we want to build the most committed tribe of conscious video production business owners serving the UK, Australia, North America.

With 50 members of our video business accelerator Mastermind by the end of next year. And we have a very tight group. I'm not looking to create hundreds of members. It's something I want the quality of the group to be there. It's more important for me to get to quality. And I have members that have been with me for two and a half years and there's nothing keeping them there every month other than the fact that what they invest, they make Back many times over. And we've created an incredible community and it acts like an insurance policy. We've got a board of directors of businesses around the world that are driving consistently towards great results in their video businesses. So you need to be clear on who you want to work with, what you want to achieve, and actually working out what that looks like. So I want to talk a bit more about the importance of planning and talk about a case study. And this is Amundsen versus Scott in the Antarctic expeditions of 1911. So back in the early 20th century, there was a race between nations to be the first Antarctic explorers to reach the South Pole. A British team led by Robert Scott set off on one route and another Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen. Now, what's really fascinating is it's 1911, so there wasn't any real kind of technology. So the round trip Trek was roughly 1400 miles, the equivalent of the distance from New York to Chicago and back. The environment was uncertain and unforgiving where temperatures could easily reach 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, even during the summer. They had no means of modern communication, no cell phones, no satellite links, no radio. A rescue would have been improbable if they were to, you know, get stuck. One leader led his team to victory and safety. The other led his team to defeat and death. Now, Amundsen, Norwegian, prepared rigorously for years in advance of the journey. He learned what worked well in polar conditions, going as far as to live with the Eskimos, to learn how they moved in sub zero temperatures, what they wore, and reviewed every conceivable situation that his team might encounter en route to the Pole. He trained his body and mind with fanatic discipline, and that's key, fanatical discipline. Scott, on the other hand, represents quite a contrast to Amundsen. His preparation was limited, and what plans he made were based on his own intuitive conclusions rather than that direct research of the environment he was entering. And if you think about how you're growing your video business, some of you might be listening to the show thinking, well, I'll just take what Dan tells me and I'll have a crack. And that is awesome. But if you really want certainty, then, you know, there is an opportunity to work with us more closely and a very tight group of people who are absolutely smashing goals, even during a pandemic. I had a call with someone a few weeks ago who literally, you know, tried to have a call with me four times, and four times he kept canceling for various reasons. And I probably, you know, went against my own judgment. And I probably just should have said, look, this is not clearly for you, what you're after. And we had a call, and then after the call, he just ghosted me. But what was interesting was, first of all, that behavior I'm not worried about. It says a lot more about that person than it does about me. And clearly there's stuff going on, and I hope they're okay. But he said, oh, we've had a really rough year because of COVID Now, what's interesting is.

I've got clients who had their best year despite Covid. So why do you think that is? Why do you think some people are claiming that Covid made their year really hard, and others are like, it was a great opportunity. And part of that is because it's about preparation and understanding that if you want to understand how to succeed with certainty, then you need to go and train with people who've been there and done it. And if you want to try and figure it out on your own because you're worried you might have to spend some money, then, then you're kind of leaving up to took the chance. And so you know, as soon as you let outside forces dictate your outcomes, you're screwed. You can't let the outside world dictate or anything outside dictate your outcomes.

So it's really important that you're prepared. So Amundsen, back to story. Stored 3 tons of supplies for 5 men versus Scott, who stored 1 ton for 17 men. Amundsen used sled dogs, learned from the Eskimos, whereas Scott used unproven motor sledges, which failed within days of his journey. Amundsen carried enough extra supplies to miss every single supply depot and still have enough to go another hundred miles. Scott ran everything dangerously close to his calculations so that a missed opportunity at a supply depot would bring disaster. A single detail aptly highlights the difference between their approaches. Scott bought or brought with them one thermometer for a key altitude experiment measurement, and it explode, and it didn't work, and he exploded in an outburst of wrath when it broke. Amundsen brought four such devices. So the divergence in preparation goes on and on and on and on. Unlike Scott, Amundsen systematically built enormous buffers for unforeseen events. Do you have unforeseen buffers in your business for unforeseen events? On our coaching call last week, we were talking about the importance of putting money aside every month so that you can build up six months worth of cash flow so that if something goes wrong in your business, you'd be okay. So, you know, Amundsen designed the entire journey to systematically reduce the role of big forces and chance events. And so all of my members who have been with me for a while, they got through the coronavirus outbreak without any real impact on the business. Yes, there was some downturn, but we focused on what we could control and not what we couldn't. So if you're someone who's listening to this saying, oh, well, you know, I've had a rough year because of COVID You've had a rough year because you haven't approached Covid with the right mindset and the right preparation. And that's important you understand that Covid is just another impact in our world, like it could be anything. Those situations always provide opportunities if you know what to do with them. Now, on December 15, 1911, Amundsen and his team reached the South Pole. He and his teammates planted the Norwegian flag and went right back to work. They couldn't have known that Scott and his team were now desperately man hauling the sleds a full 360 miles behind. More than a month later, Scott found himself staring at Amundsen's flag at the South Pole. Amundsen had already traveled 500 miles back north. Scott and his team turned back dejected, just as the seasons began to turn. So when I spoke to you earlier about, we're coming into December, January, that's a season where it gets a bit quieter in our industry.

Those members of my, my business group, they're going to be like downing tools and having a month off because they've put enough supplies in place, they put enough stock in the bank to be able to do that.

You don't want to be like Scott, where you're turning into the winter months and you're like, oh shit, you know, it's going to be quiet. So the already menacing weather turned more severe. While supplies dwindled and Scott and his men struggled through the snow. Amundsen and his team reached home base on January 25, the precise day he had planned.

Running out of supplies, Scott and his team stalled. Mid March, exhausted and depressed. Eight months later, a British reconnaissance party found the frozen bodies of Scott and his two teammates in a forlorn snow drifted little tent. Just 10 miles short of his supply depot. His whole team had perished. So what are the key points here? Just as striking a difference between the preparations between the two men was the discipline of Amundsen to press forward in bad weather and hold back his team in Good weather. Throughout the journey, Amundsen adhered to a regime of constant and consistent progress, never going too far in good weather. Careful to stay away from the red line of exhaustion that could leave his team exposed, yet pressing ahead in nasty weather to stay on pace, Amundsen throttled back his well tuned team to travel between 15 and 20 miles per day in a relentless march to 90 degrees south. When a member of Amundsen's team suggest they could go faster, up to 25 miles a day, Amundsen said no. Now I want to just touch on this point because we measure our members revenue every month and we ask them to check every quarter. Are you on target? And if you're on target, great. Stay where you are. The temptation to do more is always there. But the danger is the same as Amundsen experienced. You know you have to rest and sleep to continually replenish your energy. Business has to rest. There has to be time for the business to adjust to new pressures, to ensure you've got the right workflows and the right systems in place so that when things get busy, you don't drop the ball. In contrast, Scott would sometimes drive his team to exhaustion on good days and then sit in this tent and complain about the weather on bad days. So if you are someone who complains when there's no work and is exhausted when you're doing too much work, maybe you want to draw some comparisons to this. And I realize I'm calling this out, I'm not here to sort of blow smoke up your arse. This is just what business is like. If you don't measure your progress and if you don't move at a consistent pace.

You end up burning out. And you can't just brute force your way through business because at some point the ball will get dropped and you'll be exhausted. Business needs to be done in a methodical way and that can be challenging for creatives because we like to do shiny, we like to do new and some of the things you have to do in business involve monotony. But if you build the systems and put the team in place, you don't have to be the one to do them.

So at one point on this journey, Scott faced six days of gale force winds and traveled on none of those days, Whereas Amundsen faced 15 days of gale force winds and travelled on 8. So Amundsen clocked in at the South Pole right on his pre decided date, having averaged 15.5 miles per day. Scott, in contrast, fell behind early with no plan of a daily pace. And as the conditions worsened, enhanced by his lack of preparation for unforeseen events, he and his team never recovered. So how does this apply to filmmaking? Well, we tend to wildly overestimate what we can achieve in 12 months, but we underestimate what we can achieve in 60 months. So one year versus five years. And so, rather than thinking, how can I make all this money now? Think about this way. How can I build a business with the right infrastructure and the right mindset? As a business owner, that means I can build a business that will give me everything I need and want forever if I just build it over the next three to five years.

The second lesson is proper preparation and research will allow you to prepare for the times when things don't go to plan. You know, if you lose a client who's been a significant income generator for you and panic sets in, you know, if you're prepared for that rather than not, you know, sitting there thinking, oh God, I hope this doesn't happen. And then it happens. And I've seen it multiple times. I've seen businesses that have reliance on a key client and that client goes away and it literally destroys them. So be prepared for that.

If you don't have a certain skill set, then either outsource it or invest the time to learn it. No one was born a natural marketer or salesperson. These are skills that you learn, but it takes time to become a master of them.

All too often, a lack of patience to play the long game hinders meaningful progress. No one expects you to be an expert in everything, so play to your strengths and don't be too proud to ask for help. And finally, planning is critical for success, so make sure you prioritize doing it.

Ask yourself this. Has owning your own video business been.

Everything you dreamed it would be when you first got started?

It might be hard to admit, but think about whether you're genuinely achieving everything you set out to.

When you made that decision to grab.

The camera and go it alone, are you really working less? Are you really earning more? And are you really in control? The chances are you're bloody good at what you do, but you're having to work like a dog, 70 plus hours a week. Whether it's filming, editing, marketing, or any of the other jobs that come with being the big boss of your own video company. When you're managing projects, constantly searching out for new clients and worrying about cash flow, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture or make real progress. Let's face it, that stress is the last thing you need when you're trying.

To run a profitable company that supports.

You and the people you care about. Truth is, a business that provides financial, professional, and personal freedom really is achievable. But maybe you've got that nagging feeling that you're overworked, lacking stability, and struggling to get to where you really want.

To be right now.

It could be that you just don't know how to make a positive change on your own. So I created the Video Business Accelerator Coaching programs to really supercharge your video business. With these unique coaching programs, you'll learn all the tools you need to get complete confidence in the success of your video business. You can take the first step on your journey to a successful business that doesn't control your life. Let me show you how. Head over to Denlany.com and click on Accelerator.