The secret to becoming more effective. EP #162 - Den Lennie

G', day, guys. Dan Lanney here, your host of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast here with episode number 162.

Today we're going to be talking about how to become more effective.

So if you are someone who struggles to achieve effective outcomes in your work, perhaps you're busy all the time, but you're not getting the results you want, this will really, really help you.

We're going to be looking at what does that look like to be more effective and how can you use some tools to become more effective.

A lot of people can be very busy doing stuff. I think as creators we are often very good at being busy. But busy doesn't necessarily mean effective. We can be busy doing a lot of things that aren't necessarily helping us to achieve the outcomes we want. And of course, you have to be very clear on what those outcomes are.

So today I'm going to talk about a topic we've talked about before, which is the theory of highest and best use. Oftentimes what can happen is we can be very, very busy, especially when productions are happening. It doesn't necessarily mean we're being most effective. You know, if you're still shooting and editing everything that is not being effective, just because you can doesn't mean you should. So you need to be really clear that any work you are doing as the kind of owner of the company is either revenue generating or something that can be outsourced to somebody else to allow you time to be more effective on the parts of the business which are revenue generating. Now, a classic one is.

People that do all the editing themselves. It's very labor intensive and it's actually one of the easiest things to outsource because there are just dozens and dozens of editors kicking around looking for work onshore, offshore, you name it. So, you know, there's probably a lot of stuff you're doing, which I would regard to be low level tasks, you know, and so you want to make better decisions about how you manage those tasks. Now, the highest and best use concept is really about identifying which of your clients and which of your activities you're taking part in are actually generating you the highest return in terms of leverage of your time. You know, a lot of times people ask me how to get more clients, but it's actually much, much easier to sell more to existing clients than it is to find new ones, you know, new clients who you don't know, who don't know you, who don't yet trust you. So the question I've got for you, when was the last time you contacted your old clients or lapsed clients, you know, clients said perhaps we didn't become customers, maybe prospects you quoted for but they didn't convert, or perhaps even.

Someone that you used to work with and have done it for a while now. I recommend doing this by phone, but if you really must do an email, then I would send something like this. Now, the subject line should say, I've got something for you.

Okay, you keep that.

Nice intrigue there in the opener to get it opened. And so you could say something like, hey. Dear Bob, I was just going through my notes and realized I hadn't spoken to you in a while since we lasted that project back in February or January or last year. How is the video going? What has response been like? I'd love to catch up and learn more about it. And we've just been working on some cool things in our business and we're now focusing on a new business area and as a result are refining our offering and what that means for clients like you. And so what I'm keen to do is have a chat to you to get some input from you. I'd love to catch up with you for a coffee sometime if you're not in lockdown so we can find out more about how things are going for you. Let me know when it's a good time and I'll set up a date and location of your choice. Thanks very much. And your name. Now it's a nice casual email just to kind of break the ice again after perhaps a period of not talking to them. And that happens in business. Now it's a nice casual email, but I would follow up with a phone call as well to just say, hey, emailed you a couple of days ago, just wanted to touch base and actually create a sheet in Google Docs.

And then actually start tracking this. So track the month that you're in, the client that you're following up with, maybe what they last spent, what project was, and then when you followed up and was it an email or a phone call and what was the outcome and then follow up again. And we actually have this sheet as part of our business matrix in the in the Video Business accelerator. But you can create your own sheet if you want to do that. And the key is to track because most people don't follow up with clients and if they do, they only follow up once via email. The attitude tends to be, oh look, they know, they were really happy with the work. They know where I am, they'll call me if they need Me. But that's actually a really lazy way to keep your business going because people forget when you're out of sight, you're out of mind. And in some cases it can take 5 to 10 contacts with someone to get them over the line. So you know, you want to be careful not to be kind of missing out on opportunities. And so you want to track who you're speaking to, when you're speaking to them, what the response is. So let's take an example. This is a kind of a completely raw example, but let's say we've got a fictitious client, ABC Boating, and the last time that ABC Boating spent Money, they spent $4,000 on a promo project. And it was, it was a six day project.

And then that was in January. And then you followed up first on the 3rd of March with a phone call just to check in. And at the time maybe the client's been busy and couldn't make your call. But you don't stop there. You then follow up again with an email the same day saying, hey, sorry I couldn't catch you on the phone, I was just touching base and follow the template I just mentioned before.

And depending on the feedback you get, maybe it's like they sent an email back saying, yeah, thanks, great to hear from you, yeah, really busy just now.

And in that email you can say, look, if I don't get a hold of you next time, I'll drop you a line in another couple of weeks and then you follow up again in two or three weeks time. This time it's a phone call to say, hey, I know we've been trying to catch each other, we'd love to catch up and see how things are going. So just really simple examples of trying to get someone into a meeting, be it a coffee or a zoom meeting. It's just a really simple example of following up in a systemized way to your existing clients because you know that that is going to be something that most people aren't willing to do. In fact, you know, it sometimes takes eight to 12 contacts with someone, even if they're an existing client, to get them on the phone. But when you do finally get them on the phone, most people have given up after the first contact. So you can simply say, look, they'll be like, oh, you've been trying to get a hold of me. Thanks so much. They'll feel like you really care.

But when you contact lapsed clients, there are a couple of things that can happen. You know, first of all, you catch up for a chit Chat and they say, hey, actually, look, we've got a project coming up in July or August at some point in the future. So, you know, you'll get some visibility of what might happen in the future. And then the second thing that happens is the chances are they know other people in the space that you're working in. And you could say, hey, we're trying to expand our network. And, you know, I think you had a good experience with us last time. Would you have anyone in your network.

Who might benefit from our services, who you might be able to put us in touch with? We'd really appreciate an introduction if you'd be up for that. We want to work with cool people like you, and we tend to find that introductions and referrals tend to be the best business. And it works for everyone because if you've had a good experience with us, they'll get the benefit of that, make you look good. You know, you don't have to offer the money, you don't have to offer them gifts. If they've had a great experience with you, then it's great business practice just to recommend good people to good people. It's a really cool way of testing your relationship and also getting connected with existing clients and getting them to refer you other business. And you know that that's really key. So certainly, you know, when you are following up with a client.

You know, absolutely, ask questions. It's huge. You don't need to push too hard. Just ask questions about how everything's going, how you can support them, what challenges they're facing in their business, what other aspects of their business are causing them, you know, interesting challenges, what kind of things are they thinking about doing? Any new projects? Is there anything they'd like some help with? Kind of just on a kind of consulting, creative basis. You just throw some ideas around.

But never check in. This is really important advice. Never just check in and say, hey, just wondering if you've got any work for us, you know, because I've had that kind of thing happen. You've got to be cool. You got to check in and say something like, hey, I just wanted to touch base. We've been working on some really interesting stuff. Love to share it with you. I'd also love to find out what you guys have been up to and see if there's anything we can help you with or support you with.

And oftentimes the biggest hurdle I see filmmakers facing is just the lack of confidence to just call clients up, existing clients, and say, how are you doing? You know, My client Caleb from Hebron Films, he did this right at the beginning of first lockdown back in March last year. And he was like really anxious about it. But I gave him a script and I gave him an approach and he called up clients and those clients have now come back again and again and again because he called them at a time when people were kind of hiding, you know, people were sort of thinking, oh, I don't know what to do, we'll just sit here and wait till this all blows over. And of course it hasn't blown over. Really didn't blow over quickly. And so reaching out to clients and asking them how are they doing? You know, just be human. And so, you know what I'd love you to do is make a list of all the clients you haven't spoken to in the last three or six months. And rather than wait for them to call you, I'd like you to get in touch with them. And if you do that and you get a good result, can you just tell me, email me denleny.com let me know how you get on. And here's some other ideas of how you can do this in quite a cool way. You could write a letter, simply write an actual letter. You could type it up, but hand write the person's name and handwrite the address on the envelope, put a real stamp on it and sign it personally. And you can just write a letter saying, hey, I just wanted to check in, I thought I'd send you a letter because no one really does it anymore. And I was just thinking the other day, we hadn't spoken in a while and we haven't worked together for a while. So I thought I'd try and get your attention with a good old fashioned snail mail letter. And maybe you maybe send a biscuit or a piece of chocolate or something funny in the mail, you know, send it in a padded envelope. Send them something chunky, you know, if you know you like chocolate biscuits, buy them a packet of chocolate biscuits and just say, hey, I thought I'd send you a pack of chocolate biscuits. I'd love to take you for coffee sometime. You know, be imaginative. We are, after all, creatives. We work in a creative industry, so be creative in how you contact people and you'd be surprised at the impact that that can have on your clients. You know, we live in a very digital world, so anything you do that's non digital will have a really dramatic impact because nobody else is doing it. You know, until last year I was still sending out a printed newsletter. 12 page printed newsletter. Now, I could have designed it and sent it digitally, but there's nothing like getting an A4 envelope through the door. And for a long time, four and a half years, I sent that printed newsletter out and my printer even said to me, you know, Dan, if we folded the newsletter over into an A5 envelope, we could probably half the cost of shipping. But the fact is, how many items of mail do you get to the post, which are a 4 in size? Well, not many. Not many at all.

So when you get an A4 piece of mail, it's like, it's unusual, it has impact. And so when you open it up, you're much more likely to read it because it's something physical that you can touch. And you know, you can have a heavy quality paper that you could put in a folder or you could have it on your shelf. You've done a reference library. And not many people do this. So I did that for a reason. It was to keep the attention of my customers. I was front and center because each month this A4 envelope would arrive on, on the, the, on the mat. And the only reason I stopped doing it was because we took the business in a different direction. We did almost five years of the printed newsletter, and we kind of felt we got to a point we wanted to take things in a different direction. Now we focus just on the video business, Excel, that's our main business, because you've heard me mention a number of times the importance of solidifying your offer and just doing one thing. And so we had to take kind of, you know, eat our own cheesecake.

And you know, you want to be keeping the attention of your customers and you want to be front and center. So you can just call them, like get on the phone, touch base with them, ask them how they're doing. That is how I won 80% of my work when I was in production, by just staying in touch with people, getting on the phone and saying, hey, haven't called you for a while. Do you fancy getting together for lunch or a coffee? And during that conversation, you can find out what's going on, you can ask questions. You learn more about the pipeline of what's in their world. You'll be able to start pre planning your year. If you know a festival's happening in October, then you know, you don't need to worry about for October. You got a gap in August and September, and you know January is going to be quiet. So you always want to be on the lookout to find out as much as you can from clients about what's going on. It really will have a dramatic impact in how much work you get. And you'll start to see a big shift in your profits if you just reach out and say hi to people. It is. It is the most underutilized aspect of business. You know, business is all relationships. I was able to create incredible relationships with Sony, with Vitek, with Zeiss over a number of years. I didn't first meet these people and sort of say, hey, you know, you know, I can make this big film for you, but, you know, as Zeiss, I was introduced to Michael Sheilan, the sales director of Zeiss, back in about 2012 at a trade show. Someone introduced me and said, you should meet this guy. And we met and we became friendly. And then we started chatting. And then I was just heading off, I think, at that time to the revenge of the great camera shootout in Chicago with Mick Jones and the guys from Zacuto and Kessler. And we connected and got chatting and over a period of months started working out if there might be something we could do together. And that relationship evolved into me becoming an ambassador for them for three years, I think it was. And then I just stopped doing shoot. I stopped shooting. So I sort of bailed out of that program because I wasn't actually in the space anymore. But, you know, we ended up doing a fairly sizable corporate for them to help promote their cine zooms. And, you know, Sony's another one who, after years of just helping people out, you know, I'll never forget the. I remember when Dan joined Sony, he didn't really know much about tech. He'd come from a different industry. And one of the very first meetings, I was introduced to him, and we just spent some time talking about gear and where things fit into the ecosystem. And Dan ended up becoming the manager for marketing in Europe and had budgets of millions of dollars to spend in the end. And I did a lot of work with him because I helped him out right at the beginning. And I think when you. Your intent counts a lot more than technique here. If you just genuinely want to help people, then people will feel it.

Some of those people will become customers, and some of them won't. There are people listening to this podcast. You will never spend a cent with me. And they're getting huge value from listening to this show, and I'm completely fine with that. You know, if you're getting value from this and you're implementing it and you're getting results, fantastic. I know enough people will want some help, and that will keep my business, you know, in the shape I want it to be in. But I really want to encourage you to just actively go out and contact people and actually.

Get really clear and form relationships. I think about the very first relationship I formed, the most important relationship, was a great mentor of mine called Jim Gilbreath, who's still a friend 30 years on. And Jim and Snacks Ian Carry, the Soundman were two guys on a crew in Edinburgh who took me under the wing when I was 16. And I was very lucky and I knew what I wanted to do. So my purpose in life was to become a cameraman. And I got to meet these guys early in my career and they helped me out. And we're still friends today. And if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be where I am today. It's as simple as that. And so I think getting very clear on relationships and being genuine, being someone who wants to actually help people, and this is where your purpose in your business becomes so clear. You've got to be doing something that you would actually do for free. That just fills your cup. And I think for filmmakers, we are kind of people that do love what we do, we kind of would do it for free. It's just that, you know, obviously that's not how life works. And so getting clear on the importance of relationships, like, if you can form amazing relationships and deliver huge value to your audience on a regular basis, you will find yourself.

With more work than you know what to do with. You will never. You will never be hungry. But I can't emphasize enough how important it is for that intent to be right. If you, if there's even a sniff of you looking around for work, it will. It will fall flat on its face. You have to go into these situations with a genuine feeling of, hey, is there anything I can do to help you, to support you there? Any projects you want, a bit of insight to, someone to bounce ideas off? We're here to help. That can be a very, very powerful method of generating business because if you, if you deliver value, the business will come. I promise you. This is exactly how it works. If you, if you are very clear on who you help, what you do, how you do it, and you genuinely want to help people, the business will come. I can't say it any simpler than that. You know, I've been very fortunate. I've filmed all over the world. I've worked with some incredible people. And in my freelance career, it was all relationships. But it's the same in business nowadays. I form relationships with prospects through the podcast. A lot of people will sit and listen to podcasts for months and sometimes years on end, and then one day just say, you know what? I felt it was time to reach out and have a conversation about, you know, taking the next step in my business. Got as far as I can go. I really want to kind of have a chat and that. And that is. That's what happens. And we'd run ads, of course, and some people just come to us cold and are like, oh, this is exactly what I need. But the fact is, the intent is to help people, and that is what we're all about here. So, guys, that's it for me for this week. I will talk to you again very soon. 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 favorite. Share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.