When NEVER to make an important decision. EP #238 - Den Lennie

G', day guys. Dan. Lenny here with this week's episode of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast.

Had a bit of a technical issue. Just completely recorded this issue and then had to re record it because of an issue with the Rodecaster, which I haven't quite figured out. So thank goodness we have good old fashioned quicktime.

So for take two, we're talking today about rewriting the stories that might be holding you back from achieving what you really set out to achieve in your business when you first started it.

So we're up to episode 236 today as we push through to the final stages of this year.

So let me take you back to where this all started.

Rewriting the stories that are holding you back.

Our mind is really the problem area when it comes to building a business, growing a business and sustaining a business.

The thing that you have to be aware of is that there are different stages of growth in a business.

And so what I want to do is just take you through those five stages to help you understand where you might be on that journey.

So we begin with startup. And startup is when you are really just out fishing for work. As much work as you can get from anyone who will pay you. A lot of people spend a good number of years in that stage, but the next stage is the growth stage. And that's when you start to have.

A little bit of extra profit, a.

Little bit of extra cash flow. And that's when you can start to invest in some marketing and start to invest in attracting new members into your world and new businesses to work with, you know, members of your community. Because what you're really doing as a business is creating a community where you have great relationships with people who enjoy what you do, trust you, and enable you to not only provide a service for them, but also obviously, you know, grow your business. Now, a lot of businesses spend a lot of time in the startup and growth phase. It's like a cycle of business comes in, money comes in, do a bit of marketing. What I see a lot of businesses do is give up too quick on marketing. They try something for a very short period of time and then when it doesn't work as well as they'd hoped, they give up and say, well, that didn't work for me. And that's something you've got to be very, very mindful of. There's actually an expression in marketing which says marketers don't think, they test. And everything is marketing and marketing is everything. And when you start to wrap your head around that, it Makes life an awful lot easier to grasp. So don't be surprised if you spend an enormous amount of time in that startup and growth phase. It's where a lot of businesses sit and a lot of business get stuck. The point at which we go from growth to scale is where it can be some of the hardest.

Periods in your business, because you're going to have to start investing money in things that are going to just appear as a cost for a few months before everything starts to bed in. And that usually means hiring team. So at the scale phase, you're saying, I can't do everything myself, I need some help. And that's going to cost you some more money, which means you're going to look at your pricing and the way in which you currently structure your pricing. I speak to a lot of filmmakers and a lot of times when they're making that transition from freelancer to business owner, they get stuck in charging per hour or per day for the physical, practical kind of production elements of shooting and editing. And that is a real problem because what you want to be doing is looking to price based on value, not simply on rocking up and saying, it's this much for a camera and this much for a cameraman, this much for a director. Those elements are important when putting your quotes together. But if you want to scale, you've got to start thinking more broadly and building in profit to cover all of your overheads and also the overheads that allow you to scale. You know, if you're going to scale, it might be taking on a new editor. If you're bringing them in house, you've got to think about a computer and a desk and a place to put them.

So those are very, very common stages of growth, from startup to growth to scale. Once you have more than two or three people in your team, then culture becomes stage four. And that's where you start to develop that kind of sense of here's how things are done around here. And that culture means that as the business owner, you can be away from the business. And the team still runs without you. It still develops and develops and delivers without you needing to be there to steer the ship. And that is the beginning of the freedom phase. And the freedom phase is what I call creative. And that is the ability to choose if you come to the office or not. And if you do what you do when you're there, it means that you're no longer involved in the day to day operations of your business. And all of this takes systems. It takes systems, it takes discipline. But More than anything, it takes a mindset. And what I often see is.

Plenty of businesses have a goal like I want to get to this much revenue or I want to get to. Oftentimes people say to me, oh, I just want to have a nice office with a creative team around me. I'm finding that's less and less important, especially with what's happened in the last couple of years. So you want to be thinking about, you know, what is your own personal goal and what's your goal for the business. And then where most people fall down is they just don't have a strategic plan. They don't have a plan of how they're going to get there. They have desire and they have a goal. But what happens is there's no plan. And sometimes what happens is people self sabotage. And I put this down to awareness. And awareness is really the umbrella of psychology. And awareness is what needs to be done and what am I currently doing and is what I'm currently doing actually going to get the job done? So we got to think about, you know, how our brain processes information. And this comes down to real kind of basic physiology. And that is that the reason people don't plan is sometimes because of a fear or an irrational fear that if they start to plan then they won't be creative. When in actual fact planning enables creativity. You know, there's a phrase you need to slow down to speed up. It seems illogical, it seems counterintuitive, but it's true. If you take your time, you can go faster. So I want to talk a bit about the brain and how that works and how we handle situations of stress. Because whenever we're facing any kind of opportunity in our business, there's a decision to go one way or the other. Usually it involves some kind of sacrifice, some kind of investment. And so that can feel stressful and we start to fear. What if it doesn't go right? What if I lose this money? What if I hire this person and there's not enough work? What if I, you know, buy this new camera and system and there's not enough work? What if I invest in myself and then I can't afford to pay the rent? This all comes down to the way the brain processes information. So, you know, the brain sort of has three core areas. The reptilian brain, which is your instinct, sometimes known as the croc brain, is the fight or flight. Okay? So it's like a hierarchy. So what happens is, is that the brain comes across a situation. And so if you're in Danger, you must respond quickly. So as an act of self preservation, the reptilian structure immediately throws chemicals throughout the body to create energy so we can fight or flight. So if you're watching a shocking news story or receive an upsetting message, the limbic system is stimulated. And so we, we kind of respond in terms of am I in danger or am I being threatened? And then the second process, the second filter, is the emotional system, which is the limbic brain, which applies a sense of reference point to it.

It's kind of how you're going to feel. And then the neocortex is the rational, thinking brain. So any situation that happens to us gets processed through the reptilian brain, the limbic brain, and the neocortex. And so you have to very quickly decide, is this situation a threat or an opportunity. And the interesting thing about the brain is that it can't distinguish from what's real and what's imagined. And so if you are facing a situation in your business where you know, you're kind of just doing too many hours and you're, you're shooting, you're editing, you're coloring, and you're doing all the production and you're just dropping the ball and you know, you need to rethink about employing someone or delegating that task. But you're scared because you think, well, it's going to take me a lot of time to build a system, so I'll just do it myself. It'd be quicker if I do it myself. Or you just think, well, I'll just push through with the sales because nobody else can do it, because I tried that once before and it didn't work. And so therefore we tell ourselves a story that it won't work again. So the brain is basically processing stressful situations all day long, real and imagined. And so what you have to do is understand what to do in those situations. And the simplest thing, if you take nothing else away from this episode, is that the easiest way to manage stressful situations. First of all, awareness that a stressful situation is happening, second is to breathe.

Take three big deep breaths and regulate. And bring yourself back to a neutral position. Because when our pendulum is swinging, when our emotional pendulum is swinging, we make dumb decisions. When we're, when we're feeling stressed.

Our IQ drops by 50% in the first seven to 10 minutes because cortisol is being released into our to create a readiness for fight or flight.

So our nervous system is like a kind of gas pedal in a car. You put the gas pedal down, fuel runs into the system and we're ready to go. But you don't make great decisions under those kind of situations where you're feeling extreme stress or extreme. Extreme anxiety or extreme happiness or extreme sadness. So the important thing is to ask yourself, what is going on here and what is the lesson I'm being shown? And from there, be grateful and say, okay, thank you. I think I've just learned something there that's really cool. I'm not going to go and react.

So what we have to do is understand what's going on there. And what's going on is the ego is triggering a response to protect us. It's very cunning, and you have to be very strong to outwit it. So the ego distorts our perspective on a given situation. And what I often see is when people get a bit overwhelmed, they get really stressed and they just want to run away and hide. And so what's important to understand is that the stories we tell ourselves subconsciously, they behave like code in a computer. They set the code. Our beliefs and belief systems act like filters. Our values, they determine our motives. And our dent identity is determined by our purpose. So if we don't have a clear purpose about why we're running a business, and we're not aware of the things that are motivating us to make a decision one way or the other, and we're not aware of the filters we might be applying to a situation, then we're going to be messing up with bad code. And bad code doesn't run a computer efficiently, and bad code doesn't run a human efficiently. So we want to be careful, you know, to be mindful of the filters that you might be applying to a situation and the consciousness that motivate you to make a decision to do something or not do something. So what stories are you telling yourself? You know, what code is active in your world and what limiting beliefs might be holding you back. So are you guilty of any of these? Have you intended to reach out to five clients last week, but you know, something got in the way? Or you meant to follow up with 10 new opportunities on LinkedIn, but again, you know, something got in the way? Or you plan to call three clients and ask them for a review, and yet something else got in the way? You know, you had plans to start a marketing campaign, but something got in the way? So these are patterns that are driven by the ego. And the ego can show up in a number of different ways, as deflection, as denial, as distortion, distraction, comparison, defense. Justification, blame. So what does that look like? You know, deflection is passing something over to someone else.

In attempt to draw the attention away from yourself. It's like, you know, I know I haven't, you know, reached out to people on LinkedIn, but I'm in a filmmaker group and no one else is doing it, so it's okay.

If you think about denial, it's a defense mechanism which is really a refusal to accept responsibility for the reality. So you're blocking external events from an awareness. So if you are keeping track of your numbers and the numbers are going down every month and you ignore it, and you're saying, look, you know, the numbers are down, but we've had Covid. It's been a really tough year, so it's okay. That's a denial that, you know, external forces are inflating your business, but also that you're actually doing as well as you might be. Distortion. You know, a distorted reality would be.

Having a fear of flying, for example, but then concluding that planes are dangerous because you have a fear of flying.

Distraction. You know, I didn't contact as many people on LinkedIn last week because I was too busy finishing edits.

So, you know, it's like it's noise or, you know, or some external factor that's. That's getting in the way of you building your business. And we look at comparison, you know, when you compare yourself to others in a peer group.

So you want to be careful not to be saying things like, oh, you know, I might not have hit the number I wanted this month, but have you seen this other guy? Because he's really struggling.

Another one is defensiveness. I see this quite a lot is, you know, being defensive when asked to follow up on something. And it's an unconscious mechanism, and it's a way for the mind to cope with stress or difficult feelings. And they are unconscious mechanisms, which means you might be using them without realizing it. So, you know, I didn't hit my marketing KPIs this week, but I've had a really difficult week and I had to sort out a shoot, and then this edit overran, so I just couldn't find the time. And it's like, you know, leave me alone. It's not my fault. So you gotta be really mindful of these, and some of these will be familiar too, and some of these will not be. And some of these might seem really weird. Justification is making an excuse for an action which, you know, is kind of indefensible. So, you know, if you say, I still do my own bookkeeping because I don't want to pay someone 20 bucks an hour, and it only takes me 20 minutes a day. And I can use Xero and automates most of the process.

Or I, you know, I don't. I don't. I don't subscribe to inbox 0 because I have got my own system for managing email. It's like a justification. We. It's scientifically proven that, you know, if you have a zero inbox, your distraction levels are down massively, and that means you clean your inbox every day. When it gets out of control, you just get distracted. Doing your own books is never a good idea because when someone else does them for you, they're like a second pair of eyes. And the sum of the parts in the business is everyone's team input, not just the business owners. And then finally, we look at blame if you're holding somebody else or some other factor accountable for your lack of success. For example.

You know, look, I had intended to follow up with clients last week, but, well, this client rang me up and they were a nightmare. And. And then the editor I was using didn't cut it properly, so I had to go in and recut. And if he hadn't screwed up, you know, I would have been fine.

Again, the hardest thing about running a business is taking full responsibility for everything that happens, right or wrong, good or bad, and to develop a psychological robustness. It's like going to the gym. You have to train it. And so it's really important that you train yourself to understand how to deal with these situations. And some people find this helpful, which is a thing called Five Steps to Taming the Ego, which I learned from a guy called Karen Ray. And he said, I actually read this out loud to myself or internalize it throughout the day, which is when your ego shows up. You say, well, I can hear you. I know what you're trying to do, but you are not me. You know, you are not your ego. I'm not going to play this game anymore. Thank you. Now, I'm not someone who tends to use mantras, but it might help you. And the first thing is to be aware of what stories you're telling yourself, what code is active in your world, and what limiting beliefs are holding you back. So what are the current consequences of your current situation or perspectives? You know, a great example is cartoons. As a kid, when we were kids, you know, the baddies were always carrying cash, and they always looked like they were evil, like they were fat and bloated, and like smoking cigars. So, and a great analogy is my father didn't have a lot of money growing up, and so he never bought new cars. And so he distorted the reality that said new cars are a waste of money. And there's no point in buying a new car because as soon as you drive it over the forecourt, you're losing money. And so he was sitting very much in a space of loss and lack. Whereas. And for many years, I had this kind of wait around me thinking, well, there's no point in buying a new car because it's a waste of money. It was a story. It was cold. Until I met my wife, and she had bought new cars, and I had a different perspective. And new cars don't need any maintenance. You can lease them. And running a business meant that, you know, I could benefit from that without having to kind of, you know, pay a lump sum for a piece of metal that needs servicing and looking after. And so I changed my perspective. And so what else is happening in your life where you may be running a certain story that may not be benefiting you? And so the final step is accountability. Accountability to yourself and accountability to those who depend on you. So be really clear on how you can potentially write a new story. How can you change how you think.

And rewire your brain? You know, if you were to decide, how do you want your life and business to look five or 10 years from now, you could write a short story on that and read it to yourself every day, first thing in the morning, lasting at night for 67 days. That's the kind of the number of times you need to repeat it to yourself to make it embedded and rewire and create a new neural pathway, and it will help you create flow. Now, I'm not someone who tends to do that. I don't tend to write mantras and read them to myself. But. But I do use vision boards. And those vision boards help me create a very clear vision of what I want the future to look like. And then I develop a strategic plan in order to bring that to reality. So have a think about that in your own business. How. How are you showing up in your own business? How are you allowing stories to determine how you operate?

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 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 Denlany.com and click on Accelerator.