The tipping point on any video business is when you hit capacity as a one-man-band. This is where you hit an income ceiling and run out of hours in the day… So what happens next?
Episode Transcription
Den Lennie (2s):
G’day guys! Den Lennie here on Tuesday, the 13th of October we are of week 42 of 2020, and dropping in here for a little Shorty. And that’s just for the benefit of Benjamin, who listens to this show every week. And he loves the way I say Shorty. So, it’s going to be you, ben. We have just come off our weekly group coaching calls, one of the two that we do, and we’ve got some really fascinating and safe to share with you today about how that call went.
Den Lennie (46s):
So I’d say, do, yeah, with these Shorty is often referred to what we’d been sharing in our video business accelerator, because I think there’s things that we talk about that, that may benefit you. If you’re sitting listen to this and you’re, you know, think about your business and how you can see. Yeah, yeah. And if your not, then you’re probably listen to the wrong Podcast because there was this called How to Scale a Video Business and what came up today was I’m a common problem than we have with our members, which is a great problem to have, which is because of the, the structure and the discipline and the methods that we use to help filmmakers grow in scale or business.
Den Lennie (1m 25s):
They reach a point where they get to a capacity issue, or they literally have so much work that they’re struggling to, to break through the kind of freelancer mindset. If you like, were we used to doing everything by ourselves, keeping all the money so we can maximize profit. And this is happening with the couple of our member’s just at the minute were they’ve just the marketing they have been doing has been walking so well. And I’m gonna say marketing, we have very simple strategies that we use now that don’t involve being really salesy.
Den Lennie (1m 57s):
Don’t involve having to kind of go do a ton of work, but it is about consistency. And when we were talking to There, but the fact that it took to get business really running the way you want it to get away from that feast and famine that roller coaster at a few late, where you either are really busy and he got lots of work. Our, your quiet sitting at home, I’m wondering about where their job is coming from. What we looked to do in the accelerator it’s is create a, a kind of that more of a travel late or more of a, or a conveyor belt, more of a, if you like a smooth running process that we’ll help you to build sustainable, consistent business, but also manage the capacity for doing the work.
Den Lennie (2m 40s):
And so am, you know, one of the, one of the challenges that comes up often is that, you know, the marketing, we do works very well. And so you end up with a lot more work than you anticipated in, and there’s always a tipping point where you’re kinda doing everything yourself until a project comes along and sort of Tips you over the edge. And you end up with just so much work that you’re have drop the ball. Are you, you can miss a deadline. And so one of the topics who went into a lot of details that day was how do you, how do you combat that? Because not everyone is keen to hire a team or even outsource editing and editing is one of the easiest things to outsource, but also one of the most difficult to get out of your head and into a process.
Den Lennie (3m 23s):
Now we have a structure for doing that. And, but it’s still challenging because we have to let go of control. And that’s one of the most challenging things that we could do as a member. I’m in my own journey, having to experience letting go of control on it. It’s very difficult to do when you know what you want and you don’t have. And, and sometimes, you know, you haven’t quite formulated the story when your, when you’re editing it and when you’re editing it and when you do it. So that’s, that’s more difficult to outsource. And really the, the secret to that is his actually hiring an editor for all time.
Den Lennie (3m 55s):
But that’s perhaps were down the line. What we wanted to share today was the fact that if you are reaching a point where you’ve got too much work, then you have a capacity issue, and that’s when you start to drop the ball. And in a few of our members are, are heading that point just now. And so we’ve been walking with them to, to help us figure out how to kinda best combat them, but in other members this morning, breezed, a very, very good points. And in this particular member is very articulate and I always love hearing his perspective. And one of the great benefits of being in this community is the strength of the experience that are sitting on a call.
Den Lennie (4m 32s):
So we have a very abundant and all open sort of manifesto. If you like, why are we, we, we create a safe space where people feel that can share things are not going so well, share successes when they are happening as well. And so, umm, today we were talking about this notion of, you know, it, there there’s two types of film makers and, and, and you know, your you’re a, Tradesperson essentially way. You are, you know, your on the tools you are doing the work, you are, you taking the invoices, you are processing them and, but you are going to visit your one man band traits personal.
Den Lennie (5m 12s):
And that, that is completely your key to be that Tradesperson. And then there’s another type of business owner to which is the past. And he decides to, they want to be more than just a trades person. They want to start taking on bigger jobs and hiring other traits, people to backfill so that they can manifest more opportunity. But at the same time, still choose to do the odd job if we want to, but you gotta build some resources around systems and processes and, and, you know, create some kind of guidelines for what your expectations are.
Den Lennie (5m 47s):
And that will take a little bit of work. And that’s something that we, we work on continually inside the accelerators is a waste of which to streamline that process. But, but both are all K. If you want to be a Tradesperson or you want to be a business owner or both are all key, but if you take different disciplines and so, you know, if you are reaching a point where you’ve got too much work, you have to make a decision. It’s a fork in the road, you know, do you, if you want to achieve a certain level of income, then you, you have no choice.
Den Lennie (6m 18s):
We need two to go to the business owners state, if you wanna, if you wanna achieve financial freedom, if we want to achieve, you can make creating revenue without having to pick up a camera and you suddenly have to consider the Business on a pathway. And that’s really where we provide them most value inside of the accelerator. It’s if you are looking to, to bridge that gap from a, from freelancer traits person to business owner, but their case, they are going on the tool’s, then that’s where we have our sweet spot. And I actually on Thursday, the podcast for dropping on thirties with Tim who has been through that journey in the last 20 months.
Den Lennie (6m 54s):
And it’s tough, totally and utterly gone from being the Tradesperson to the business owner and, and sitting in an enormous growth in is business, including you are spending more time with as kids, him and his wife, coparenting, you know, full time, there are children. And that is a beautiful story. And, you know, tell him, we’ll share that with you on Thursdays. We would make sure you listen to it for that. But, but if you are in that position where you’re at that tipping point, it, it it’s quite a terrifying stage because I know from my own journey, you know, managing people is yeah, difficult and its very difficult.
Den Lennie (7m 25s):
So if you don’t quite know what it is you want to do, especially when we, when we struggled to let go of our own and control over their creativity. And so I totally get it, you know, and I’m we were supporting a member this morning, he was going to this and you know, growing at businesses is challenging, even more challenging if your doing it on your own, thankfully within the group, there’s a lot of support. And I think that that really is one of the huge benefits. The member’s tell me, Oh, you know, we are fundamentally a coaching business. It, a coaching program that I caught you weekend.
Den Lennie (7m 57s):
We came out with a training library of resources, which support that. But one of the big assets is that we get together on the, on a phone call on a video session every, every Monday or Tuesday, if your in, in, in the UK or Australia Monday, you’re in the U S and we, and we get on that call and we have, you know, six hours a month have coaching alive in that room coaching and its on those coals that we have so many breakthroughs. People often tell me when they’re just listening in to the calls and they’re picking up too much information, but today was a very, very open session.
Den Lennie (8m 33s):
And so we did a couple of things we looked at at 10, his client avatars and we dug deep into them to help them extract copy from a process we have called the ask framework and M and then we worked with a few other member’s and who he was just having a few challenges and, and we’ve been able to kinda give them support and, and help them kind of break in the next stage. And one of the things that we’re working on at the minute is, and you are looking at ways to outsource editing and how do you, how do you pitch that to a freelance editors and how do you actually, you know, create the job description if you like that it’s gotta be remote.
Den Lennie (9m 10s):
So we were always, we’re always adapting and adjusting our course, if you like, and in, in terms of, you know, what, what, what we are doing and what we’re not doing, and it really is, it’s it, I’m very proud of the guys and girls who are in, in the program, you know, it’s a pretty intimate. And so we don’t have tons of people on the call. This isn’t it kind of one size fits all. It’s very much, if you are a freelancer who is looking to bridge that gap between freelance and UN and running the business, then this will really help you.
Den Lennie (9m 41s):
And if you are interested in learning more about it, just reach out to me, uhm, on LinkdIn or drop me an email to [email protected], happy to chat and see if its right for you. We do have a kind of application process. We don’t just let anybody in it. It’s not about that. Its about the right people getting the right support. So a that’s something you’re interested in, please do reach out. If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while and kind of a lurker and things aren’t going so well then also reach out, you know, even if we don’t decide this, the right fit for you and us to kinda work together on a call, we can at least give you some ideas on some strategies because, and I know at the situation the other day, someone asked me like what, why are you giving away free calls?
Den Lennie (10m 20s):
What’s in it for you? What are you selling? It’s like, well, why are actually not selling anything? Because until I know more about you and your business and what your challenges are, I actually don’t know if I can help you. And so we’re not just selling a course. We want to make sure where we are, we’re fulfilling and you know, helping people with the right kinds of support and If and if we feel we can support you, then we have a couple of weeks in which we can do that. But we don’t just sell of course, because we want to make sure that, you know, we’re getting in the right fit so we can get your results. And that’s ultimately what matters to me because as I say, tell him at member’s and if you win, I win.
Den Lennie (10m 55s):
And so my, my primary focus is helping my members succeed and achieve greatness. And that’s really what it’s all about. So as you guys make sure you tune in on Thursday for an amazing podcast with Tim and until then have a great week. You’ve been listening to the how to scale a video business podcast with me your host Den Lennie. If you’re a video of a business owner, it’s hit a ceiling and we have benefited from mentorship support and coaching and checkout how you can work with me over at denlennie.com.
Den Lennie (11m 25s):
Don’t forget to subscribe and rate the show over on iTunes and would really appreciate your 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 please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in see you next week.
