The ONE Thing All Successful Businesses Have in Common. EP #261 - Den Lennie

Well, g' day guys. It's Dan here and this is episode 261 of the how to Scale Video Business Podcast. Now, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you'll know that we have a couple of business groups, we have a couple of masterminds that we run that are the front end, I guess, of our business. And I'm really excited that this week we are actually in the Gold coast in Australia about to run our first live event in almost three years after the pandemic that obviously shut down live events. And in the past we've run live events for members and they've been sort of one or two day events. This year we turned everything on its head and we're running four in person events this year for our elite Mastermind. So let me tell you about that in just one second.

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, yeah, I'm here in the beautiful Gold coast of Australia. It's about an hour south of Brisbane and it is, it is, as the names would suggest, it's a coast with miles and miles and miles of golden beaches. For those of you in the UK who listen, it's not far from you record I'm a celebrity, get me out of here. And it's like Miami, it's like, you know, it's just miles of golden beaches, high rises, and it's pretty good weather as well. And so we've chosen this location as our first venue for this year's set of Mastermind events. So I just want to talk to you a bit about what a mastermind is to give you a little more context. And so I have been investing in business education for 18 years. I've worked out, I've spent over $227,000 on my own education and might be thinking, why on earth would I do that? And the truth is, because it makes me three or four times that back in return. And that is because the mastermind process takes you out of your day to day operations in your business and puts you in a room for three days with peers. And during those three days, you go deep into working on your business, not in your business. And that's a big distinction because when we're busy doing the thing and as filmmakers, we're always editing, shooting, producing, it can be a bit of a hamster wheel if we don't start taking ourselves out of that environment once a quarter and actually looking at what we're looking to achieve. It's very difficult to maintain focus on the bigger picture. And that bigger picture is, of course, what. What you want success to be for you. And so we are starting off this week in the Gold Coast. We're going to spend three days in the room with mostly our Australian members of our. Of our community. We're running another event in July 6th, 7th and 8th in Edinburgh and Scotland, where mostly our British clients will come. But each event is open to every member in the community. I think at the moment, people are still a little reluctant to travel internationally, but I can see that changing very soon. Then, in September 14, 15, 16, we're going to be holding an event in Los Angeles, California. And I'm hoping that people in the UK and the US and Australia will come to that event because, hey, who doesn't love going to la, right, as filmmakers? And we're going to have a few surprises of some. You know, we've got access to people in LA that we don't get access to anywhere else. And over the years, I've made some good connections with the ASC and other types of people and directors and so hoping to have some kind of really cool insights as a bonus. And then the final event of the year is going to be in Melbourne, Australia in December. Now, these events take a great form. They are immersive. We have great food, great coffee and lots of time to mingle, interact. And the power of a mastermind is in the group that are sitting around the table. We're talking about small groups of people who are working on business problems and business challenges. And you get the benefit not just of my perspective and Sam's perspective from a mindset perspective, but also the members in the room. And what this does is it helps you to overcome your business challenges faster because you can discuss a challenge you're having in your business and someone else has already been there, they've already been there, they've already experienced it, and they can give you one piece of advice that will save you months of work and effort and money trying to figure it out yourself. And I've always found business masterminds to be an incredible investment. And, you know, when you think about how much money you spent on gear, software, computers and training yourself in how to become a better filmmaker, that doesn't always return on your investment. You know, we've all been there, we've bought bits of gear that sit in cupboards. I've got some sliders that I bought from Edelchrome maybe three years ago. Never got them out the box. I mean, I'm not, I'm embarrassed to say it, you know, never got them out the box, never ended up using them, so literally just wasted several hundred dollars. And I think if you're being honest, there is gear sitting in your cupboard which you've never used or barely used, bought for a job and it's just sat there gathering dust. And so my advice is get them on ebay, get rid of them, because it's just a distraction. But more than that is when you start to invest in yourself, the first thing you got to overcome is it's confronting because you're going to have to face up to maybe some shortfalls in how you're running your business. But when you get in a room with other peers, something magical happens. You realize you're not alone. And not only that, we go for destination events because we actually want to take people away from their day to day life. So everyone's going to stay in a really cool high rise hotel on the Gold coast, go for walks along the beach in the morning, drink great coffee, have lunch together, have dinner together, have a few drinks, and for three days immerse yourselves in an environment of supportive peers who only want you to succeed. And we do this in an environment where sharing is just the norm. So I'm super excited to be here this week and we're going to be doing some really deep dives on planning a big picture. We're going to be doing deep dives on how to play a bigger game in your business. And we're also going to do some mindset work on how you can let go of some of the stories from your past that we all carry around that may well be, in fact, I want to say, are holding you back from achieving your own greatness. I've spoken about this before. I grew up in a very loving family, but we didn't have a lot of money. And so I have a really high value around certainty and making money. And making money because I'm doing something that I love and providing value to other people which allows me to live the lifestyle I want. And for many, many years I kind of felt like the kind of poor artist. I was like, oh, I don't want to seem like I'm making any money because then I'll be like everybody else. And one of the great things I'm most proud of inside The VBA is that making a great living from making films is a high priority for everyone in our community. And I mean, we have got some phenomenal businesses in our community making not just hundreds of thousand, thousands, but in some cases millions a year from video production. And sometimes that seems like it's unbelievable. It's too good to be true. It doesn't seem possible, but I've watched businesses go from three or four hundred thousand to over a million in the space of two years. And that's because they work really hard, because none of this comes easy. But we have got a proven process that helps people systemize their business, helps them get into the right headspace and helps them to do the steps in the right order whilst having a degree of accountability to their peers. And that's why these masterminds are so powerful. They are a lot of fun. They can be exhausting because you are really exposing yourself to the scrutiny of your peers, but in a way that is supportive, in a way that is helpful, in a way that lifts you up and gets you focusing on the right things. And so the guys are going to leave next week with a very, very clear plan how to execute their business goals for this year. I'm super pumped about this. Can't wait to share more with you. And while I'm on here, if you've not yet gone over to my YouTube channel, we've been starting to make YouTube videos every week since January and we post a video every week, usually goes out on a Thursday morning here in Australia, which is a kind of Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday evening in I think the UK and in the us it's kind of a Wednesday afternoon. So I'd love you to check out the YouTube channel. Just, just Google Dan Lenny on YouTube and you'll come up with a channel. I've been sharing stuff on there about some of my journey in filmmaking. I've been sharing stories about, you know, how we work with Robbie Williams and Duran Duran. I've been sharing the power of collaboration and I've also been sharing some insights into how I live my life now and how I got here and how we use vision boards and get, you know, and clarity and planning to, to, to achieve success. So I share warts and all, everything on that channel and I'd love you to go over and help us and subscribe and hit the bell and, and you'll tell me what you think. There's an opportunity for us to have a conversation there which we can't have on the podcast. And podcast is still continuing, obviously. But look, guys, I'm just super excited. You can hear my voice. I'm so excited to be here on the Gold coast, getting in a room with people that I love doing business with. And this is the thing I want to leave you with. I genuinely love working with all my clients. You know, we are particular about who we let into the group, but it is a true family. It's a true community. Some of our members this week are celebrating three years in this program, and that is really, really, I think, an indicator of the success of the community and environment. So, you know, we have two masterminds. One is based for businesses doing about $20,000 a month and more. And if you're under that level, we have a second mastermind called Up Level which covers a lot of the same content, but we have a conversation at a different stage in the business journey and that community is growing as well. Welcome some this week. I'm really excited for the year ahead. If this is the year you want to really take your business to the next level, then please go over to the website, watch the training videos, jump on a call with us, and let's see if we can help you make this the year that counts. I will see you soon.

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.

Sam.