Vision boards really do work! EP #167 - Shorty

G' day guys. Dan Lenny here on 23rd March 2021, episode number 167 of the how to Scale a Video Business Podcast. Today's shorty is, well, pretty exciting for me.

It's really the culmination of, you might say, a life's work.

But certainly it's been a vision that's taken the probably eight months to really come to life. I want to share with you today the, the story behind that.

And, and how really vision boards, if you've never done one, I want to use this episode today, this shorty, to really convince you now is the time to do it. Because.

Yesterday we got the keys to our beach house. And really that is the pinnacle, I suppose, of the whole reason I wanted to move to Australia back in the first place, which really happened back in 1992 when I first visited this part of the world and discovered that there was a place that had literally endless summer. And as someone who grew up in Scotland, that was something I wasn't used to. And I want to just be clear, like it's not that I think living in Australia is better than anywhere else. It is for me. I happen to really love living by the beach in the endless summer. But that's not to say that I didn't love living in Scotland or the uk. I just think it's possible and absolutely realistic to live different lives at different stages of your life. And so today I want to share with you the fact that yesterday we got the keys to our beautiful, you know, town home beach house, which is 250 meters walking to the beach. There's nine kilometers of beach, it's uninterrupted, it's beautiful.

Pacific Ocean and we are thrilled to finally be here. This all happened actually quite quickly. We bought it back in July of last year and at the time we didn't have the money for it. But we set a goal in place and we made it happen. Now this all began really on the vision board that I created a year ago. We'd been in Australia five years and I said to Sam, you know, I think this be good if we can try and buy something this year because, you know, you're just renting for five years. It's, it's, it's very flexible. But of course you're paying somebody else's mortgage, not your own. And so.

I put it on my vision board. And if you've never done a vision board like it is remarkable how powerful they are as a tool. We actually have a module in our Video Business Accelerator foundation program and also the mastermind. And it's one of the first things we get our members to do is to create a vision of what you want success to look like to you. And success to me is working four days a week and living by the the beach. And I turned 50 this year, 11 years in business and that dream became a reality. So there's two things I want to really focus on here. One is this stuff takes time. You know, anything worthwhile takes time. But if you're also really clear on what that thing is, all of your energy gets focused on it. It's much like, you know, when I say to people you should focus on a niche for your marketing. It's about where the energy goes. Because where the energy goes, the money flows. And so when you have a very, very clear goal, a very, very clear desired outcome, all of your effort goes into working smarter, not harder. And so you're putting your effort into the right places. The energy is going into the right places. And I'll be honest with you, this home is everything we could ever have dreamed of and more. It's got 2.7 meter ceilings, it's oversized. There's two of us in a 280 square meter home. It's like 3,000 square feet. We've got a courtyard, we've got two BAL. We've got a massive garage which I'm turning into a studio. We've got two living areas. I'm building a home cinema. Upstairs, I've got an incredible office.

There's ducted air conditioning. All the things that just make a home really comfortable. And it's beautifully finished and it's. We got fantastic neighbors and we're all really excited to be here. But it wasn't an accident. You know, it's taken five and a half years of really hard work in a new country. Starting from scratch, from zero. I knew, I knew one person. I knew Mick Jones, really, that's who I knew. When I came to Australia, I knew a few other guys in different parts, but one person knew in Sydney was Mick. And I built my business up from zero to the point where we can buy a home. And, and I work with amazing filmmakers in Australia, in the uk, in Ireland, in the US who are smashing goals, in New Zealand who are smashing goals, who are growing, who are totally committed to their business, but also to their lives and their families and are being able to balance both. So I'm here to share with you today that, you know, I want to acknowledge that this is an achievement and I'm really proud of it. But to encourage you that whatever you want in life, you can have, if you're prepared and willing to do the work and be very clear on what that thing is. It is. It's critical that you write it down. It's critical that you have a vision in place, that the power of a vision board is. We're all visual people, right? The power of a vision board is that when you. When you. When you create a vision board and you look at it every day, you're embedding the outcomes in your subconscious. 50, 60, 100 times a day, a couple hundred times a day. And for those of you who don't know what vision board is, it is simply spending some time searching for images that represent the life that you want, the life that your future life you would like it to be. And. And you put it all into, like a PDF or a kind of a keynote or, you know, pages document or word document, whatever you want to do, and you basically print out and you pin it up on your wall or you have it as your desktop, and every time you look at that, it becomes reality. I did my first vision board in 2012, and that vision was all about living in Australia. And, you know, nine years later.

We'Re actually living that dream. And so the thing to bear in mind is that oftentimes we underestimate, or we'd rather we overestimate what we can achieve in a year, but underestimate what we can achieve in five to 10 years. And, you know, I had a very clear goal when I set up F Stop Academy about moving to Australia.

But it's become a reality in every possible way. I mean, we now have this beautiful home which is costing us kind of the same as our house would have cost us in the uk. So, you know, there's a bit of a benefit there, but that means that we don't have a massive mortgage. And I get to work four days a week and work with amazing clients. I mean, it really is the dream. I love my clients. They are their friends. Yes, we're in a business engagement relationship and yes, there's work to be done, but I genuinely love my clients. And how many people here listening to this, can say they love every one of their clients? Because if you don't, there's something that needs to change because you should love what you do, you should love going to work and love every aspect of who you're working with. And if you're not, then you have the choice to change that. And this is really, what I guess my. My core message of today's Shorty is is that we just stepped into getting the keys yesterday to our dream home in. In a place where it's basically endless summer. You know, we have summer all year round. It then rarely gets below 10 degrees. That is a choice I made. That's a choice I wanted, my. My wife wanted. And. And we absolutely love it. I mean, you know, we're now at a point where we can walk on the beach every single day. We can swim in the ocean every single day. And that is something, growing up in Edinburgh, that is so beyond the realms of possibilities. Because of the weather there is a lot colder that. It blows my mind. It blows my mind. But it took time. And everything worthwhile takes time. So whatever your goals, whatever your dreams, whatever your desires are, start by writing them down. Start by putting together a vision board that shares, you know, with yourself what it is that really matters to you. And they are incredibly powerful. Incredibly powerful. They will literally.

It is incredible how you can program the brain. The brain is completely malleable. It will absorb what you tell it. If you sit and watch, listen to television news, you'll be absorbing fear. If you create your own vision for the future, you will create abundance. And that is the abundance that will give you the steps to help you get the results. So, yeah, I hope that's of some value. Guys, I'm going to unpack more boxes and start building my studio. I'll see you 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@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 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.