Turning your video business from a Rollercoaster into a travelator. EP #125 - Shorty

G', day, guys. Den Lenny here, host of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast here on Tuesday, October 20th for your Shorty.

Today, I want to talk about the reality of running a successful business.

I think all too often as creators, we're always looking for the shiny and the new. And that is actually what gets in the way of us building our business sustainably and often is the biggest hurd we have as creatives building a business. And that's for one very significant reason.

And that reason is this.

As creatives, we're always looking to create. And so what can often happen is we'll never do the same thing twice the same way. We're always looking for a new way to do something because we've done that way before, which is a part of the creative process. Okay, you're always looking for a new way to get a result.

But what I've Learned in my 11 years of running my own business, and prior to that was in business development for a big sales company and a rental company, is that the key to a successful business is actually in consistency. And by consistency, I mean, you know, what most people are kind of tired of and what most people struggle with is that feast and famine, that roller coaster. I speak to so many filmmakers, they're like, yeah, I'd just like to break out of the roller coaster. And the trouble with that is that until you start to change the way you operate your life and business, that is not going from one extreme to another, it's going to be very difficult.

Because what business actually needs is consistency. You want your business to be like a travelator, that you can build slowly and gradually and scale up as you need. And I think that many creators find that very difficult, myself included. I still have to work hard at it. But what I wanted to share with you today is that if you're not willing to put the work in, then you have to be willing to accept that the roller coaster will always be there. And I was sharing this with my clients this morning. We were talking about a sales process.

And the fact that a sales process needs to be consistent. It needs to be the same bullet points and phrases every time so you can start to build a pattern and a consistency so you can do it without thinking. But really I wanted to kind of focus on that theme of. Of a travelator.

What starts off with your business is it's kind of very hit and miss. It's like you're either all out working on location or you're editing and then you're sitting waiting for the phone to ring. And that's that. Feast and famine, it's all or nothing. And the way to combat that is to start to be consistent. And by consistent, I mean building consistent habits, doing the same things on the same day each week, building a default diary.

Which, you know, I've talked about a lot. But more importantly is building in the discipline that that means you don't miss certain things that you do each week. You build a kind of level of.

A level of discipline that says, no matter what I'm going to post on a Wednesday on LinkedIn or no matter what, I'm going to follow up with clients every day between 9 and 10. And the main reason most video businesses fail to get off the bandwagon of rollercoaster, feast and famine is because they're not willing to do the work to build the discipline. And that is hard. It takes a lot of effort and energy to change the way your behavior is by default. And I see it even in my group. I see people who show up every week who are consistent, who are logging into the platform all the time, who are implementing, who are asking questions, versus those who start to develop bad habits of missing the odd call and then not logging into the platform and then telling themselves they don't have time because they're always.

And too much work is just as bad as not enough. Because it's so easy to drop the ball if you don't have the discipline to follow systems and procedures. And what typically happens is that a business owner in the creative space, a video business owner, starts to hold everything in their head. So everything's in their head and they're running around dealing with everything and not communicating very well. And so they get burnt out because they're just not letting go of control. So in order to build a business sustainably, you must step back and evaluate what your business needs and look at systems you can put in place to build your business more consistently. And those are systems around marketing, systems around sales, systems around production and delivery, systems around finances and.

Invoicing, and systems around follow up. And those all need to be in place. Now, fortunately for our members of the Video Business Accelerator, we have that pretty much mapped out. In fact, we're virtually at the stage now where almost every step of the business is already mapped out and systemized. And when our members join our program, not only do they get weekly coaching from me and other members, but they actually get a blueprint of how to build and scale a video production business. And that includes everything from, you know, We've got a 13 step client avatar process which is identifying who you want to do business with and getting very clear on that. And from there you know, identifying where they are, what motivates them to buy, how to build a marketing strategy. We've got a six part marketing strategy, training everything from, you know, what is your marketing equation to who are you targeting, what is your message. We have an offer conversion training where we look at what is the most effective offer to have on your website to convert people into clients. And that's all mapped out. We even have an entire system built with different tools that will put a survey on your website. So when clients go to book a course, it takes them through a survey process and that filters through clients to make sure you've only got good quality leads who have been pre qualified by filling out a survey as to what budget they have and what kind of project they're looking for. So it saves your time, makes you more efficient. And then we have the sales strip, the sales script, which is a seven step sales framework including exactly what to say at each stage. So it's a very powerful process. Then we go into kind of onboarding and how do you onboard a client and how do you set out those criteria for how you do business and the contracts and the agreements and making sure that is all systemized so that you can build a process even if it's just you at the minute, who can run PI by your own system and be efficient and effective and with that you can measure. But the most important thing about building this system is that you don't have to think, you simply follow the instructions. It's like paint by numbers. And that's why I refer back to the idea of a business being like a travelator. It's like you want it to move along consistently.

At a consistent speed that you can handle so that you can always bring in new work, you can always fulfill jobs. If you want to take some time off, you can. I come across a lot of people who just get completely overwhelmed when they get busy. And then when they're not busy, they're either sick or they're exhausted and worrying about the next project. And one of the big issues with the feast and famine mindset, which is very common amongst freelancers, is that when money comes in, you feel rich, so you spend it. And when money's not in, you're panicking about paying your tax. And it's a vicious cycle, it really is. And it's been a journey that I've been on in the last 11 years. And what I've recognized is that the secret is inconsistency. The secret is in being monotonous with some of your processes. And that might seem like, oh, not much fun. But what I can tell you is structure and discipline sets you free. It absolutely sets you free. I work to default diary certain things on certain days. I'm very disciplined about that. And so I know I've got certain periods of the week where I won't take anything, but I'll have time to myself to be thinking or developing a process or a concept or developing some training or working with my clients. And that is the secret to success. So if you are listening to this or you've been listening for a while and this makes sense, this resonates with you. And you'd like to have a chat about how we might be able to work together, how I might be able to help you accelerate that process, then please do reach out on LinkedIn and drop me an alignment and we can have a chat and just see if there's a few ideas I can give you for your business. And if, in fact, it may be a good time for you to think about, you know, getting some more specific coaching. And we've got a fantastic group and we've got a few spaces opening up in the next month or two. And I keep the group very small. It's very intimate. So if it's something that you've been thinking about for a while, then why not book a call and have a chat and let's see if there's something I can do to help you in the meantime. Guys, I will see you at the next episode on Thursday.

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. And then please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. See you next week.