The hidden power of gratitude and hacking your brain. EP #160 - Den Lennie

G', day, guys. Dan here with another episode of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast. Episode number 160. 160 episodes in this week, I'm talking about the power of gratitude. I want to be exploring some topics with you, my dear listeners of the show. And I think you're gonna like this. And it's not gonna be what you expect, I don't think, but thank you for being here. I appreciate you being here, I appreciate you listening, and I hope this can be of value to you today.

So thank you. This is about the hidden power of gratitude and appreciation. Thank you for being a subscriber of this podcast. I appreciate you have committed to listening on whatever platform you're on and are willing to invest the time to learn and expand your knowledge around growing a video business. I'm really grateful for that commitment and I hope that you see great value from being a subscriber.

There is a hidden power in saying thank you and appreciating everything in your life. When you say thank you, your body produces a chemical called dhea. It's dehydropiandro osterone. I think I've said that right. Dehydropiandrosterone, it's an adrenal steroid hormone in the body and it's made by the adrenal glands and then it's converted to androgens, estrogens and other hormones. DHEA is also thought to contribute to a sense of well being. DHEA also has a positive effect on cognitive function and mood. And most importantly, it counters the action of cortisol, which is the hormone produced when you get stressed. So I'm back in the room now, folks. So, you know when you get stressed, what happens? You kind of start to lose your shit, right? It's like you stop thinking logically and rationally. And so I want to start by giving you a very, very quick hack for when you feel stress. Okay?

You have to take three to five.

Deep, deep, deep breaths, okay? If you take three to five deep breaths.

In from the nose and out from the mouth, I'd say five, you're going to feel radically different. It will de stress your immediate response. That is because when you get stressed, your croc brain just, it kicks off the fight or flight response. And all of the blood rushes to vital organs to push muscles, to be ready to take action, to run or fight, and that is the fight or flight response. And so to regulate that, simply take some deep breaths, some conscious deep breaths. And once you've calmed yourself down, ask yourself, okay, what's going on here? Why am I responding like this or reacting like this? What can I learn from this?

Is there a lesson for me in this situation that I can apply.

And as a result not make this mistake again? Because when we feel stressed, it's because we're reacting to something. Something's triggered us and we need to ask the question, what is it that's triggered us and why is it triggering us? And then say thank you. Literally just say thank you. So. So rather than waiting to get stressed and managing it, you know, which. Although this is a great antidote to that, how about if you started your day by hacking your DHE levels by heightening them by saying thank you for all the great things in your life. Now one way to do that is to journal. Now I'm not a big journaler. I have to be honest. My wife journals. I'm not a big journal. I have friends who journal. I think part of that is because my writing is not very good and I'm very impatient when writing. So when I tend to write things, I tend to dictate them and have them transcribed. But one way is to journal. And I did journal for a while. But when I do, do I see great benefits. And I think what's happened is when I was going through a lot of turmoil when we first moved to Australia, there was a lot of things to deal with and I journaled a lot to try and process some of that. I think since moving to Queensland where the sun shines a lot and we live near the beach, it's kind of, you know, I've got a lot to be grateful for. I wake up pretty grateful every day. But. But you, you can try journaling if, if you want to give it a go. You know, it's worth testing different mechanisms to, to kickstart your dhea, heightening your DHL levels. So by simply writing down three things that you're grateful for each day before you do anything else, it has a really profound effect on your mindset for the rest of day. And the funniest as I'm saying this, I'm thinking, why am I not journaling? Maybe it's just a kind of bullshit story that I need to overcome. You know, we're always being faced with stories.

So you know, there was a period where I had, was growing the business and there was one period where I was, I did 25 days straight without a day off. And it was just one of those periods where I had a number of back to back foreign trips back in the days we could travel and commitments in the office. And I tried to maintain my energies by, first of all, staying off the wine and beer for a start, meditating daily. And this was back when I was just starting to meditate. So I was using the Headspace app and I was really grateful for the opportunity to speak so many aspiring filmmakers. At the time, I was doing a lot of stuff in Asia for YouTube and Sony and inspiring them how to increase their production values. And it's a great honor to have been that person that Sony asked to hold that baton for them. And I never, ever take it for granted. And I'm so grateful for that privilege to serve and be part of that ecosystem. And it's completely in alignment with most of my personal and business purpose.

And you know, when I started creating this podcast back in 2018.

I simply had the idea of wanting to connect business owners who were running video production companies and share some of my journey and speak to interesting people. So in the hope that my mistakes could help you avoid them and help you grow your business faster then you would simply on your own. And my reward really comes from hearing success stories or people drop me messages and say, oh, listen, this has really helped me. Or I get to work with, you know, a client who joins the mastermind or the business or the coaching program. And you know, when I.

When I hear people having great success, it really fills my cup. But the key is always implementation.

You know, there's a client of mine a while ago, Clint, and he said, you know, we've been exceptionally growing with your help over the last five years and now reached a place where we're really comfortable with the pace and the lifestyle. He said, I feel like I'm the Mexican fisherman. Have you heard that story? If not, read below. One of my biggest appreciations for your counsel over the years has been the fine tuning of my filming skills. And this was back when we were doing more filming training.

But also developing my niche and go to market strategy. So I'm very thankful for our discussion and you pressing me to make a decision on the next steps in terms of where I'm going with my company. One of the reasons we moved to California a year and a half ago was to be able to spend quality time with each other, our kids and our future grandchildren and in the corporate world. I spent many of my years just traveling away from my family, over 3 million miles with American Airlines alone. I left the corporate world and to have the freedom that we now enjoy. I'm having the time of my life and I really Enjoy what I'm doing. Thanks again for all your support. It's greatly appreciated. And that was from Clint. And you know, Clint is just one story and I love hearing stories like that, that we're able to impact people so positively.

And this was a conversation I'd had with Clint about him joining my. At the time, it was called the FE Elite Mastermind Program. He was in my inner circle at the time.

He said, you know, actually he didn't want to scale his business up. He was actually pretty happy where he was. And he said, you know, in terms of accountability, I've been under these kind of weekly status reports, weekly global forecasts for 30 plus years. And I know the advantage of having this kind of approach and structure are invaluable to someone who's in the process of expanding and growing their business. But I'm at a different point in my journey. At the time he wrote this, he was 62. He said, I'm really enjoying what I do just now and I'm quite happy to just continue at this pace, enjoy my time with my wife and family. And it was a great observation. I was thrilled for him. You might be thinking, but that's a lost opportunity. There's a lost sale. And here's the thing, I just don't think like that. Yes, of course you need to be commercial, but my purpose in life is to help video producers succeed. And that's what just happened. And if Clint had been 20 years younger, he almost certainly would have joined my program. But he's doing well. He loves the work he's doing, enjoys a great lifestyle where he works two weeks out every month. And I've always talked about being willing to walk away from a deal if it isn't right. Well, the flip side of that is that you only want to serve clients who have a genuine need for what it is you're providing. I'm not in the business of trying to sell somebody something in as many places I can just to make money. You won't find me putting on some, some kind of, you know, low cost course to try and win people in and upsell them and kind of, you know, bait and switch them into kind of buying something more expensive. You know, I live my values publicly and transparently, and I encourage you to do the same.

You know, we had an inner circle that ran for a while. We had 108 members giving us $100 a month for a while. But then it started to decline and it dropped down to 75 members. And then over the years, it dropped down to 50 and 25 and then we wrapped it up last year. But you know, we're always looking at, you know, where is our energy going and is it in the right space. And now I have two products, I have my video business accelerator Mastermind and if you're doing 10 to 15,000amonth already us and you want to double or triple that, then I'm happy to talk to you. But underneath that we have the video business accelerator course which is an eight part program which you buy into and you learn at your own pace. Now there's still support from me, but it's not live coaching. And the idea is that act as the undergrad course for any business who's doing two or three thousand a month wants to get to ten. And once you get to ten, then it's. Then once you've got clients and you've got certain processes in place and certain foundations, it's much easier to get up to a higher level. And so that is our two products, you know, and we don't advertise it and we don't talk about pricing. We want to understand who you are and where you're at in your journey and then we'll figure out the best way to serve you and support you and work out a way that works for you to be able to afford to take the action required. I had someone the other day message me going, how much is your course? I'm like, well I'm just not, I'm not going to start throwing money at figures around when we've got no idea if we can help you. And I think this is very important advice for you with your clients. They go, how much for a video? Just say, well look, it's very difficult to answer that question without knowing exactly what it is you want and what you're trying to achieve. If you're open to a 10 minute call, we can start that process and I can have a better understanding, give you some guidance. If they're not willing to do that, then fuck them off, do not even deal with them. You know, you don't need to deal with that. Like you have a process, you have value. You don't want to work with people who are just asking you about price or people who try and negotiate with you saying, well I'll tell you what, we'll do it this way. It's like no. You've got the power to say no. And saying no is very important. If you value yourself, don't be pressurized by anyone to do anything. You don't want to do.

So. You know, my philosophy is always to serve and deliver way more value than expected and in turn, my business will grow. So I just want to ask you a favor. You know.

I get a lot of feedback from people saying they love the podcast and the support that it gives them and the value they get. So if you can think of two people you could mention this podcast to and say, hey, you check out this podcast. Someone who runs a video business who's looking to grow, I would be so appreciative. I really would be so grateful because this podcast has grown from, you know, five and a half thousand downloads last year to over 30,000 downloads this year. It's a 600% increase in listenership and it only happens organically. We don't do any advertising.

And, you know, if you get a chance to go on to your platform of choice and leave us a review, that would be super helpful. I'd be so grateful. I'd love more reviews. You know, it's not something we really ask a lot for and we probably should ask a bit more because I think we give a lot of value on the show. And if you've been listening for a while and you haven't left us a review, a five star review and a few kind words would be really grateful to help us kind of write bank a bit better. And, you know, I want to scale this show up to help reach more people. The way we do that is through literally reaching out and, and asking, you know, people to, to, to listen. So I just want to kind of share the Mexican fisherman story that Clint shared with me. And there's a few versions of this, but I just love this story and it's absolutely, it's absolutely true what it represents. So an American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. And the American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied, oh, only a little while. The American then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch fish. The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? And the Mexican fisherman replied, he said, well, I sleep late, I fish a little, I play with my children, I take siestas with my wife Maria. I stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a fool and busy Life. And the Americans scoffed, I'm a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. And with the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually you could have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of just selling your catch to middlemen, you would sell directly to the processors, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, the processing and. And the distribution. And you'd have to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City and then LA and eventually New York City, where you'll run your expanding enterprise. And the Mexican fisherman asked, but how long will this all take? To which the American replied, oh, probably 15 to 20 years. But what then? Asked the Mexican fisherman. The American laughed and said, that's the best part. When the time is right, you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very, very rich. You would make millions. Then what? Asked the fisherman. The American said, then you would retire, move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll down to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos. And that is the moral of the story of the Mexican fisherman. So think about this. Are you already the Mexican fisherman, or do you need to grow a little bit? Or do you want to grow a lot? Or is there somewhere in between? Because if you're genuinely content with what you're doing, then keep doing it. But if you want a little bit more, there is a process that we can help you implement to help you get to that point where you've got consistency, predictability, and you've got a business that helps you to achieve everything you could possibly want.

And that is really where structure and discipline come in. So you want to be focused on the right activities and not the wrong activities. Because while the Mexican fisherman story is a lovely romantic story, if you are genuinely living somewhere where you've got enough to look after your family, then great. Not every video business wants to be huge. In fact, I would argue that very few video businesses want to become corporations. We earn video businesses because we love video. But there is a middle ground between the Mexican fishermen and the corporation, which is, you know, how would your business look if you could generate 2 to 500,000 a year and take 30 or 40% of that for yourself? You know, how would your life look if you had excess cash coming into your business each month? Would that allow you to live in a Nicer house? Would it allow you to put your kids through school? Would it allow you to have spare cash? Would it allow you to take your family on holiday? So, you know, there's a balance between all of this. The Mexican fisherman parable I love it. But we have to be realistic as well, which is, if you're 62 and you've got your mortgage paid off, fine. If you're Clint, that's great, good on you. But there's a lot of businesses who are 30, 40, mid-30s, mid-40s who are realizing that things haven't quite worked out. And to get to the Mexican fisherman's sort of, you know, status, you need to earn some more money. So the key is to make sure you're working with the right clients in the right way.

And that, done correctly, can generate all the income you want without killing yourself. And it's just a process. It's a process. You know, there's something called neuroplasticity, which is how you can rewire the brain with meditation, exercise, diet and routine habits and setting daily rhythms around what time you go to bed, what time you wake up. It all assists with reprogramming the brain. And so the same is true of daily and weekly processes and running your business. You know, the mind has way more power than we realize.

And Winston Churchill, who was outspoken on the sacred rights of smoking cigars and drinking alcohol before and after and during meals and the intervals in between. But he was also exceptionally active mentally. And as historians have noted, Churchill went on to live until 90. And that speaks volumes about the information that's now coming out to light about how the brain can affect the body. Now, a few people would be willing to follow Churchill's example, and I'm certainly not advocating that of taking such poor care of the physical health. But as life expectancy continues to rise, people are doing more and more to ensure their lives if long are going to be healthy.

And until recently, there seemed to be no guidelines for efforts around mental health. There were no brain exercise, no mental push ups that you could do to stave off the loss of memory and analytic acuity that comes as you grow older. In the worst case scenario, you could end up with Alzheimer's, for which there are no proven treatments. But there is no reason why our brain at 60 can't be as competent as it was at 25. And you know, that would have not been news to thinkers such as Socrates, Copernicus and Galileo, who were all still at the peak of their intellectual power in their 60s and 70s. Nor would it surprise business leaders such as Warren Buffett and Richard Branson. These icons and others like them.

Have intuitively understood that the brain's alertness is the result of what we call cognitive fitness and that state of optimized ability to reason, remember, learn, plan, and adapt that's enhanced by certain attitudes, lifestyle choices, and exercises. So the more fit you are mentally, the better you are to make decisions and solve problems and deal with stress and change. So cognitive fitness will allow you to be more open to new ideas and alternate perspectives, and it will give you the capacity to change your behaviors and forecast their outcomes in order to realize your goals so you can become the kind of person who your company values the most. Maybe more importantly, it can help you enjoy your work in whatever capacity that is. And so it's important that you're aware of this. You know, I'll just finish with talking about the idea of gone walkabout. You know, going Walkabout is an Australian rite of passage in which Aboriginal adolescents undertake a prolonged and challenging physical journey, sometimes for several months, in search of psychological and spiritual self definition and maturity. And the timing is just right, since it's during adolescence that the brain establishes and integrates the neural networks in the prefrontal core flex, prefrontal cortex that encodes a sense of self identity as well as moral and social conduct. And this process culminates in late adolescence, when the brain's neurons are fully myelinated. It's been coated with insulation and interconnected networks that help the brain function in an efficient, organized manner. So the walkabout isn't just, of course, the rite of passage ritual. It's quite remarkable how many similar rituals occur in different cultures at precisely the same stage in people's lives. There's a generally accepted understanding that adolescents need such peak experiences to consolidate their personal histories and take their physical development to a new, viable and more advanced identity. So the sort of journey, more broadly speaking, can also have a strong influence in any career, particularly if the timing is right. Warren Buffett is a leader who realizes this. When Anne Mulcahy, the CEO of Xerox, sought his advice about how to help the company emerge from a fairly major financial crisis that was rapidly pushing them towards bankruptcy, he urged her to engage in a walkabout. I did a trip last year, two years ago, where I did sort of a month on the road and just drove from Sydney to Melbourne, back up to Brisbane and back again on my own, just to have some space and time.

So, you know, his advice was that she should learn what Xerox employees and customers were thinking and worry less about what financial analysts and shareholders were saying. And it made excellent sense from a neurological standpoint for Malaqi to acquire at the beginning of her tenure as CEO a deeper understanding of the people who'd be following her. Because the neural networks that would enable our decision making as a leader wouldn't be fully formed. And if you'd stayed isolated in a corner office, those neural networks would have certainly ended up looking different than they do today. So how can you apply these principles in your small video production business before you put your hiking boots on and start heading for the hills? There's a simpler solution. What about if being ultra clear about where you want to get to in your business and spending time creating a set of tangible and measurable targets that could be laid out and acted on every week, what if that could help you? Because that is the process of strategic planning, and we've talked about that often in this podcast. But we're out of time for today, guys, so I will talk to you again 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, it's hit a ceiling and we benefit from mentorship, support and coaching. Then check out how you can work with me over@denleny.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.