Video Production Business Manifesto with Ryan Spanger (Part 1)

G', day, folks. Dan here with another episode of the Video Business Accelerator Podcast. This week I have one of my clients on. Actually, I thought we'd get some of my clients on to share some of their journey. And this week we have Ryan Spanger, who owns a video production company called Dream Engine in Melbourne and Victoria. Now, what I thought was interesting about this is that Ryan's actually written a manifesto. And it's a manifesto. It's really a collection of thoughts that he's curated, dreamed up, or borrowed to remind himself how to stay on track in this journey of building a video production company. Now, Ryan's been working in this video production industry for 20 years. He has an immense experience. He's experienced all the highs and lows of running a business. And this is a two part interview where we're going to break down 10 of his manifesto points this week and 10 next week. And these are absolutely fascinating. So I encourage you to get yourself a coffee, take some notes. This is a terrific episode. I'm so excited we got to speak to Ryan. So enjoy the show.

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 Lenn, discover how the accelerator program is transforming the lives of our members at www.videobusinessaccelerator.com. enjoy this episode.

G', day, Ryan.

Hey, Dan, how's it going? Good to be here.

Awesome. Well, Ryan, it's so lovely to be able to do this episode with you because I'm fortunate enough we get to work with you a lot in the accelerator program. But what was really interesting was this blog post that you created called 20 Lessons from 20 Years in Video Production, A Manifesto. So I wanted to kind of ask you about that today. And I will probably do this over two episodes because I know there's 20 points and I'm certain we'll get into some conversation.

So first of all, what is the manifesto and how did it come about?

Well, I write a lot. Like, I have thoughts and ideas. Sometimes it might just be lists. I've used a lot of programs like, you know, Evernote or Ways of filing ideas and that sort of thing. And I've ended up always just coming back to just the Yellow Notes app on my iPhone. And because I create a lot of content, I've developed this process of when I get an idea, I don't judge it, I just make sure I note it down. Sometimes it might be a list for a blog post, it might be a recipe, it might Be like a list of films or a mixtape or something like that. So I'm often just capturing content as it comes. And just this idea that kind of kept coming to me was summing up ideas that I've thought of or learned over the years. And a lot of it was really just to remind myself, these are the things that, you know, these are some of the tough lessons, these are some of the good lessons, but these are the things that you should bear in mind as you continue to grow your business. And if this is interesting and helpful to other people as well, then great. So I really, I wrote it in a session that it just flowed over a couple of hours. And you know my blog.

Awesome. Well, let's just start with the first one. Now what I want to do here, folks, is I'm going to read out the headline for each section of the manifesto and then ask Ryan to kind of explain and expand on it. So, Ryan, your first one is if the story you're telling yourself is no longer working, you can replace it with a new and better story. I love this. Can you explain to listeners and viewers what you mean by that?

What I mean by that is that often in life we come to define ourselves by particular stories that we've either made up or people have written for us and given us. It might be something that your parents told you as you were growing up, or a teacher. It might be a judgment that you have about yourself. And in some ways this can be helpful, but in other ways, it can really hold you back. So, for instance, you know, you might have, not you personally, Dan, but someone may have come up with a story of I'm no good at sales, or I hate sales, or I'm much more creative when I don't plan. And this is just something. This is actually not a truth. It's a belief that you've built for yourself. And over time, you might find that that is actually really holding you back. So it's really important to examine those stories, that ideas that have become embedded as stories and ask yourself, is the story still serving me? If it's no longer serving me and it's no longer helping me in my video production business, how can I retell that story in a new and better way? I think once you can start doing that, once you start realizing that all these ideas that you have about yourself, they're actually not fixed, you can actually rewrite them, then it's incredibly liberating.

And is there a specific example you can draw on from your own experience which sticks out as being.

Instrumental in this kind of mindset shift.

Well, where I got this idea from was actually through endurance cycling, which I got into over the last few years and got into riding some quite long distances and heading up to the high country in Victoria and riding up places like Mount Hotham. And there are these long bike rides that they have called the Peaks rides, which is basically 235 kilometers and about 5,000 meters of climbing, which you know, you do over the course of a day. And you have a lot of time just sitting on a bike by yourself and lots of time to think and lots of time for ideas to come. And particularly when you've been on a bike for hours out there by yourself, different sorts of ideas can come. And that was when this came to me that I started this particular ride and, and I was going really well and I actually started to almost tell myself the story in my head of like, this is a story about a guy who wasn't really sure how he would go, but as it turned out he was feeling really strong and he pushed through and got a really great time. And then as the day wore on, I realized that I'd actually gone out too hard too early. And by the time I got to about the four hour mark, I was like practically done. I was, I was really cooked. And, and then I, you know, started to think to myself, oh, actually this is actually a story about a guy who overestimated his ability, had to pull out of the ride early and didn't, didn't finish the ride. And as, as the day wore on, I sort of, kind of, you know, kept on retelling myself that story and, and then it became, oh, this is a story about a guy who thought he was going to have to withdraw but didn't, dug really deep and found this wellspring of strength that he didn't even realize was there and managed to push through and succeed. And that was just sort of my biggest learning from that day. And it's just something I've carried with me ever since.

It's a great story and of course it's true. Like we know it's the same in business. You can have a perception that your clients, they don't like you anymore, they're going with someone else or they're, they're not spending as much money, which means, you know, any number of different things. And, and those battles we have in our own mind can be extremely destructive. But if you move those, those feelings from your mind to your heart and you start to feel more and trust your Judgment and as you say, dig deep. I think it's David Goggins book, can't hurt me where he says that, you know, most of us work to about 40% of our true capacity. There's like 60% left in the tank beyond the point we think we're done. So I love that story. Now we could probably talk about this for a whole hour. And I'm conscious that we've got many, many other tips. And so I want to move on to number two, which is just says cut loose. Can you, can you bring some clarity on what you mean by cutting loose?

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's one thing to identify something, say in your business that isn't working, but. But the next thing is to take action. Like to actually take massive action. And I think often in business, in entrepreneurship, it can be a little bit of a lonely pursuit, but also it does involve breaking away from the herd and making your own path. And cutting loose is like severing your ties from things that are getting in your way. So sometimes it might be people in your social group who you might have come up with through school, but are kind of no longer as supportive or, you know, maybe they're jealous, or maybe they just can't you sort of relate to anymore or the things that you want to achieve through your business, you know, they don't want anymore. It might just be habits that you have that are holding you back, like spending hours on social media sort of, rather than getting out there and making sales calls. But, you know, whatever it is, what are the things in your life that you can just cut from and enter this new world of entrepreneurship? And there's this great story called burn your ships and it's worth googling just to read. And some people debate about whether this is actually a true story or not, but it's basically the idea that when the Spanish conquistadors traveled overseas and they landed in Mexico and they were sort of cold colonizing the new land, and the.

Troops sort of came off the boat and were very fearful. The idea was that the captain basically burned the ships, so they had no choice other than to continue on their path. There was no exit. There was no possible way of retreat. And it's sort of, I guess, become quite a popular story in entrepreneurship. This idea of really.

Claiming your ground and saying there's no turning back. And sometimes you need to metaphorically, I guess, burn your boat, so there's actually no way of retreating.

It's so true, isn't it? And I think often it's very easy to live in the past. It's very easy to go backwards and go, oh well, it used to be like this. I have a philosophy which is just to always be moving forward. Like I don't spend any time reflecting on yesterday even because it doesn't actually serve us in any way. I just spent the weekend actually archiving and organizing my entire photo library which were on dozens of different drives and different programs. I just moved from Lightroom to capture one, so it was an opportunity to start fresh. And one of the frustrations I had was I had all these great photographs from all these great trips and projects over the years, but they were, they were, they were scattered so I had no order. So I spent the weekend organizing them and it was so great looking back at these photographs but also feeling really excited about where I'm going. And I think this idea of burning your ships, I'm not going to burn the images but they're there, but I'm not going to go back and go, oh, wasn't it great when I did this project or that project? So I absolutely love that. Now with the view of limited time, the. The next manifesto point is one of my absolute all time favorites. It's not about the gear. Over to you.

Yeah, and I mean that's something that I know you talk about quite a bit and it's interesting because you've come from that journey of originally, you know, you were quite gear focused and you know, working with Sony and that sort of thing. And I think originally, like when I started doing this work over 20 years ago now, it actually sort of was about the gear that you didn't need to have to make a significant investment to be able to run a professional production company. Your camera, like a good broadcast camera, was really expensive and you couldn't really do it without a lot of this stuff. And you know, as we all know, this has changed. I'm not telling anyone anything new. But the thing is.

So many of us are still obsessed with gear, you know, still kind of on these forums on Facebook and you know, the funniest one is when I see people discussing about when the new A7S Mark III is coming out and is it going to have 10 bit, 422 internal, you know, and why can't we have 6K and all that kind of stuff. And for most of us, we actually don't need any of that the like for especially corporate production companies. Most of what we're doing is in HD anyway. So all the gear that we need is there already. And it's just, it's really just about your ability to be creative. And you know why? I sometimes see equipment addicts sort of funneling all of their money into new equipment rather than actually using that to either invest back into their business, into their learning, going to events, or using that money for themselves and their family to have a better life.

It's interesting, we were just chatting on a coaching call last week about the fact that, you know, we're in this, we're recording this in September. By the time this goes out, probably more likely November, December, January, February. In virtually every market in video, production slows. It's not necessarily dead, but it slows. And yet every single year I hear horror stories from people going, oh my God, there's no work. There's no work. Oh my God, this is like a nightmare. Can I afford to feed myself yet? This happens every year. And, and, and, and I've been in this position where I've, you know, earned money as a production company and spent it and then got into that quiet time of year looking at the 50 grands worth of gear sitting in the corner going, shit, if I hadn't, I wish I hadn't bought that $10,000 tripod. When an actual fact when, when you, you know, it's like they say, we make hay when the sun shines. If you're making money now, start putting some into a war chest. We keep the nautical theme going, keep putting it in the war chest. So you know that when it comes to December, January, February, you can have some time off. You can start planning strategically for the next year and actually just put some money into a reserve fund.

Oh, absolutely, yeah. And just sort of. Yeah, I suppose just ask yourself, do I really need that piece of equipment? And it may be that you do because I mean like, I love great camera equipment as well. And there is also something that can be quite inspiring about using really good equipment. But I think, say with a camera, for instance, it's great to use that piece of equipment until you've got everything out of it, until it's actually limiting your ability to go where you need to go where. Like say if you don't have a 4K camera and clients are demanding that. But beyond that, there's really no need to often kind of go there.

It's funny, I was, I came across a lot of images last night and anyone who's watching the video behind me on my shelf is my A7s, which was what we used. It wasn't the exact camera, but we used that to shoot the first launch film in Japan. And at that time it did not record 4k internally. So we had to get a generator and power it, power a blackmagic Design Ultra studio recorder thing on set, on location to get 4k out of that camera. And I'm, I'm still very proud of that film that we shot in Japan. But we had a team of 20 full crew generators or thing to record. And I look at that film and I go, that camera still produces outrageously wonderful images. I haven't gone to the A7s mark II and I probably won't go to the A7s mark III because I simply don't need to because that camera that's behind me has paid for itself about 30 times over. So every time that goes out, not that I do production anymore, but every time I use it, it's costing me nothing. I think that's the thing.

If you're running a business, then you want to make a business case for any purchase of equipment and then make sure that that equipment is actually returning you on every project. If you're going to buy an FS7 kit, one of our colleagues, Tim in the accelerator, has a paid for FS7 kit and he's like, maybe I'll buy another one. Because that now generates 600 bucks a day of revenue for him every time it goes out. And that's where the smart money is in business. So I think the gear question is absolutely right. It's don't buy gear for gear's sake. Have a business case for it.

Yeah, and I think we all know this. It's really just about actually holding yourself to it and reminding yourself why.

Yeah, exactly. Now, next one we've got here is the journey towards mastery. And this is one that I'm very interested to learn more about from you because I love the examples you've given here. So can you explain what you mean by the journey towards mastery?

Yeah, well, like when I first started doing this work.

I don't know how I managed to kind of think of this, but it was actually a really good idea. Like I said, let's give this five years, we'll see how we go. And because it's going to take time to create the business, to develop clients, to learn what you're doing, and then let's sort of reassess after five years. And I actually, I got to that five year level and I was like, okay, I think I can make this work. But I had that long term view in mind and I don't know if it's always been like this, or maybe it's just the age that we live in now, but everyone wants that quick fix and, and especially through something like Facebook, just the sort of the marketing that I see. So there's self styled gurus popping up everywhere who have got these sort of magic potions that are going to get you from zero to a million dollars in no time at all. And they're just promising these quick fixes through one particular idea. So you've got one person who's saying, I've got a formula that you can get retainer clients and that's gonna solve all your problems, or someone else is saying.

You need to take charge of your distribution. So I'll teach you how to do Facebook advertising. And then once you do that, and they sort of dangle the carrot and use a lot of Internet marketing language and there may well be value to that. But the thing is, I feel like with just about everything in life, unless you are gifted with this remarkable natural talent, that it's gonna take you years to sl, but surely develop a level of mastery. And people write about this stuff. There's the 10,000 hours that people talk about. And I suppose in my case it's just sort of reminding myself the success is going to come long term. And this is something that we talk about in the accelerator and something that you remind the group of that. What are the words that you say where it's just about that slow and steady work. You say, business is a series of, remind me of that. The quote.

Series of sprints.

A series of sprints and often a series of like, not necessarily glamorous things, but through sticking to those basic, you know, sometimes monotonous things regularly and improving 1%. 1%, 1%. The benefits come over time.

Yeah, it's certainly not the sexy end of marketing. You know, hey, join this program and you'll work really hard for the next year and you'll make incremental changes to your business and you'll be, and you'll be consistently successful. It's not as sexy as, hey, buy my program and you'll be making 10 grand a month within, within 90 days. Because that's unlikely to be something that can happen in a common, in a common way. Amongst most people that apply.

Business is a series of, of sprints over a marathon journey. And one of my mentors, Ben Simkin, says, you know, think of business in terms of decades, not months and years. And I liken that to the fact that often what we see advertised on Facebook is The tactic, you know, here's a tactic. If you implement this tactic, you will become, you know, financially free. And tactics are only a part of the story. The strategy is more important and the consistency. And I think that's one of the reasons that you have been successful in business for 20 years now, as in any business. I'm sure there's been peaks and troughs and challenging times and abundance times, but I really believe that it's about consistency. Is that something you would agree with?

It's about consistency. It's about showing up every day. And I'm not sure who talked about this idea of 1% better that in this week. What if you could get 1% better every week? If you work that out over time, it's over a year, it's substantial. And actually committing to this journey towards mastery. So it doesn't matter if you become a. A master or not, you know, whatever your thing is, if it's judo or playing the guitar or, you know, making films, it's about committing to that journey of working towards mastery, of never accepting that you've got to a level where you've made it or you're satisfied, but that, you know, you keep on working to it. And sometimes I've spoken to guys who I've worked with where I've thought, I've sort of raised the idea, what would it feel like if you were great at this? You know, like if you're an. As an editor, what if you. What would it feel like to be a great editor, to be one of the greatest editors? And then what's the journey you need to go on towards? That doesn't matter if you get there or not. That's the end really isn't important. But it's committing to that sort of constant process of improvement, like towards mastery.

I think the challenge. Japanese call it kaizen, and it's the art of continual improvement.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. Right. Okay, next one. The industry does not exist. Another favorite of mine. What do you mean by that?

Well, when I first started, I guess, working in the industry, I was obsessed with this idea of how to get in. You know, like, I went and studied a course, I went to film school and. And I had this idea in my mind. This goes back to that idea of beliefs or the story that you tell yourself that right now I'm not in the industry, there is an industry, and how do I get in? And I'd sometimes ask people who were more experienced, how do you break into the industry?

And it was almost like I had this story in My mind that there was a group of really successful people who were there, you know, having all these great jobs and kind of, you know, in the know, and. And then there was like, outsiders like me who were kind of like, looking for the secret knock or kind of trying to find the way. And it took me, like, a really long time to realize that this whole notion of the industry to a large degree, doesn't actually really exist. There's just a bunch of people out there who are doing things, working together, doing jobs, trying to make a go of it. And once I sort of demolished that concept in my mind of there even being an industry, then it just became so easier for me because I didn't have those barriers in my mind anymore that really it was just about me finding what my sweet spot was. What is the work that I enjoy doing most? Who are the clients that I want to work with? Who are the other filmmakers that I want to connect with? And once I became clear on that, then that whole notion of the industry no longer mattered.

Beautiful. Absolutely love it. Your next point is, these days, every business is an online business. Another absolutely golden tip. So presumably, you know, a lot of production companies think of themselves as a bricks and mortar company where we provide services. We're not an online business. But clearly that's not the case.

Yeah, I think you have to think of any business that you have. You've got to think of yourself as being an online business because this is where people check you out, this is where your work is, you know, and being a visual business, you know, us as video producers, it's vital that we have a website that is visually impressive and kind of expresses us. So sometimes people think that, oh, an online business, well, that's like Amazon, eBay, Webjet, or something like that. But really, I think the most important, our most important portal, you know, for our businesses is our website. And if someone asks you what your website is and you respond with an excuse like, well, here it is, but we're working on a new site at the moment, or there's a whole bunch of work that we've got which isn't actually there, or this is sort of where we're at four years ago. Whatever your story is, I think it's just really important to think about how you can solve that problem immediately and how you can just create something remarkable or something that is just as good as the great films that you make.

And I know this to be true. Whether or not people believe me or not, it's another matter. But I know from working with the successful businesses who come through the accelerator program versus the ones that don't, that everyone in the accelerator is very clear on what they want from their business and their life and what their plan is. They're very clear on who their target market is. They're very clear on what their product and offer is. Which means the online business part and the marketing part becomes easy because there's such clarity. And I find when people are not clear, it's usually that's when the website's a mess, because it's like we do a bit of this, we do a bit of that, we do a bit of everything. But once you get clear on who you're targeting and what your unique proposition is to the market, it becomes very, very easy.

Totally. And that's one of the main things that we focus on in the accelerator. And it's not like your website has to be fancy or complex or anything like that, but if you can get clear on the things that you talked about.

It becomes a lot easier. And when I talk about having a good website, it's that when your target market goes there, they immediately recognize that you're talking to them.

Well, less than 3% of your given market are ready to buy from you now, at the moment anyway, which means 97 people out of 100 who visit you don't take any action. Now, the three that do take action, the three that do make an inquiry. The next stage, of course, is you've got to be able to be confident in selling them. Your solution, which is your next point, which is learning to love sales, something I know filmmakers on the whole run and hide from.

It's taken me so many years to get comfortable with that part of my business. And once again, there were stories that I told myself. That one was, I'm not a natural salesperson. I had a particular definition in my mind about what sales was and what type of people are involved in sales. And I reckon there's quite a few people who have negative connotations about sales and salespeople. And, you know, this might have come, like, very, very early in life, or it might be because you've created a definition that kind of there's creativity and artistry on one side and sales on the other side. But I think one of the best ways of creating a successful business is to start to let go of some of those ideas and learn to love sales. And in order to do that, you have to define sales in a way that really works for you. And one of my mentors, James Schramko, described sales as the process of helping someone move from one situation to a better, alternative situation. And that really spoke to me because it was about problem solving and was about really focusing on their needs, as opposed to a selfish idea of making it all about yourself. So everyone has a different definition. We've all got to find a place where we feel comfortable, where we feel like we're operating with integrity. But it's. I just find it really powerful when I talk to a prospect and I'm able to get my head around the idea of what their actual challenge is and then help them move towards that process, towards a solution that feels really rewarding. So I guess that's my definition of sales.

Yeah. And actually, I believe sales is a very creative process because it involves storytelling, it involves a lot of listening, and it involves actively wanting to find out from your prospect every issue and challenge they're facing. So that if your product, service, or offer can help alleviate that pain, then I believe you have a moral obligation to help them make a decision to invest in whatever service you're offering to help them alleviate that pain or move them towards their goal. And I see sales as a necessary part of the process that I actually really enjoy because it's a great journey in finding out about people. But I know that with the accelerator program, for example, I know that when the right businesses come into that program, it is transformational.

And so I feel a huge obligation. If someone's sitting there thinking, maybe listening to this right now, going, that sounds kind of interesting, but I'm not sure it's for me. You know, I would say jump on a. Jump on a call. Let's see if it's. If it's a good fit. Because I'm very clear about who I want in the program, and you're in it. And, you know, I mean, well, what do you think? I mean, you're in the program. Can you share a little bit about the kind of environment and the culture that's there and the caliber of businesses that come into this kind of thing?

Definitely. Well, I've been in a few masterminds and mentoring groups over the years, and.

There'S a number of great things about this one, but in particular, the fact that we're all filmmakers, we're all doing similar things, and we are running a business, but we're also creative. And you don't often find that in a lot of other business mentoring groups. So on the one hand, we are balancing the needs of being creative and being artists, and then we're balancing that with our sort of commercial needs at the same time. So that's something that's really unique about what we're doing. And then, like you mentioned, the fact that unlike sort of some of these crazy promos that I see on Facebook, you're not making any wild promises. So everyone who comes into the group knows that this is something that they need to do themselves. No one can do the work for you. And this idea of being held to account, well, that's a little bit limited because it's really up to each of us to take full responsibility, and that's what you encourage us to do. But the thing is, all the resources are there that we need. So there's a lot of resources that are documented, Whether it's about sales or marketing or understanding who your customers are. All those tools are there. There's you to ask questions and. And then there's the rest of the group to get ideas from as well. So it's sort of incredible resources there. And in terms of sales that we're talking about now, an approach to sales which has a lot of integrity that creative people can really embrace and feel good about.

Yeah, that's cool. It's an exciting journey for us all.

Yeah.

Next up on your list is hang on to your solution soul. And I think what you're referring to here is that another challenge for filmmakers is that they don't want to sell out. They don't want to feel like they're just doing things for the money. Talk to me about. About your.

Your.

Your. Your methodology here.

Well, I deliberately put that after sales because, you know, we are filmmakers, we're creative people, and we've got to never forget why we got into this industry in the first place. We. Which is to make films, to create something that has an impact on people. I suppose we're all different with the type of work that we're doing, but generally with making films, you're making something where you either. You want to move someone, you want to open their mind, you want to educate them, you want to make them feel something, and you want to leave your mark. And I suppose it's about walking that fine line between art and commerce. And if you move too far to the one side where it's just about doing jobs for money, well, there's probably easier ways to make money. Like, it's not the easiest industry in the world, but I think if you love it, it's the most rewarding. And so.

There'S a quote that I came across which really speaks to me, which I love. But also scares the hell out of me. And it goes like this. Many people die with their music still in them. Too often it's because they're always getting ready to live. And before they know it, time runs out. And that's credited to Oliver Wendell Holmes. And the message is, don't die with your music still inside you. And I wrote that to remind myself that, why I got into this and how I can still feed that creative part of myself and I guess not have regrets later on about. I wish I told this story. I wish I'd, you know, pursued that documentary idea that I noted on my iPhone, you know, all those years ago. So, yeah, in the end, if I feel like for me and for a lot of the people that I know, if we're not feeding that creative part of ourselves, that that can die and, you know, then that would be tragic. Like it would be a waste of doing this work in the first place.

You know, that, that just gave me shivers when you read that out, because.

I mean, it's true. And, and it's, it's very easy to go through life going. When I get to the destination, when I get to the top of the mountain, then I'm going to enjoy the view. I, I, you know, I, I, On a personal note, my, my dad died when he was 67. He would have been 80 last week. So it was 13 years years ago from lung cancer. And it was very, very young. And I remember the week after he died just thinking, that's it. I'm going to go and live in Australia. I'm not waiting till I'm, I'm not going to wait until the time is right. I'm going to just push through now. It still took me 13 years or maybe nine years after that to make it happen. But I think what, what I took away from that whole experience was value now, keep moving forward, value now and stop. Smell the roses, feel the wind in your face, and actually enjoy, enjoy the ride, because it's over in a flash.

That's one of the really inspiring things I found about you and working with you and getting to know you is how you have done that and you came to Sydney and then you sort of clarified your vision a little bit further and moved up north and really just created the world that you wanted to and resisted getting drawn into things that weren't leading you towards your vision.

Well, it's, you know, it comes back to how I created the growth accelerators. I mean, in any business, the business is a reflection of yourself, right? And, and growth Accelerator one is.

It's.

Why. Why are you doing what you're doing? Because I feel. I watch people who are not in our industry go to an office every day to earn $150,000 a year in a job that they hate so they can pay a huge mortgage in the house in an area they're living in because it's close to the office, and convincing themselves that once you pay the mortgage off, we'll be able to enjoy ourselves. And I just think back to my dad, and he worked all his life and got lung cancer and died, and I can't do that. So Growth Accelerator one is. Why. Why are you doing what you're doing? Are you really clear in the point of having a vision board of what you want your life to be right now? It's so important to me because if you're not clear on why, nothing else matters.

So, yeah, and just on that topic, I mean, that's partly why I'm in this group with you, because I want to work more on achieving that vision, and I've got quite a way to go. But I feel like you and I working together is going to be a really good way of me achieving that.

Well, beautifully into. Into your next point, which is have someone in your life who believes in you even more than you do.

Is that what you mean? Or are you talking about, you know, other people that inspire you?

That's exactly what I mean. It's. That's something that I found that can come from a mentor, it can come from a parent, it can come from a spouse or a friend or something like that. And it's really the idea that there's this common wisdom that says you have to believe in yourself, because if you don't, no one will. And that may well be true, but what I discovered was in life, when someone believes in you even more than you do, that just can be incredibly powerful and liberating. And I've been lucky enough to have that a couple of times. One with a mentor and one with my wife who have seen. I suppose the idea is we're capable of so much more than we actually realize. And.

I had a much more limited vision, you know, of what I was actually able to achieve. And I found with people like that, they were able to see way more than what was actually there. And like, you know, say, like with my wife, for instance, she's come along on this journey with me as I've grown my business, and there's been times where we've spoken, like, we often talk about the business and how it's going. And I'll say something about. I'll mention sort of some limiting thing and, you know, she'll say, I reckon you can do it. You know, like, I reckon you can take that step. And it came right from the very start when I was working from home and I moved into an office and, you know, I was saying, I don't know that I'm committing to rent and sort of, you know, given all these sort of different reasons. And, you know, she would say, you can do it, you know, I know that.

I reckon, you know, it's going to work out. I've got a feeling, you know, and she's never said to me.

You know, that's too complex for you, that's beyond your level or something. And just the fact that I've had someone like her or. Or a mentor see that for me has. Has actually painted the picture for me that I've actually been able to step into. So I hope that there's other people who are listening to this who also have someone who believes in them even more than they believe in themselves.

Well, you need people around you. You need your hair to be banging your drum, to be saying, yes, you can do it. Because otherwise it's a very lonely journey. And I think it's like if you ride alone and you have to do 200km, or if you ride with a pack and everyone's got your back.

It'S still a journey. You still have to put in the work, but there's some element of camaraderie and support and people have your back. One of the things I love about you specifically, and also I love actually everyone in my group. I mean, I kind of joke with everyone, you know, if I wouldn't have you around my house for a barbecue, you're not coming in. But one of the things that I find the most amazing is that Simon, one of my other clients in the group who's been on the podcast, has a video production business about 10 miles from you. And both you and him are like number two and three on Google Search for Video production Melbourne. So you're technically competitors, and yet you call each other up at weekends to discuss SEO or Google pay per click or what's working and what's not. And I just. It fills me with so much pride that we have a culture where we don't see each other's competitors because there's plenty of work, but you actually work together. And I just. I find that so humbling.

It's. Yeah, it's A really awesome part of the group, and that's because of the culture that you've created. And I suppose, you know, and the thing is, with the group and, you know, maybe even Simon in particular, we've gone on a similar journey, you know, so there's probably. There's not that many people who would really be able to relate to the journey that we've been on. But, you know, we share that. We've. We've shared those same struggles, and it's. It's. Yeah, there's just a great culture within the group where we're all getting on with our own thing and we're building our own businesses, but we're also sharing ideas. I think generally that's something about our industry that I've always found. Just in general, it's a really positive, supportive, great industry, but even more so in particular in the group, you know, that's how we roll. So there's a bunch of us, you know, in Melbourne, we may technically define ourselves as competitors or not. It doesn't matter. It's like that. I don't know how the quote goes exactly. A rising tides raises all boats. Something like that. So, yeah, that's what we're doing.

Exactly right. Well, look, we are halfway through your manifesto, and I want to pause here because we'll pick this up again next week. This has just been fabulous. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Dan. I really enjoyed talking about this stuff.

You've been listening to the Video Business Accelerator podcast with your host, Dan 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.