What's your why? EP #215 - Shorty

G', day, guys. It's Dan Lanney here, host of how to Scale a Video Business podcast with episode number 215.

I've just come off a planning call with the VBA mastermind members and I wanted to share a theme that came up today which I think is really salient, especially with lots of disruption continuing in the world with various stages of lockdown and Covid restrictions. Some places are completely back to normal, others are completely locked down. And so it's giving people a chance to reflect.

On, you know, goals and perhaps financial and business goals that may have been affected by what's going on in the world. And something that became clear in our group today was a lot of very successful businesses reflecting on, readjusting their goals, readjusting their targets of destination, if you like. And it's something that we have at a cultural level in the vba, which is, you know, our highest value is joy.

Consciousness and fulfillment. So let me break that down. What I mean by that, we're all driven business owners and making profits in the business is an important metric for growing a successful business. But the why is a big topic of discussion. We're very keen and clear on getting to choose who we work with. And that means only working with people who support your culture, support your vision and support your values.

It's critical that you don't just work for anyone because they've got money.

The more you can choose who you work with, the more satisfying your business life will be. And got a client who's very, very successful who's just been reflecting on that recently, and he's come up with a plan. And this was a theme across all of our members actually today, which is not a surprise because we have an amazing culture inside the vba. It is like a family. It's like people are very open and very willing to share what's working, what's not, what achievements are happening in the business and what lessons they're learning. And when you sit on a call and have 10 or 12 people share that insight, it's very, very powerful and it's very aligned to, to the business I want to run. The culture of the group is critical for me. I want it to be a supportive, abundant environment where, where people are sharing openly, warts and all. And, and it's very, very encouraging because.

You know, they're a great group of people.

And so today we were sharing, you know, what's working now, what lessons have been in the last month and what. And what achievements have been happening. And, you know, it's really cool when you create something that begins to build a life of its own. I'm very, very proud of every single member inside the vba, both in the VBA and we have a foundation program as well. Everyone that's in that program has been hand selected. They jump through a number of hoops to get an opportunity to even join the program. But the reason for that is, is because we want to have the right culture. We want a culture of, of growth. We want a culture of people helping each other out, but also a culture of accountability, account accountability to yourself. We don't spoon feed people. We create the right environment, we provide the right tools and we create a community to help people succeed. And so on today's call, you know, once a month we do a planning call and we review, you know, the important metrics like revenue and profit and turnover and what marketing is working and are you getting enough opportunities into your business? And we track all of those important metrics but also we look to be sure that we're maintaining alignment with our bigger vision. Because you know, anyone can make video. You know, it's not inherently difficult to make video and there's never been more opportunity to work with great talented people. In fact, one of our clients that they put a job advert out for a remote editor and had 400 applications. So getting a hold of talented people is not the problem. Differentiating yourself in the market and attracting like minded prospects and customers, that's where the focus should be. Because if you are working with clients that you love helping and you're able to provide a really impactful service, one that genuinely supports the prospects, needs and desires and helps them get what they want, then you'll have an amazing business. And if you then build a team and have incredible people who are empowered to make decisions and empowered to grow and are given responsibility.

You'Ll have an amazing team that will allow you to create more time. And when you get your business to a certain level, you not want to do any more editing or you not want to do any more shooting and you take on more of a conductor role. You'll be orchestrating other people's, you know, roles and encouraging them to build systems and automate elements of the process. So you'll find yourself as the business owner having less and less to do and that can create an opportunity which may be uncomfortable to, to explore what you do next. And so you think about, well, what I want to do in a year's time or five years time or maybe even 10 years time, where do you want to be. Where do you want your business to, to take you? Because your business is simply an investment vehicle that you create.

And when we, when we first start, right, we, most of us start as freelancers. So we start by doing the work ourselves. We shoot the project, we edit the project, we color grade the project, we produce and direct the project. But the problem with that is you can only go so far doing everything yourself. And at some point you will hit a bottleneck where you can only do so many projects and when you're working on one project, you're not able to do anything else. And so in the mast mind of the vba, we're generally working with businesses who are looking to scale and therefore need to be thinking about taking on even some part time help or some offshore help. And from there they progress to kind of fulfilling different roles in the business that will enable them to step back and be the kind of creative director or the CEO, whatever job title they want to call themselves. But mostly it means having a team of people and systems in place that allow you to step back from day to day operations and ultimately potentially have a revenue stream, an income stream that operates without you. That means that you are earning a figure of money every year without having to do anything in the business. That is the nirvana. And then you can choose to sail a boat or you know, travel or you know, explore something else that you want to study or learn. And so really what we're doing is we're building businesses that create more time. And many of our members have young families and they're conscious of wanting to spend time with their kids growing up. And so I guess the moral of the story is what do you want your business to be, where do you want your business to go? And if you're been listening to this show for a while and you're feeling like it's all getting on top of you, that maybe, maybe it's time to have a conversation and see if we are a good fit for you to help you achieve your goals. Ask yourself this. Has owning your own video business been everything you dreamed it would be when you first got started? It might be hard to admit, but think about whether you're genuinely achieving everything you set out to when you made that decision to grab the camera and go it alone. Are you really working less? Are you really earning more? And are you really in control? Chances are you're bloody good at what you do, but you're having to work like a dog, 70 plus hours a week, whether it's filming, editing, marketing or any of the other jobs that come with being the big boss of your own video company. When you're managing projects, constantly searching out for new clients and worrying about cash flow, it's easy to lose sight of the bigger picture or make real progress. Let's face it, that stress is the last thing you need when you're trying to run a profitable company that supports you and the people you care about. Truth is, a business that provides financial, professional and personal freedom really is achievable. But maybe you've got that nagging feeling that you're overworked, lacking stability, and struggling to get to where you really want to be right now. It could be that you just don't know how to make a positive change on your own. So I created the Video Business Accelerator Coaching programs to really supercharge your video business. With these unique coaching programs, you'll learn all the tools you need to get complete confidence in the success of your video business. You can take the first step on your journey to a successful business that doesn't control your life. Let me show you how. Head over to denlani.com and click on Accelerator.